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Have you ever thought about becoming a storm spotter? Now is your chance. The Sullivan County Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service invite you to attend free Storm Spotter Training. Storm Spotter class will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29 in the Milan Community Center, 205 N. Market Street, Milan. The class will last approximately 1 hours. It will be presented by an experienced meteorologist from the National Weather Service. Various aspects of severe weather, storm spotting and weather safety will be presented. The training is free and available to everyone, regardless of age, where you live or education level. Becoming an active, trained storm spotter is an excellent way to serve our community. While there is no personal commitment from attending this class, if you recognize hazardous weather on the horizon, you will be in a position to help warn your neighbors by calling 911. To reserve your seat for this highly sought after class you must call or text the Sullivan County Emergency Management Agency Director, Dennis Goldsmith, at (660) 265-5619 or email him atmonranch@grm.net.Reserving a seat for the class will not commit you to attending the class, but the class may not be held if fewer than 15 people reserve a seat in advance.

Bellacinos Pizza and Grinders at 516 N. Baltimore Street, will be holding a Giving Night on March 30 from 5-8 p.m. Fifteen percent of of food sales goes to the Food Bank to provide Buddy Packs for kids in need.

The South 63 Corridor Community Improvement District will hold a meeting at 11 a.m., on Thursday, March 30, in the Second Floor Conference Room at City Hall, 201 S Franklin Street. Tentative Agenda: Approval of the Minutes of the Dec. 28, 2022 Board of Directors Meeting; Approval of Appointment of Officers; Additional business as may be necessary and appropriate to commence operation of the District.

The city of Kirksville Parks & Recreation Department hosts Paint the Ville on March 30 and April 25, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Kirksville Aquatic Center, 801 E. Mill St. Register your first through eighth grade artist for the monthly Kids Club event. Artists will create a masterpiece under the direction of Paint the Ville instructor, Rachel Messer. All participants must pre-register, and class size is very limited. To register, visit the Kirksville Parks and Recreation Office at the Kirksville Aquatic Center, or online athttps://parks.kirksvillecity.com/. Each class is $20 and all supplies are included. For more information, please contact Luke Callaghan with the Parks and Recreation Department at 660-627-1485.

Hay producers can learn strategies to grow, harvest, and store high quality hay at University of Missouri Extensions upcoming Hay Production School, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Schuyler County Community Center. MU Extension specialists will teach on how to get more quality and quantity hay production during this one-day workshop, says Darla Campbell, Agri Business and Community Economic Development specialist. Topics include Forages for North Missouri, Quality Issues; Hay Testing; Cattle and Horse Nutrition, Storage and Feed Management; Economics of Stored Forages; and Fertility Management. Registration for the school is due by March 24. A minimum of 15 participants is required to hold the school. Contact Darla Campbell at 660-457-3469 or campbelld@missouri.edu for cost and questions. The Schuyler County Community Center is located at 308 Main Street, Glenwood.

Truman Opera Theatre presents Bastien and Bastienne by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, March 31 at 7:30 p.m. at the Ophelia Parrish Performance Hall.

Thousand Hills State Park is home to a collection of petroglyphs or rock carvings made by ancestors of todays American Indians. Explore the petroglyphs with park staff to learn more about this unique piece of history. Meet at the petroglyph shelter located next to the beach. Contact the park office at 660-665-6995

The Adair County Family YMCA presents the 2nd Annual Easter Egg Eggstravaganza on April 1 from 2-3 p.m., at the YMCA Soccer Fields. Enjoy a fun time with the entire family and community. Separate egg hunts per age group: 0-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12. Photos with the Easter Bunny. Yard games and activities. Easter-themed tattoos. Prizes courtesy of local businesses. Free event, donations greatly appreciated. 1708 S. Jamison, Kirksville.

A Fairyland Princess Tea Party will be held on April 1 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Kirksville Masonic Temple, 217 E. Harrison Street, Kirksville. There will be crafts, games, food and drink for $5. Presented by Kirksville Chapter #184 Order of the Eastern Star, assisted by Sigma Kappa Sorority, Truman State University. Questions? Call 660-341-4042.

