"Blue State, Red Fight" with Colorado State Senator Scott Bright

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Welcome to The Politics Prepping and Paranormal Podcast. Flippity-jibbity nonsense. I thought it was terrific. It's not just big, it's you! Welcome to the Politics Prepping and Paranormal Podcast. I'm Jeff Morey and I'm your host. It's been an eventful last month or so, not only for our nation, but for the whole world. From the extraction on January 3rd of then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, to the ongoing tensions with ICE and immigration issues, particularly in Minnesota, the start of a massive sweeping review of federal funding for child care, particularly in blue states, and, of course, the recent actions by the U.S. and the Trump administration in regards to Greenland, January 2026 has been anything but uneventful. Well, this week I want to cover some of this and highlight and talk about not only national politics, but also one of our nation's most beautiful and greatest states, the great state of Colorado. One of the best things about this show is getting to talk to and interview the people who helped shape this great nation, our worldview, and even how we view our life and universe. And this week, I'm excited to welcome a great patriot from Colorado, Colorado State Senator Scott Bright. Scott serves District 13, which covers Adams and Weld Counties in north central Colorado, centered around the city of Greeley and Weld County, and also includes Evans, Gilchrist, Platteville, Fort Lupton, LaSalle, and Brighton. Scott not only serves as constituents of District 13, he is also the owner of ABC Child Development Centers, which operates 18 licensed child care centers and preschool facilities and serves around 2,000 families. Scott's a proud Republican fighter, and I'm excited to welcome him to the show. You've got to love our great state, but Colorado's gotten so dang expensive. It doesn't have to be this way. Hi, my name is Scott Burr, and I'm ready to get to work. Better decision making can bring better results. Let's lower prices, end expensive job-killing regulations on our farmers and energy and transportation workers, and let's bring down those insurance costs and property taxes. Hey everyone, this is State Senator Scott Bright representing Colorado's 13th Senate District. Over the past few years, Colorado Democrats have nickel-and-dimed Colorado families with their excessive fees and costly over-regulation. Welcome, Senator. Thanks for joining me. Great to be here. Before we dive into Colorado and national politics, would you tell the audience a little about your background and what your motivations were for running for office? Yeah, outstanding. So I work in the early childhood field, own a few early childhood child care centers, after school programs, and really wanted to make a difference in that field. Worked through the advocacy networks, really tried to influence policy in the state of Colorado. The next step to have a better impact, more positive impact, was to run for office. And so never run for office before and ran for a state senate seat and won it. So I feel like the people of Colorado, especially in the district that I'm from, really enjoy a non-politician viewpoint when it comes to how we run our state government. So I feel like that was a good thing. Absolutely. I think it's great to get some fresh new faces in government. You hear about term limits, and I mean, I think the American public, the majority of the American public is overwhelmingly behind term limits, especially for Congress and for our upper offices. But it's great. I think we're going to see a ton of new faces in the midterms this year. And, you know, it's great to get some fresh new faces, some fresh new ideas and really kind of shake things up a little bit. So it's great to see you all. That kind of leads me in the next thing I was going to ask you about. Congrats on winning that seat and flipping that seat back red. Understand your predecessor actually switched parties in 2022 from Republican to Democrat. What are your thoughts on that, winning back your seat and your vision for your district? You know, it's not very often that you see folks that are elected into a position flip parties. It happens every now and then. But to see somebody in a Senate position spot that represents Weld County, Colorado, flip to the other party after they'd elected him to represent them, very clearly it sent the message that, you know, he did not want to represent them because Weld County is very much a red district. And we have conservative values. We believe in responsibility, self-responsibility and limited government. And that's not what he believed in. And so I feel like as he served, even from a Republican position inside of the state Senate, it maybe didn't reflect the values that Weld County had. And as he flipped to the D side, it more accurately reflected what his positions were. So maybe it fit him more when he flipped. And unfortunately, we didn't have somebody to run against him because he was a product of redistricting. And so he was already in that seat. So it was a frustrating thing for Wealth County. But obviously, we persevered through it. And here I am. I think it's rare, too, to see, especially, you know, there was a couple of Florida state reps that flipped not