Our elected officials should be raising hell

If our senators and representatives aren’t getting into good trouble right now and ensuring that Trump’s authoritarian agenda goes absolutely nowhere, then they are undeserving of their office.

The cruelty will continue and people will die because of cuts to health care and social services, the quashing of dissent, and the export of American weaponry to create the largest generation of child amputees in history, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

This regime is immoral. It is unethical. It is disgusting and un-American. It cannot be allowed to stand.

Our national elected officials should be raising hell on a daily basis, trying to protect what’s left of a potential democracy in this country before it’s lost for decades.

But the fact that their names or faces rarely make an appearance in the news cycle is extraordinarily telling.

They’re doing too little to fight back and, by embracing apathy in the face of fascism, proving that they’re nothing more than corporate mouthpieces and authoritarian appeasers.

If they don’t have the courage to speak up, especially from a position of influence, then they should resign immediately, even though the realists among us know that they likely aren’t going anywhere.

I sincerely hope there’s a shred of conscience in them and that they’ll step up in this important moment to be an actual fighter for all of us, especially those who are suffering the most, both here and overseas.

And if they’re not willing to do that, then let’s hope that if there are midterm elections in 2026, there are enough change makers who are brave enough to run.

— Sam Fogleman, Erie

Are 2WD vehicles required to carry snow chains now?

The headline item in SB25-069, which Gov. Polis just signed into law, was traction control device permits. Peripherally, news articles and government officials also mentioned that it closed the loophole allowing 4WD/AWD vehicles without proper tires.

But the bill also removes the allowance for 2WD (FWD/RWD) vehicles with proper tires, giving CDOT the power to require chains on them regardless of tire type.

It seems like a typo. The edits to the traction law don’t specifically mention 2WDs. They just cross out too many words. In committee, Sen. Dylan Roberts simply described the relevant amendment as closing the AWD loophole. So does the actual summary of the bill on the State of Colorado’s actual website.

The typo somehow made it through the entire legislative process and past Gov. Polis’s desk.

If the state government did intend to affect thousands of Coloradans by changing the law on 2WDs, its failure to mention that in public messaging is concerning. If the omission was accidental, it was significant. If it was intentional, it was nefariously sneaky.

It wouldn’t be outrageous to require 2WDs to carry traction devices, but the benefits of making them actually put them on, in a typical storm in which AWDs don’t have to, wouldn’t outweigh the negatives. Many Coloradans, including people who frequent or even live along I-70, don’t have AWD.

If 2WDs are frequently required to chain up, they’re likely to cause far more costly highway delays than chainless cars with snow tires. CMVs already cause delays on I-70 as they overflow chain stations. Imagine what a glut of passenger vehicles would do.

— Derek Sharman, Boulder

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