Foolin Around Downtown will be held on April 1 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in downtown Kirksville. Support your local downtown stores and shops. In-store specials and refreshments provided at participating businesses. Shopping, specials and more.

The biggest trivia night of the year is back. The United Way of Northeast Missouri (UWNEMO) will host the 2nd Annual Charity Trivia Night on Saturday, April 1 from 7-10 p.m. at the Kirksville Moose Lodge. This years event will build upon last years hugely popular Trivia Night that welcomed 18 teams, raising over $5,000 for the 11 local agencies funded by the United Way of Northeast Missouri. Tickets are $150 per 8-person team, or $200 with Mulligans. One Mulligan can be used each round in place of an answer. The first-place team will take home a $500 first place prize and the coveted United Way Trivia Trophy. Only five table remain available so act now. Only four tables left.

The Crossing Church will hold Car Care on April 2. This event will serve single parents, foster parents, widows, active military personnel and veterans. The church is inviting anyone who falls in one or more of those categories to sign up to have their vehicle detailed and inspected. All community and church members are invited to help serve this deserving group of people on April 2. Volunteer opportunities range from greeting participants to inspecting vehicles. Theres a place for everyone to serve, ages high school and up. If youre not available on the day of the event, there will be opportunities to serve prior. For more information visit http://www.thecrossing.net/carcare or contact The Crossings local Campus Pastor.

Otto McFarland Senior Voice Recital will be held on April 2, at 2 p.m., at the Ophelia Parrish Performance Hall, 100 E. Normal Avenue.

Emma Bushery & Bridget Boyle in a Senior Recital! At the Ophelia Parrish Performance Hall, April 2 beginning at noon. 100 E. Normal Avenue.

Double Reed Studio Recital at the Ophelia Parrish Performance Hall beginning at 6 p.m. on April 4,100 E. Normal Avenue.

A ribbon cutting will be held for Factory Connection on Wednesday, April 5, at 4 p.m. Join the Kirksville Area Chamber of Commerce at the open house event for chamber member Factory Connection in celebration of their new management team. The ribbon cutting ceremony will take place at their retail location at 2402 N. BaltimoreStreet in Kirksville.

Join Thousand Hills State Park staff in a presentation to learn about spiders and discover just how important they are to our ecosystem. If interested, join park staff to go looking to see if any spiders are nearby. Please bring a flashlight or headlamp. Meet at the Campground 1 Amphitheater. Contact the park office at 660-665-6995.

Mark your calendars and hop on over to the 45th annual Kraft Heinz Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 8, at 10 a.m., at the Truman State University Quad. Kraft Heinz, the city of Kirksville's Parks and Recreation Department, and Truman State University's Cardinal Key are partnering to host this event free of charge. All children ages 2 to 12 are invited to join and find as many eggs as possible. Remember to bring a basket for all the eggs and your camera for a picture with our special guest, the Easter Bunny. For more information, contact the Parks and Recreation Department at 660-627-1485.

Join Thousand Hills State Parkstaff to learn some birding basics! Binoculars, field guides, and cameras are welcome. Limited binoculars and field guides will be available to borrow during the program. Please wear closed-toed shoes and bring water. Meet at the beach parking lot to walk the paved trail.

Something about a snake make them sssuper important. JoinThousand Hills State Park staff to learn what that reason is and why snakes are unique. There may be a chance to meet a live animal. Meet at the Campground 1 amphitheater. Contact the park office at 660-665-6995

NEMO Job Fair Spring 2023 will be held on Friday, April 21 from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Moberly Area Community College, 2105 E. Normal Avenue. Pre-registration is required.

Friends of (Scout) Troop 404 will be holding a Bottomless BBQ Feed Fundraiser at theNEMO Fairgrounds on Friday, April 14 from 5:30- 8 p.m. Cost is $25 per person with sides and drinks. Soda for sale separately. Food by TNT BBQ. Silent Auction. Raffle for a mini-bike and smoker grill. Tickets available at the Troop 404 Facebook page or Nolan Law Firm, 210 S. Elson Street.