too long ago. And I think it's kind of it's really rare, too, to see a Republican flip to Democrat these days. You know, you don't see a lot of a lot of people that serve flip in general, but especially the flip to a Democrat. I think I think to me, at least personally, most of the guys you got like you're you know, he's not in office anymore, but you got your Mitt Romney's and you got your Lindsey Graham's. At least, you know, what you're getting with them, you know, by my perspective, they're they're rhinos that, you know, at least they're straightforward about that. They're always going to be rhinos. So I don't know. Just, you know, I think that's kind of my perspective on looking at that situation that you're in in your seat. You know, power is an intoxicating thing. And when you see the other side of the aisle have power all the time, I got to imagine that it had an effect on him and essentially had him caving on his values. So, yeah. What do you see right now at a state level as being the biggest challenges facing Colorado that they just quite frankly aren't getting enough attention in the Capitol? Yeah, I mean, the thing that is getting attention is our state budget. So we have something called the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which means that we in the early 90s, we essentially placed a cap on the growth of governments, which I think is a very good thing. And so that's called the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which is also an acronym, TABOR. So there's assault on TABOR from the left, and there's protection of TABOR on the right. Every time something that compromises TABOR goes to the ballot, the voters overwhelmingly protect TABOR, 7 to 3, 70-30 sort of thing. And so the voters very clearly want a fiscal limitation on the size of governments. However, the voters in Colorado always essentially vote liberally on social issues. And so we're socially liberal and fiscally conservative. It's a really odd phenomenon in Colorado, but I mean, that's the way we line up. So there you have it. Currently, both chambers of this legislature are controlled by Democrats. What do you think Republican leaders in the state need to do to help earn voters trust and flip Colorado red? Yeah, exactly. You know, this is the eighth year in a row that the dams have had a trifecta, or any party for that matter has had a trifecta of both the House, the Senate, and the governorship in the state of Colorado. So we're essentially matching a record. If this goes on for a ninth year, it will exceed the record ever. And I feel like people have grown, people of Colorado have grown tired of the expansion of government. And it's really become a frustration to them at the kitchen table. It's become incredibly expensive to live in Colorado. And you look at the reasons why. It's because we're the sixth most regulated state in the nation. And the other side of the aisle just continues to file more and more and more rules and regulations on taxpayers. taxpayers. It makes no sense at all. We're currently on a green energy path that will eliminate all natural gas. Natural gas provided electricity within a short amount of time. And it's like, you know, when the wind's not blowing and the sun's not shining, it's going to be pretty hard to find a source of electricity to heat your house. And I feel like a lot of these folks just, they need to experience what it's like to freeze their butts off overnight and understand, you when you can't go to the grocery store and buy food because they can't turn the lights on or the security on. Like that's what it's gonna take to finally flip this thing. But at the same time our Senate is within six seats of the majority And six seats is not a lot It a matter of just going out and speaking to those affordability concepts in the state of Colorado and appealing to those fiscal issues that they really really buy into And I feel like that is what's going to tip us across. That being said, as with the D's, the R's also have a phenomenon of a somewhat split party. Democrats are split between the hard left liberals and more the middle of the road Democrats. And we're also in the same space here. We continue to have to be shot by friendly fire, so to speak. And I asked this of one of the leaders of our party last year after I got elected, I said, what's it going to take to get us to flip the Senate? Do we need more money? Do we need better candidates? Do we need more support? Like, what do we need? And he goes, Scott, we already have all those things. We just continue to get shot in the back by our own party. That is what keeps us from winning the general election in November every year. We could get the majority back. We could fight back on all the liberal policies and all the things that folks hate about those liberal ideals. But we just continue to be shot in the back by our own party. So it's frustrating, but I try to appeal to a greater good, a more common sense approach to that. and really want to see us gain control of a check and balance system in the state of Colorado where we can like put a stop to the nonsense. That's it. I guess the swamp just doesn't, you know, people think of the swamp as just being in Washington. It's the swamps in every single state. I mean. It is. You know, it is. And it's made up of the folks that are hungry for power over