Welcome back to the 1890s when company towns flourished along the railroad routes, coal mines and lumber camps in the U.S.

If you were working in one of those towns back then, your every need was provided by the town's owner which was usually the company building the railroad, mining for minerals, or harvesting lumber.

Company towns were a logical solution to a geographical problem which was the long distance from the worksite to housing and services. It made sense for all concerned. THAT was the benign socialism of the late 19th century and it continued until the railroad was built, the mines were played out and the forests denuded.

Today's company towns are different.

They are urban and more political in nature rather than economics-based and they are generally colored blue (for Democrat-controlled).

Towns like Boulder, San Francisco, Denver, Santa Fe, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, New York, Madison and Minneapolis have now been joined by entire states.

The latest is Colorado which only yesterday announced that it would not allow presidential candidate and former U.S. president, Donald Trump, to be on their state's election ballot (a 4-3 decision from the Colorado state Supreme Court). 

We knew this was coming. Colorado has been on the company town glide path for many years, morphing from a red state to a purple one, and finally to deep blue through its lawsuits against freedom of expression and religion against bakers who refused to bake certain cakes and photographers who won't contract for certain weddings.

It finally took the last big step over the line by extending (il)legal decisions to their state's election process. They did it committing blatant election malpractice on its citizens by denying a candidate his rightful place on their ballot.

Their excuse? He was guilty (without a trial) of insurrection in the Jan. 6, 2021 mass trespass on the nation's capital in which, they contend, he actively participated and thereby forfeited his right under the 14th Amendment to stand for election.

By using the 14th Amendment as their justification, Colorado opened Pandora's Box for other blue states to remove Trump from their ballots which they will undoubtedly do before the country's Supreme Court weighs in (if it chooses). Even if SCOTUS does strike down the states' rulings, the die will be cast in blue states and the temporary PR advantage will be theirs … and it will benefit them in motivating all their fence-sitting, undecided (but Democrat-leaning) voters to get out to vote for Joe who will protect them from the evil MAGA Republicans and the would-be dictator, Trump.

If all this sounds conspiratorial; it's not.

We've seen this play and we've read the book, "How the Democrats won Colorado (and why Republicans everywhere should care)." As with "Mein Kampf," the authors told us EXACTLY what they would do to turn Colorado blue and they did it! We conservatives were just not paying attention as the state methodically changed its political stripes.

So, should we wait for the Supreme Court to take or not take the case before we, the people, take action? The answer, from my perspective is a resounding, "no."

Realizing that there are still patriotic Americans in Colorado who respect the "presumption of innocence" as one of the crucial vertebrae of our Bill of Rights and Constitution, it would probably be unfair of me to call for a statewide boycott of Colorado based on Colorado's state Supreme Court decision. That said, at some point, we conservatives must be ready to accept a little collateral damage and vote with our feet and our pocketbooks. We must be ready to make some uncomfortable decisions about where we live, how we spend our money and which companies, places and candidates (and ideologies) we support. I'm sorry Colorado Springs, (a largely Republican stronghold), you will have to suffer for all the radical decisions taken by your fellow citizens in Denver because it is time for the rest of us to stand up, lean in and push back against judicial and political overreach in company towns and states -- and that includes Colorado.

If you want to make your voice heard this Christmas, try to refrain from buying products made in Colorado and try not to schedule any future holiday vacations in company towns that do not share your values, wherever they are. Like the Congress, you have the power of the purse. Use it for good and do not support those who would trample on your rights.

Stephan Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of fourteen books, six of which are on American politics and has written over 1,300 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He operates a political news story aggregator website: www.projectpushback.com. He can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com

Image: Picryl // Library of Congress, no known restrictions