The Student Activities Board has announced the lineup for its spring concert series. Indie rock band DEHD will headline the second concert at 5 p.m. April 14 on the quad. The rain site for these concerts will be the Student Union Building Georgian Room. Admission to all concerts is free and tickets are not required.

The Northeast Missouri United Way Texas Hold'em Tournament will be on April 19 at the Dukum Inn.Signups start at 5:30 p.m. and the tournamentstarts at 6:30 p.m. 1st Prize is $500, 2nd Prize is $250 and Third Prize is $100. Sponsors of the event are as follows: Gold SponsorshipATSU and Heritage House Realty. Silver Sponsorships are Lovegreen Motors and Pagliais. Bronze Sponsorships are Kirksville Brake and Muffler and Hampton Inn.,

Come out for a celebration of International Dark Sky week at Stars Up, Lights Down at Thousand Hills State Park. Join others in learning about light pollution and exploring the sky above. There will be telescopes but everybody is welcome to bring their own telescopes, chairs, and binoculars. Meet at the Point Shelter. Contact the park office at 660-665-6995.

The 23rd Annual Daddy Daughter Dance will be held on Friday, April 21, at the NEMO Fair Building/NEMO Fair Grounds. Doors open from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Picture Booth open from 6:30-8 p.m. Cost is $8/couple, $2/each additional child (family cap at $10). Free concessions, photo booth, giveaways, and crafts. All girls pre-school through 6th-grade along with their dad or significant male role model are invited no RSVP needed. Proceeds of this event will go toward supporting Heartland Task Force programming and activities.

The annual Novinger Area Yard Sales & Flea Market event will be held on Saturday, April 22, beginning at 8 a.m.Residents of Novinger and surrounding area (west of Kirksville, east of Green Castle, and along Highway 157) are encouraged to participate in selling yard sale items, funky junk, 2ndchance goods, antiques and collectibles, flea market items, crafts and commercial products. Booth spaces and tables can be rented inside the Community Center or Firehouse andfree spaces can be reserved on the fairgrounds.Maps featuring the reported locations of sales will be available on Renewals Facebook page as well as in the Community Center, along with food sales.Donations of items are sought to allow proceeds to benefit Novinger Renewal.Items can be dropped off at the Community Center after 2 p.m. on Friday, April 21.Those interested in reserving an indoor or outdoor space or wanting their sale listed on the map should contact Glenna Young at 660-342-6455. The event is coordinated by Novinger Renewal, a non-profit corporation, established for community betterment and historic preservation.

Come on out to Thousand Hills State Park on Saturday April 22 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. to celebrate Earth Day. Local organizations will have stations and activities set up around the beach parking lot and the paved trail. Come connect with the earth and nature through unique opportunities facilitated by community members. There will be activities and educational booths for all ages at this free event. SB40, a local nonprofit, will be selling snacks and drinks as a fundraiser during the event. The Missouri Department of Conservation will be providing fishing opportunities along the shore just past the beach showerhouse and at the ADA accessible fishing dock. (Signs will direct visitors to these locations.) This event was created in partnership between Thousand Hills State Park, the Adair County Public Library, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and the city of Kirksville. Other organizations are joining to provide educational opportunities for all attendees. In the event of inclement weather, activities will be moved to the Rieger Armory, located at 500 S. Elson St.

Mark your calendars for Curtain Call's 2023Annual Meeting. They will be meeting at the theatre on Monday, April 24 at 5:30 p.m. in order to nominate board members for the upcoming year and give everyone updates on their upcoming season.

The Student Activities Board has announced the lineup for its spring concert series. The last concert will feature country artist Chase Bryant at 5 p.m. April 28 on the quad. The rain site for these concerts will be the Student Union Building Georgian Room. Admission to all concerts is free and tickets are not required.