what's right. And it exists in both sides. And you just want to you just want to do the best you can to appeal to common sense and term limits. Like I signed I signed the term pledge before I was elected and I'll stand by and really feel like, you know, that that will make a difference for sure. I think that will make a huge difference. That's that's been one of the biggest issues. And that's why it's why nothing ever changes, quite frankly, in my opinion. I think a lot of the American people's opinion. So but we've got leaders like you that are standing behind it and that believe in it, that are pushing for it. So I think we're on the right track. Just got a long way to go. Hopefully we'll start to see some of that legislation passed and, you know, we'll get some fresh new faces in and then that will institute and bring in real change. So I feel like it. And as long as we hold that, you know, that fiscal conservative common sense viewpoint that appeals to people in Colorado, like we can make some ground there. Absolutely. Well, I want to ask you about this. You're a current secretary of state and candidate for Colorado attorney general, Jenna Griswold. has repeatedly made national news for her statements and actions concerning election integrity and pushing back against President Trump in regards to the 2020 election. From someone there firsthand, what are your thoughts on that whole situation and what's the real public view in Colorado on all that? Yeah. You know, when you're elected to a position like the Secretary of State and you have the majority in the House, the majority in the Senate, you have the governorship, your boss essentially supports your viewpoints. It kind of gives you a blank slate to be able to say whatever you want without repercussion. So there are folks that take that a little bit too far. She's one of those folks that has taken it a little bit too far. And I imagine folks of her side of the aisle probably would love to reel her back in because she's kind of embarrassing them. That, you know, as you look at the national scene as compared to the state of Colorado scene, I mean, 2020 as well as 2024, there's no doubt that Colorado voted for the D candidate in the presidential race. It happened. And I don't think that there's any data to put forward that's real that says that it didn't. I feel like it did. But looking at that and then looking at the national scene, I just have personally have a really hard time believing that 81 million people in the United States of America voted for Joe Biden. I just I just you look at the numbers all through time, both in 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024. I just have a hard time believing that 81 million people voted for Joe Biden in 2020. And the bad thing is, is the Democrats still cling on to that and they still believe that. Yeah. I mean, you know, you talk to them, you can't you can't tell them otherwise. It's the it's the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life. You know, you look at the voter registration, the voter numbers, like you said, across history. I mean, and really, it's like how many X million more people turned out just to vote for this guy? Like, no. Yeah. And I do feel, you know, the data is pretty obvious there. At the same time, I'm not an election denier. Those are certified elections and whatever the circumstances are for each state and how they certified their elections. I mean, it is what it is. And it's in the rearview mirror. Can we do better? Absolutely. The better that we could have done, would it have pulled Colorado over to a Donald Trump vote in 2020? I don't think so. You know, at the end of the day, like I have to believe in the system as well. Can we make improvements? Absolutely. We always can. But that I'm not going to spend a lot of time in the roofing mirror on that one. So, yeah, look forward, not backward. Absolutely. Exactly. Well, speaking of moving forward and looking ahead, let's talk about first about the present. And I just wanted you to weigh in on this and let's talk about Trump and specifically Trump 47 and his term, his current term and his performance thus far. So much to talk about these last few weeks. First, Venezuela and then Greenland. I mean, he's anything but boring. That's for sure. What's your thoughts on everything? Would you weigh in for just a minute? First of all, on Venezuela and then Greenland and I guess tariffs and just everything else that he's been in the news about. Sure. Yeah. So we knew who Donald Trump was before we elected him. We knew who he was before we cast a vote for him. I'd still vote for him again. I wouldn't change my vote at all. If he had the ability to run for a third term, I'd vote for him again. I feel like he does more good than he does bad but we knew the personality that we're getting when it went there is it ideal probably not you know I mean if you could sculpt your perfect president of the United States sure we'd vote for that guy we'd put him in office and and we'd watch a whole bunch of awesome things happen we we got everything we asked for with him and you know is Is he trying to set America up to be the dominant independent power in the world? Yes. And I believe in that. Does he make some wording mistakes? Does he have a little bit of an attitude? Does he have those things? I mean, if you're the