Speakers at this year’s Leadership Program of the Rockies (LPR) retreat critiqued President Donald Trump’s economic and foreign policies while warning about the dangers of immigration.
“Since there’s all this talk about using tariffs as a way of affecting foreign wars, as a way of inflicting damage on other countries or threatening them to do things, let me ask you all a question,” said Daniel Hannan, a conservative member of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, the first speaker of the event with “Our Founding is Our Future” as its theme. “Why, in an actual war, do we blockade the enemy? What are we trying to achieve when we cut the supply lines of a hostile military? We’re trying to make them poor. We’re trying to stop them buying stuff. We’re trying to cut them off from the rest of the world so that their standard of living falls, they have less money, and they are less able to wage war. Can we all agree that we’re not doing it to nurture their infant industries? We’re not doing it to try and bring them up to a higher standard of production so that they become more competitive. So why do to ourselves in peacetime, through tariffs, what we do to the enemy in war? Purely because of these maladaptations in our brain that always make it popular, and the lobbying of certain industries.”
On Feb. 1, Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. Experts and commentators have warned that the tariffs could have a negative impact on the U.S. economy. “I worry that in this administration we have seen the rise of more nationalist, populist economics the second time around, some of which I think takes you further away from that vision [Reagan, free market, conservative] and is almost — I mean there’s a reason that some things like mass widespread tariffs not just on China but on our allies, blanket tariffs, trade wars, those kinds of things were historically championed by progressives like Bernie Sanders,” said conservative journalist and Steamboat Institute fellow Brad Polumbo. “I worry that on some issues we’re moving in the wrong direction from free markets, from open trade, from capitalism that has created so much wealth and prosperity.”
Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, also questioned Trump’s tariff decision. “Those policies actually, will very likely backfire,” she said. “In fact, it could make the lives of those they want to defend worse. Those so-called populist right, we’ve talked about them, they’ve built a movement on the idea that conservatives should first care about workers, that’s not my beef with them. They have used that theory and that focus as a reason to justify a shift in economic policy, from the so-called market fundamentalist, like me, and smaller government, and torward a more top-down, big government policy. In fact, it is amazing to see how many of the policies that they are pushing that are actually policies that the Democrats like, and in fact that the Democrats have supported and called for for years.”
Speakers also raised concerns about Trump’s support of Russia and his recent claims that Ukraine was the aggressor in the three-year-old conflict. “We’re seeing Russian propagandist claims being repeated by the leader of the world’s greatest republic,” said Hannan. “We’re seeing the scary prospect of the United States lining up with Russia in Ukraine, while at the same time not only picking fights with Canada but making territorial claims on Denmark, which is the sovereign power [over Greenland].”
Hannan also addressed concerns over immigration. “The problem is not with immigration as such,” he said. “The problem is with people who have come from dysfunctional hellholes and then arriving somewhere better, promptly set about trying to recreate all of the conditions that pushed them into immigration in the first place. In Europe, the problem is with Islamists from Syria. In Colorado, the problem is with Democrats from California. And the solution is the same. It’s to inculcate them with the values that raised the place that they’ve arrived in the first place. And that’s what the Leadership Program of the Rockies is so good at doing.”
In its over three decades, LPR boasts a lengthy alumni roster of elected officials, prominent candidates, and political operatives. At least 18 LPR graduates are media figures who, over the decades, have mostly dragged the Republican Party to the right, initially helping energize Tea Party Republicans to win elections but now contributing to the party’s current isolation, infighting, and increasing irrelevance.
In a slide projected onto the front of Broadmoor Hall before the speakers took the stage, LPR reminded attendees, “Dozens of graduates create an echo chamber within traditional and news media as journalists for publications, bloggers, radio hosts, news commentators and opinion leaders.”
Graduates of this year’s class include one new legislator, state Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-Ft. Morgan), and one statehouse candidate who came up short, Garfield County resort proprietor Caleb Waller, who lost to Rep. Elizabeth Velasco (D-Glenwood Springs). Other notable graduates includes Rebekah Meurer, who helped lead the “Ganahl Gals” group in support of Heidi Ganahl’s failed gubernatorial campaign, and Laureen Boll, who works for conservative advocacy group FAIR Colorado, opposing diversity programs and LGBTQ inclusivity initiatives.
During the Feb. 21 reception and dinner, which the Colorado Times Recorder did not attend, U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO) gave the invocation, and Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) recited the Pledge of Allegiance, before a keynote address from former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. During the Feb. 22 Luncheon Colorado Rep. Rose Pugliese (R-El Paso County) gave the invocation.
Despite the concerns expressed by the speakers, neither Crank nor Evans, or Colorado Republicans like Pugliese, have raised concerns or criticisms of Trump’s executive actions or shifts in foreign policy.
Shari Williams, LPR’s president, reminded attendees that LPR is not a program of the Republican party. “This is your army for freedom,” she said in her opening remarks. “These are the people that are trained and equipped, and you are elevating the discussion about the proper role of government. It’s not about politics, not necessarily even about policy, but what we’re trying to do is figure out how to arm you so that you have impact on your spheres of influence. So, ask yourselves this question. Are you using the founding principles to persuade? Are you bringing clarity to your fellow citizens? Are you having a good discussion? Are you up to the challenge? Well, the retreat is designed to help you think, but we’re not going to just do rah-rah. We’re going to help you think. And you’re going to think through these propositions and how to apply it to policy. And anyone who goes through our nine-month program … knows that we push and prod. We want to elevate your game. We want to make you better. So, we push you toward a higher standard of thought and discussion.”
Despite LPR’s lofty aspirations, Colorado’s Republican Party has been beset with infighting as Trump-supporting MAGA activists fight with more moderate conservatives. This year, Brita Horn, a member of LPR’s advisory council, is running against former Moms for Liberty chair Darcy Schoening for control of the party. While the LPR, Koch- and (allegedly) Anschutz-funded wing of the party is pushing for reasoned discourse on economic priorities, Schoening’s supporters are focused on holding Republicans accountable to a voting block motivated by culture war issues.
“Almost every single school board out of the 17 in El Paso County are Republican,” said Schoening during an appearance this week on Joe Oltmann’s “Untamed” podcast (formerly Conservative Daily). “But they all have the tranny porn in the school. They all have anti-white curriculum. Why is that?”