Elementary and middle school students interested in math and science can spend a day on the Truman State University campus participating in fun activities. Trumans chapter of Beta Beta Beta, a co-ed biology honors fraternity, will sponsor Science on Saturday, April 29. The first session, for students in first through fifth grade, will take place from 9-11 a.m. A second session, for students in sixth through eighth grade, will take place from 12:30-3 p.m. Area students will attend classes in Magruder Hall, each lasting about 20 minutes. Session one classes this spring include:acids and bases volcano, reptiles and amphibians, and secret message writing. Among the classes in session two are: strawberry DNA extraction, lava lamps, and reptiles and amphibians. Science on Saturday is free of charge. Registration will begin March 31 onsos.truman.eduand remain open until April 14 or until both sessions are full. Spaces are limited and registration is completed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Come out to Thousand Hills State Park to celebrate Kids to Parks Day Saturday May 20.

10 a.m.-2 p.m.: Kids Fishing Join the Missouri Department of Conservation for a day of fishing at the Point. From 10 a.m.-2 p.m., staff will be available with gear to help you fish or fish with you. Fishing is open to all ages. All children must be accompanied by an adult.

11 a.m. Nature Detective Hike Animals leave behind clues to tell us they have been in the area. Join park staff to explore the many different clues animals leave behind and learn what animals share the park with us. This hike will take place on the Oak Trail located next to the playground on Big Loop Road.

All programs are weather permitting. Check out Thousand Hills State Park on Facebook for cancellations, location changes, and other park information.

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Kirksville Area Calendar of Events - Kirksville Daily Express and Daily News

At the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, we stand in the same position relative to the initial invasion as America stood in 1985 relative to the 1965 arrival of our first combat troops in Vietnam. This makes it a useful moment to compare the two conflicts and their effects, and to consider provisionally, always provisionally which was more disastrous, which intervention deserves to be remembered as the worst foreign policy decision in our history.

For some time, even after my own initial support for the war dissolved and its folly became obvious, I doubted that Iraq could outstrip Vietnam in the ranks of American debacles. More than 12 times as many American troops died in the Vietnam War as died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and its aftermath. The bloodletting among Iraqis was terrible, but so was the civilian toll in Southeast Asia. The United States lost the Vietnam War completely; in Iraq, we left behind an unsteady and corrupt republic rather than a new dictatorship, with a government that still allows a U.S. military presence.

Domestically, the period around the Vietnam War was dreadful a wave of domestic terrorism, a crisis of authority, the 1960s curdling into the 1970s. The immediate aftermath of Iraq was sour and paranoid in its own way, but even with the Great Recession, there wasnt the same kind of radicalism and social breakdown. When Barack Obama was elected president, American conservatism seemed shattered by Iraq, as American liberalism was shattered by Vietnam, but by his second term, there was a return to ideological stalemate.

At various times, then at the 10th anniversary of the war, maybe even at the 15th it was possible to imagine a long-term future where Iraq was ultimately remembered more like our bloody counterinsurgency in the Philippines at the dawn of the 20th century than like the trauma of Vietnam as a bad war, but not an era-defining one; as a squandering of blood and treasure and moral credibility, but one whose overarching strategic costs were not so great.

Today, theres a stronger case for seeing Iraq as a more epochal disaster. In American domestic life, the Vietnam effect was more of a fever, whereas the Iraq effect seems like a wasting or relapsing disease. The wars influence has percolated inside other social crises, like the opioid epidemic, that have become more visible and destructive over time. Its lingering effects have made the body politic more susceptible to left-wing radicalism and right-wing demagogy, while contributing to a persistent mood of pessimism and disappointment thats then been exacerbated by other forces (social media, the coronavirus pandemic).

In our political coalitions, these disillusioning effects look even more substantial and permanent than they appeared in 2010 or 2015. Ever since the war discredited and helped dissolve the hawkish center-left, nobody has been able to reconstitute a strong centrist faction within liberalism, with the result that liberal institutions have been pulled ever leftward since 2004. Ever since the war discredited both neoconservatism specifically and the Republican establishment generally, nobody has been able to maintain a successful counterweight to the various forms of right-wing populism, Tea Party and Trumpian, that have made the GOP ungovernable and incapable of governing.

And there is a special irony that even with the intellectual ferment on the Trump-era right, the attempts to forge a national conservatism or a socially conservative populism sometimes look like efforts to grope backward to George W. Bushs platform in 2000, before he traded his humble foreign policy for a grand crusade.