ruler of the world, would you also not, you know, have a propensity to possibly overextend in a couple areas, you know? So it would be tough on anyone to be in his position and not make some mistakes. I feel like a lot of people get a little bit cowardly when they are in that position and they allow other people to influence their decisions. I feel like he has he's working from his heart. He's working from his belief system. And there's a whole lot of lesser individuals who, you know, wouldn't be accused of that. They'd be accused of towing the line for any number of other entities. So is he crazy, kind of fun, entertaining to watch occasionally? Yeah. Venezuela. I mean, you have a supreme dictator in Venezuela who is controlling the citizens of that country. Venezuela was one of the most wealthy countries in the world 20 years ago. I remember crafting some early childhood initiatives and Venezuela was leading it, leading, leading the world in early childhood education for their kids 20, 25 years ago. And now, I mean, over the course of 20 years, the thing went upside down. And so I feel like that's a product of a dictatorship that exists there. And I think those people were completely oppressed and their lives were turned upside down as a result. And so, you know, how much did we cry when Obama went and ridded the world of Osama bin Laden? You know, he was a dictator, too. Even the Democrats didn't. Exactly. You didn't hear a thing. I mean, it was celebrated worldwide. And so I have to look at Trump's actions and say, okay, well, if it was a D doing those things, how would it appear differently? How would our two sides operate differently? There's so many political situations that exist, both in the state of Colorado, United States of America, and in the world. And everyone views it differently based on which ruler, I guess, is in charge, a D or an R. You know, so they'll defend him if he's part of their party and they'll hate him if he's not. You know, that's the beauty of a term limited position. And I think that Donald Trump knows that he can't be reelected. So he's doing exactly what he feels is the right thing to do. So anyone any president in their last term is going to remove the obstacles and going to do what they feel is the right thing to do in their last term What about Greenland What your take on Greenland And now I guess the news broke a few days ago that we reached an agreement in principle I guess per se with NATO to where we have full unequivocal access to Greenland to I guess for national security reasons and everything But, I mean, Trump was pretty gung-ho about, you know, we're taking it. It's going to be ours one way or another. I mean, you know, it's just – I guess you can just call it aggressive posturing per se. But, I mean, the rest of the world was pretty at edge about this. And, you know, he pissed a lot of people off when he said all this stuff. So, I mean, I think the end result's been pretty good here. But, you know, is the end result worth the means to get there, I guess, is the question. You know, what's your perspective on that? is this the hundredth or thousandth time that we've watched him do something and then looked at in the rearview mirror and said, okay, well, you know, he postured and it's not so bad now, you know? So I look at that and I like take it with a grain of salt and, you know, every single time we're in the middle of one of his negotiations, um, we're nervous, we're on edge. We're not sure if it's the right thing to do, but as we look back in the rearview mirror, we're like, wow, he kind of set us up for success in the long run. And he prioritizes the American people. And I can't fault him for that. Again, I mean, for me personally, I'm so in tune with what's going on in the state of Colorado. I don't pay as much attention as what's going on in world politics. I don't watch televised news. I just don't. I have a TV. I don't turn it on. I watch, you know local sports occasionally but i don't watch televised news at all haven't watched it in 25 years when i learned that they're completely biased and they carry carry that bias completely with everything that they report i just got tired of being gas lit 25 years ago by by televised media so i just don't watch anymore so i read my news uh i read both sides and i watch through it and uh I'm more fine-tuned into Colorado, less so in touch with what's going on in world politics. If I serve in a position that requires me to be in tune with world politics, I'll definitely do that. Right now, I'm super focused on the people of Colorado. Hey, God bless you, man. That's exactly what your constituents want to hear, Colorado first. That's why they elected you. I love to hear that. I'm sure I'm in East Tennessee, so it doesn't affect me, but I'm sure everybody in Colorado, That's exactly what you want to hear. So that's great. That's what I'm ready to give, and it's not a self-serving thing, and it's not a Trump-following thing. It's very much like what can I do for the people of Colorado. Well, I mentioned in the intro about the Trump administration's actions to freeze and restructure federal child care funding and the backlash and controversy that that's caused in many states. I don't think I could possibly have a better person with which to have this discussion than you. As someone who owns child care facilities and has been involved in this field for a very long time, would you please break down the corruption that's being exposed as a result of the probe by the DOJ and U.S. Health and Human Services into the widespread fraud and I guess misallocation of funding for child care and the implications and what this means moving forward? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's an absolute travesty. what's been uncovered in Minnesota. And I'm really glad it was uncovered because it just highlights the effectiveness or lack thereof of the state governments. And I can tell you that through those COVID years, there was some financial support that came down to support the childcare industry providers, those folks who are taking care of kids and are completely at risk for exposure to the disease, trying to keep those doctors and nurses and that essential workforce at work. Childcare was very necessary for that whole endeavor. I know states that got the money from the federal government and turned around and just wrote checks straight to childcare providers. And who knows what sort of vetting process or quality control process was there. All I can speak to is what Colorado did. So as a child care provider in Colorado, I know that there were extreme measures taken to make sure that those funds went to support very valid exercises of quality, exercises of staying open and being able to serve those families, exercises of making sure that it went to valid kids, valid licenses. And there were so many different ways. It was split up in 27 different avenues of if you want to participate in these different things, here's what you need to justify to participate in each different avenue of potential funding that came down. I think what we saw in Minnesota was very much a portrayal of how Minnesota handled the federal support that came down. And each state had its own process with which to go through that. And so as you saw, it's not hard to guess, you know, the validity of the system that Minnesota had put together to support that industry. So it's frustrating because then it makes the rest of us not look good, which is super frustrating. I guess it just draws a lot of attention. I needed attention to, you know, everybody else in general too, doesn't it? Oh, 100%. You know, so you have Tim Walls governing up in Minnesota. and he's the obvious character that would draw opposition from the federal administration. Then you have our own governor here in Colorado who loves throwing rocks at our presidents. You have Gavin Newsom that throws rocks at the president. So you have Illinois, New York. You have like five kind of blue states who love to kick back on the federal administration just because it's Trump, right? So who do you think Trump was going to come after when there's fraud? He's going to come after the governors of the states that were throwing rocks at him, and he's going to throw rocks back. So, I mean, quit throwing rocks, and we won't get ourselves into this situation. That being said, I fully believe that Colorado and the Colorado Department of Early Childhood has all the evidence that they need to prove that this system of support for child care in Colorado is completely valid above board and has all the fraud-proof measures in place that they need to. So again, I grew, I grow a little bit frustrated with them still wanting to play hardball with the federal administration over this. Like you have the evidence, just put it forward and, and, and let get, get us off this hook that we're on right now. I have asked the question so many times on the record in committees, do you have the evidence to prove that Colorado is above board in this area? And they answer yes. And I said, okay, when is the next meeting scheduled for you to prove to the federal government that you have all this in place? Well, we don't really have the schedules. I'm like, what does it take? Like you have two willing parties, but now you're posturing and you don't want to put that together. I mean, it's frustrating to me. I feel like the actions that you've seen out of the Colorado governor in the last month, maybe 60 days, has been a little bit more catering to the president of the United States. And so I think he's finally wised up and realized that like, oh, man, I'm compromising the citizens of my state over this whole thing. And he's term limited, too. He's got one more year, but he doesn't want to compromise his legacy there. So I feel like he's turned an about face and he's starting to toe the line here a little bit and trying to get Colorado out of the crosshairs of the federal government. So that's what I think. What do we need to do at a federal level to, I guess, basically make sure this doesn't happen again and to make sure what kind of oversight do we need? What's the answer here, in your opinion? Do we need a federal oversight committee in Congress? or I mean, we have, I feel like we have a committee for everything at this point, but I mean, is there too many committees? Is what, what kind of oversight or what's the answer here in your mind? I mean, how big do you want to make government? So I was director of the Head Start program, of a Head Start program in Colorado for 10 years. And so I got to see firsthand what the federal government requires of early childhood education, right? Because those dollars