But it is in the effect on Americas global position that the costs of the Iraq War really keep compounding. Its now clear that not just the war alone but its ever-spreading secondary consequences which included our futile overinvestment in Afghanistan, fatefully cast as the good war by many Democrats opposed to the Iraq invasion kept us tied us down during critical years of geopolitical realignment, making it hard to even think about, let alone cope with the revival of Russian power and the rise of China to superpower status.

The all-but-certain influence of our final defeat in Afghanistan on Vladimir Putins decision to invade Ukraine was just one link in a long chain of consequences forged by the Iraq War. Likewise, our newly aggressive posture toward the Chinese regime is a risky attempt to play catch-up to shifts that we should have been more attuned to a decade ago.

And while the effects of the Iraq War on the developing worlds attitudes toward the United States can be overstated, our initial invasion clearly made us seem like a less trustworthy hegemon reckless and revisionist rather than steady and reliable. Then the way the war contributed to our internal divisions and derangements also made American culture seem less admirable and the broader liberal-democratic project seem less inevitable. So not only Russia and China but also other power centers, from India to Turkey, were pushed toward post-American and post-Western paths by everything that followed.

Now return to the comparison between 2023 and our Reagan-era situation, barely a decade after the last helicopters left Saigon. By 1985, we had managed to separate China from Russia, the Soviet economy was faltering, and Mikhail Gorbachev had just been elected general secretary of the Communist Party, with glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall just around the corner. Today, with Russia and China increasingly aligned together against us and Chinese influence increasing, we seem to be descending back into the kind of twilight struggle that in 85 we were poised to finally transcend. So if Vietnam 20 years on looked like a disaster that in our strength we were able to absorb, a surmountable obstacle to American ascent, Iraq 20 years on looks more like our empires nemesis, full stop.

Of course, appearances can be deceiving. Almost nobody in 1985 realized just how quickly the Soviet Union would collapse, and perhaps today the American comeback is already beginning. We have resources and forms of legitimacy that are lacking in our more authoritarian rivals; their systems are persistently vulnerable to the follies of autocratic decision-making. And the Ukraine conflict, for some, is seen as a possible doorway to revival reinvigorating the West much as Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II once did, drawing Putin into the same sort of quagmire that Afghanistan offered to the Soviets, helping us shake our Iraq distemper on a different timetable than with our Vietnam syndrome, but with similar results.

Its not a coincidence that among those most invested in this hope are some of the Iraq Wars most ardent advocates. They want redemption, understandably, for their vision of American power, if not for the Iraq decision itself.

I dont share their optimism, but Im not surprised at its resilience especially when the alternative possibility, that a single choice made with such confidence 20 years ago still has our empire on a sunset path today, seems too terrible to bear.

Ross Douthat | The New York Times(CREDIT: Josh Haner/The New York Times)

Ross Douthat is a columnist for The New York Times.

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The Vietnam effect was more of a fever, whereas the Iraq effect ... - Salt Lake Tribune

Republicans

With the old media order losing ground, a new cadre of extreme voices has emerged, precipitating a GOP shift to Maga populism

He has a platform that most politicians would envy. But Jack Posobiec is not to be found on Americas major TV networks or in its newspapers. He is among a cadre of online influencers who now shape the far right and could help decide the Republican presidential primary race in 2024.

Two operatives made the very same prediction, that Posobiec will matter as much to future GOP voters as Washington Post columnist George Will did to Republicans a generation ago, political journalist David Weigel wrote in a Semafor newsletter last week.

That observation prompted Alyssa Farah Griffin, a CNN political commentator and former White House official, to tweet in response: Were doomed.

Such expectations speak volumes about the breakdown of the old media order, flawed as it was, and the rise of new and often extreme voices in the digital age. It also reflects a parallel shift in the Republican party from country club to Make America great again populism.

Will, 81, edited the conservative National Review magazine, won a Pulitzer prize for commentary in 1977, was described by the Wall Street Journal as perhaps the most powerful journalist in America and quit the Republican party over Donald Trump in 2016.

Posobiec, 38, gained prominence as a pro-Trump activist during the 2016 election. He promoted bogus conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate, which held that Democrats were running a child sex and torture ring beneath a pizzeria in Washington. He is a senior editor at the far-right news and commentary website Human Events.

Posobiec has used Twitter where his 2 million followers include representatives, senators and journalists to promote Russian military intelligence operations, pushed false claims of election fraud and collaborated with white nationalists, Proud Boys and neo-Nazis, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit legal advocacy organisation.

Yet it is Posobiec and others like him who are already helping to set the narrative for the Republican presidential primary. Posobiecs recent online activity includes crude attacks on Antifa, the New York Timess 1619 Project and transgender rights (Genital Gestapo) ready-made talking points for candidates.

Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman who belonged to the conservative Tea Party, recognises the changes of a fragmented media landscape. Ten years ago, going on CNN and MSNBC, you had great influence, he said. Now not a lot of people watch any more. More people will listen to me if I go on somebodys podcast or something. Its a completely different world now where influencers have great say.

But at what cost? Walsh added: It has nothing to do with ideas. It has nothing to do with intellect. Its all about trolling people, getting clicks and being outrageous. Theres a whole cast of characters that has sprung up over the last five to six years and they have great influence now. The Jack Posobiecs and all the rest of these guys are not fringe; they speak for a big chunk of the base.

The growth of partisan echo chambers was evident in last years midterm elections as Republicans, in particular, snubbed the mainstream media in favour of rightwing outlets and often refused to debate their Democratic opponents.

And earlier this month, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Maryland, the former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon loomed large, drawing crowds as he opined loudly on Real Americas Voice, a channel that is popular with the base but little known outside it.

Bannons War Room podcast was named the number one spreader of misinformation among political talkshows in a recent study by the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington. Yet its guests have included prominent Republicans in Congress such as Elise Stefanik and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Leading online influencers appear united in their support for Trumpism, and rejection of the Republican establishment, but divided over the fate of the party nomination for 2024. Early shots have been fired in what could be a ferocious battle between them.

Trump sympathisers include Alex Bruesewitz, Mike Cernovich and Laura Loomer as well as a Twitter user known as Catturd and the former presidents own son, Don Jr. Among supporters of Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida who is expected to run, are John Cardillo and Bill Mitchell.

Another influencer, Chaya Raichik, has dined with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida (He seems nice!) but also disclosed that, when she was revealed to be behind a provocative Twitter account called Libs of Tik Tok, she received a call from DeSantiss team offering her a guest house if she needed to go into hiding.

Other rightwing personalities such as Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens augment their social media presence with countless in-person appearances at conferences, on television and at university campuses. The owning the libs talking points that circulate in this ecosystem frequently work their way into the discourse of the conservative network Fox News.

David Litt, an author and former speechwriter for Barack Obama, said: This is like research and development for Fox. If something gets enough traction with the online audience, then I wouldnt be surprised if you start to see Fox hosts piggybacking on that once they think thats where their audience is headed.

Posobiecs Pizzagate conspiracy theory had real world consequences when a man travelled to Washington and fired an assault rifle inside the relevant pizza restaurant, later receiving a four-year prison sentence. Litt said it was alarming that, despite such incidents, Republicans have welcomed far-right influencers into their big tent rather than condemning them.

The threat of violence is out there and the flames are being fanned by a lot of these influencers. We wouldnt have called David Duke an influencer back in the day. We would have been very clear about who he was and the danger that he posed to our democracy and to the society that the rest of us would like to continue to enjoy living in, regardless of which party is in charge.

As for Will, who is approaching a half-century at the Washington Post, his column this week discussed freedom of speech and unauthorised immigration. It may not matter much to the Republican primary. Walsh, the ex-congressman, observed: The base no longer knows who the fuck George Will is and thats an absolute shame.

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Its all about trolling: how far-right influencers are shaping Republican narrative - The Guardian US

In his third year of college, Donalds realized he had to turn his life around. When he learned he could transfer his credits to Florida State University but leave his GPA behind, he jumped at the opportunity. He joined a business fraternity and met a woman named Erika, who invited him to visit her church. He accepted, and within those walls found the purpose hed been searching for. The experience led, indirectly, to Donalds pledging his life to Christ in a Cracker Barrel parking lot during an unauthorized shift break. Donalds graduated from FSU with degrees in marketing and finance and a serious relationship. Two years after Erika took him to church, Byron took her back there, and the pair were married in 2003.