come straight from the federal government to the grantee locally. They bypass the state, they bypass the counties, they go straight to the grantee. And so I understand exactly what I had to be in compliance with to the federal government to make sure that my program was above board and that it could continue to receive funds, et cetera, et cetera. So I know exactly the process that the state of Colorado has to go through to justify that they're above board. And I feel like we need just a little bit more strengthening of that system so that Colorado has a chance to say, hey, we're doing this right. Trust us in that our records are here. You're welcome to come audit it whenever you want to. And we're sailing the ship in the right direction. I can't speak for any other states. I don't know how Illinois does it. I don't know how Minnesota does it. I don't know how California does it. But I can tell you that from what I've seen Colorado is doing it right, even if they're not so stoked with who the president of the United States is. Well, I guess it's good that Colorado has a watchdog like you that is, you know, is, this is your life basically and you been so involved in this for so long So and that what so good about having a diverse group of elected officials I think and having been different fields and everything And you have different people that have different knowledge of different subjects and can weigh in on different things So, all right, well, shifting gears here, what's your take on the midterms? That's kind of the big question coming up here this year. How do you see the midterms going? And you think that, you know, we're going to keep the house or what do you think? So, again, national politics versus state politics. I feel like in Colorado, we're going to make some gains in the Senate and the House, in the state Senate and state House. I feel like we got a chance of governorship. So really going to put some energy into that, see if we can pull that off. It'd really be nice if we could break up that trifecta for a little bit and try to get some checks and balances here. But as far as the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, I truly believe that the conservative voters show up on presidential cycles and potentially they don't show up on non-presidential cycles. So I'm a little bit stressed about that. The other piece that's really important in that space is the quality of the candidate. So you can have a really high quality candidate and you can probably turn some vote out if they do the right things and they walk through the right campaign and they do those sorts of things. You can have a mediocre candidate who draws fire, who is criticized from both sides, who doesn't really do anything positive for their district. And those are the ones that are susceptible. So, I mean, we're walking such a tight line in the U.S. House. we don't have room to make mistakes. So I sure hope that our candidates, especially in Colorado, are doing all the work necessary to try to stay there. That being said, when I go knock on doors, I'm always knocking on doors for my local House representative, Ryan Gonzalez, and I'm also knocking on doors for Gabe Evans in Congressional District 8. So matter of fact, Gabe and I will meet up at 8 o'clock on a Saturday morning, and he'll go that way, and I'll go that way, And we'll walk the whole neighborhood handing out each other's literature, et cetera. So I am not in an election cycle. This year, I'm off. But I will be walking for both my U.S. House, Gabe Evans, as well as my state house, Ryan Gonzalez. I think you nailed it, Scott. I mean, I really do. I'm very, very deeply concerned. I think we're going to see some good gains across a lot of states in a lot of different seats. But I'm very, very concerned about Congress. I just I mean, to me, it just it all comes down to the economy, plain and simple. And that's, you know, that's what worries me. And you nailed it. I mean, I think, like you said, I mean, especially Trump said it himself that the Christian voters don't show up. And I think a lot of them showed up in the last election. And I don't know. I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong. But I don't have high hopes for the midterms. I mean, just to add to that, you know, let's hope that we don't do damage in our primary elections, because a lot of times we can start shooting at folks, candidates in our own party that then bring them down and then cost them the victory in the general. And I really hope that we have the long range goal here of winning the general over the Democrat. So as I look at the primaries, I look at, okay, remove the names, remove the faces. Which candidate can best win or beat the Democrat in November? And that's the one I'm going to put all my marbles on. I think that more people need to have that view for sure. There's too much inviting going on. So, well, just a general basic question here. I know it's very generic, but what can our current lawmakers do to better help the American people? And that's local, state and federal. Yeah. You know, I feel like we need to get back to kitchen table issues. And those are, what does it cost to heat our house? What does it cost to put food on the table? What does it cost to make our mortgage payments, make our rent payments? The ultimate wealth building tool in the