Erika and Byron found high-paying jobs in the finance sector, settled down in Naples, and had three children. Through God, hard work, and a good private school education, the kid from Brooklyn had achieved the American dream. Translating those ideas into political action didnt begin until 2008, when the financial crash hit. I turned on the House Financial Services Committee one day, and I was pissed, he told The Daily Signal. I was like, Who are these people? They dont know what theyre talking about.

Cable news pundits didnt seem to know what they were talking about either. A friend advised listening to Mark Levin, a radio talk show host whom Sean Hannity calls The Great One and Rolling Stones Peter Wade called a bomb-throwing Trump sycophant. The more Donalds listened, the more sense Levin made. He began to read books Levin recommended: Bastiat, Locke, Montesquieu. He changed his voting registration to Republican, threw in with the Tea Party, and never looked back.

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The Education of Byron Donalds, the Right-Wing Fringe's Newest Star - The New Republic

By Mark Barabak

Monday, March 27, 2023 | 2 a.m.

DENVER Kevin Priola was a Republican before he could even vote.

Inspired by Ronald Reagan, he preregistered with the GOP at age 17. He joined the College Republicans at the University of Colorado Boulder a true act of faith in that liberal stronghold and was elected to the Legislature in 2008, where hes served ever since.

But Priola slowly grew estranged from the GOP, seeing it as more authoritarian than conservative, and last August he became a Democrat.

I couldnt stomach it, Priola said of his old party, and associate with that style and brand of politics.

Hes hardly alone.

In the last two decades, the Republican ranks in Colorado have shrunk drastically, to just a quarter of registered voters, as the once reliably red state has turned a distinct shade of blue.

The transformation is part of a larger political shift. Once a Republican bulwark, the West has become Democratic bedrock. That, in turn, has reshaped presidential politics nationwide.

With a big chunk of the West California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington seemingly locked up, Democrats are free to focus more heavily on the perennial battlegrounds of the Midwest and venture into once-solidly Republican states such as Georgia.

The changes didnt just happen, like the snow embroidering the Rockies in winter, or the runoff that swells Colorados icy rivers in the spring. It took money, strategy, demographic changes and, not least, a sharp rightward turn by Republicans.

No state in the region has changed its partisan coloration as emphatically over the last two decades as Colorado. From a Western swing state, it has become a Democratic stronghold, said pollster Floyd Ciruli, whos sampled public opinion in Colorado for more than 40 years.

In 2004, Democrats essentially gave up and wrote the place off; theyve carried Colorado in every presidential contest since. In 2020, Joe Biden romped to a 13-point win over President Donald Trump, the largest Democratic victory here in more than half a century.

Patrick Winkler helped change the political complexion of Colorado.

In the last 20 years, the state has gained more than 1.3 million residents, most settling like Winkler in Denver or the suburbs along the Front Range.

Winkler moved three years ago from California, in part because the 29-year-old real estate agent wanted to own a home and knew his money would go further in Colorado.

The political views he imported are typical of Winklers cohort, which tends toward left of center. He voted for Biden in 2020 and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis last November, largely because of his contempt for the GOP and a particular dislike for Donald Trump.

It was less a personal opinion about the candidates, said Winkler, who wound up buying a three-story townhouse near downtown Denver. It was about the general outlook of the parties and what they stand for.

The influx of young arrivals is not a new phenomenon. Colorado has long been a magnet for 20- and 30-somethings, drawn by the states mouthwatering scenery, outdoorsy lifestyle and, more recently, its thriving tech and service industries.

What has changed are those whove found their home in the Democratic Party: They are younger, more affluent, better educated, and more liberal on issues such as abortion and gay rights.

In short, Democrats are now much more in tune with Colorado, one of the best-educated and socially liberal states in the country, as the Republican base has gotten older, less educated, more evangelical and more Trumpy.

When Lori Weigel moved to Denver in 1997, she recalled, the Broncos always won and the Republican Party always won.

Now, the GOP strategist lamented, we have a losing football team and, statewide, a losing Republican brand.

Gov. Polis sits in his spacious office in the state Capitol, his 13-year-old terrier mix, Gia, curled in a chair by his side. His dress gray suit and a purple polo shirt with matching Nike sneakers is a mash-up of tech bro and standard-issue government executive.

At 47, Polis has been a multimillionaire for over two decades. He made a fortune in the frothy days of the commercial internet, founding, among other flourishing businesses, an online flower delivery service.

Before seeking elected office, Polis played a key role in Colorados makeover as one of the gang of four a quartet of rich donors who spent millions, starting in the early 2000s, building a political support system and recruiting and funding Democratic candidates.

Colorados shift, he said, is not due to funding. And thats true to a large extent, though the cash infusion didnt hurt. More important is the branding of Democrats in Colorado as the party of the center.

The state is not a playground for the fringe left, said Chris Hughes, a former Colorado Democratic Party chairman.

Polis, who boasts of cutting taxes and wielding a light hand during the COVID-19 pandemic, is the latest in a string of statewide Democratic officeholders whove bucked the national partys leftward shift.

There was the cowboy-hatted U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, who made bipartisanship a calling card in Washington. Before Polis came the relatively centrist Govs. Bill Ritter, an ex-prosecutor, and John Hickenlooper, a former oil company geologist.

Meantime, Republicans offered candidates from the tea party movement and fire-breathers like the anti-immigration crusader Tom Tancredo.

For Polis, who disdains hard-liners in both parties, ideology is something of a four-letter word. Hes quick to point out that Democratic registration has fallen in Colorado alongside that of the GOP. Though not nearly as much.

Colorado Republicans have fared worse than Democrats, Polis said, because GOP candidates have focused too much on culture-war issues and plunged down rabbit holes like Trumps bogus claims of a stolen election. (This month, the Colorado Republican Party chose an election denier as its chairman.)

Any candidate who wants to win in Colorado has to talk about and have solutions for the issues that matter most to everyday Coloradans, Polis said, ticking those off: education, affordable housing, traffic, congestion.

Casi Smigelsky works in tech sales in Denver and, like most Coloradans, belongs to no political party.

The 33-year-old considers herself a fiscal conservative and is not a Biden fan too much of a relic, she says of the 80-year-old president. But Smigelsky has an even harsher view of the GOP.

Theyve become a party of hate, she said, and a party of taking rights away.

Though Smigelsky could see herself voting for a moderate Republican for president, if one somehow won the nomination in 2024, there is no way she will cast a ballot for Trump, the early GOP front-runner.

Absolutely not, she said. Absolutely never.

Republicans were in decline in Colorado well before Trump bulled his way into the White House. The former presidents deceit and the mayhem he spawned hastened the free fall.

Dick Wadhams, a fourth-generation Coloradan and longtime GOP campaign consultant, said its hard these days for Republicans to even get an impartial hearing from voters, regardless of a candidates personal qualities and beliefs.

He imagines typical Colorado voters saying to themselves, Were not going to entrust these offices to the Republican Party, even if these individuals look like theyre solid, because the party is crazy overall.

Pam Anderson can speak to that.

Anderson was featured on Time magazines cover last October as one of the defenders fighting to save democracy after she bested a Trump loyalist and election denier to win the GOP nomination for secretary of state, the overseer of Colorados balloting.

I was a vocal opponent of everything Trump said about elections, Anderson said at a Denver coffee bar. Everything.

Still, she said, opponents ran millions of dollars in commercials saying I was too MAGA for Colorado. She leaned back, as if still reeling. I couldnt raise enough money to combat that.

Anderson shrugged. She threw up her hands.

She lost by double digits, gone in a tide that delivered Democrats all four statewide offices and underscored a sea change that has remade Colorado and dramatically refashioned the West.

Mark Barabak is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

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From red bastion to blue bulwark: What the political shift in Colorado ... - Las Vegas Sun