United States of America that no other country has to the extent that we have is property ownership. So what can we do to protect those values for families, make it affordable to own a house, to heat it, to raise kids, to have quality spaces for them to be safe places for them to be? I feel like those are the issues that are really going to chime in with voters, not just in 2026, but each election thereafter. And we really need to appeal to that. That's what's going to move us forward. Well, timely question here. I guess this coincides with a lot of what's going on in the rest of the country. But I'm in East Tennessee, and a lot of the southeastern U.S. is experiencing a severe winter storm, including snow and a lot of unprecedented amounts of ice right now. You guys are used to that in Colorado. I mean, it's nothing new to you. But just overall, how prepared do you think Colorado is for potential disasters, grid issues, supply chain breakdowns? I mean, you hear talk about climate change, and, you know, I don't buy into that. I don't know what your view on it. But, I mean, it's definitely a lot going on. I mean, you can't deny that. So what you think Colorado is pretty prepared for any kind of disaster? Well, I got to say we used to be prepared. We're we're gradually slipping in a place where we're not prepared. And, you know, death creeps up on you slowly. Right. We used to have wood stoves that would heat our house if the furnace wasn't working. We used to have ways to do things. We used to have nuclear powered energy, electricity that turned lights on. We used to have all those things and we flipped over to other sources that are not reliable and are more expensive. And we've done it in the name of air quality, environmental protection, blah, blah, blah. And so I get those issues. But at the same time, I keep saying this to myself every day when I drive to work. The state of Colorado, it's interesting that some folks in the state of Colorado think that we can tax ourselves and pass laws that will change the temperature, the core temperature of the earth. and and it's absolutely ludicrous when you think about the fact that the earth is determining its weather and its core temperature and all these things and somehow we can pass a law or create a tax that's going to change the core temperature of the earth or whatever direction is trending um and and i absolutely kick back on that you know number one sure when i wake up in the morning i want to see a clear sky i want to see the mountains and all those things i don't want to see a brown cloud out there. I feel like we've achieved that. We've achieved a clear sky. We've achieved clean air. Anything further beyond this is just creating something at expense that we can't afford. But yet they just want to keep rolling with this agenda. And I just can't make sense of it. I can't. And people in Colorado can't afford it. So I will continue to stick up for first and foremost, people to be able to pay their own bills and live in freedom. And I believe in Colorado. I believe that the core of Colorado exists in that space. And I believe that it's only been, you know, charades that have got us into the place we are over the last 20 years in a political sense. I don't believe that Colorado is as blue as it looks from the outside. You know, we have, for crying out loud, in congressional districts, we have eight congressional districts. Four of them are R and four of them are D. That doesn't say blue state to me, but yet in our state political arena, two thirds of our state legislature is Democrat, one third is Republican. And we've had a D governor for who knows how long, like since Governor Owen, like 20 years ago. So it's frustrating, but it was definitely a plan that they put into place 20 years ago. And they're reaping the rewards of that plan today. I feel like it's run out and I feel like the pendulum's swinging back and I can't wait to see some more check and balance in Colorado. Well said. Well, Scott, before I let you go, when we're not politicking and doing things in your district and taking care of your constituents, what do you like to do in your spare time? You got any hobbies or anything you like to do on? Absolutely. I truly appreciate God's creation. I appreciate experiencing the great outdoors, the mountains, the animals, the snow, the desert. I appreciate everything that he's created for us to enjoy. And every moment that I can, I get out and enjoy those things, whether it's hiking, whether it's on my motorcycle, whether it's on my snowmobile, whether it's in an airplane, you know, looking down at the creation and how the erosion all exists and all that stuff, how it's happened over time. Like I really appreciate those things and it really touches my heart being able to see that, be that, and then share that with people that I care for. And I really, really, really enjoy sharing Colorado with folks. God is awesome, isn't he? Oh, yes. Scott, I appreciate your time. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate being here. Thank you for listening to the Politics, Prepping and Paranormal podcast. Your source for real news and analysis on politics, prepping, paranormal, conspiracy theories and the volatile state of the world we live in. Tune in next week and every week for a new episode and stay safe, stay healthy and stay vigilant.