Go to any convenience store at about 7:15 in the morning and you’ll meet the regular folks. The mom getting some gas and hustling to get her kids to school. The plumber grabbing a breakfast burrito before his first job. The teacher getting much-needed coffee before their first bell rings.

The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. These are the regular folks.

Lately, Colorado seems to have forgotten about the regular folks, or worse yet, dismissed us. Colorado’s newly acquired activist mindset seems more a product of imported east-coast elites and west-coast extremists than a product of those possessing Colorado Common Sense.

We remember that Colorado is the west.

Not the west coast. The Rocky Mountain West. We remember that Coloradans are westerners and that means something. We’re rugged. Individualists. Determined. We persevere, we work together, and we respect one another. Westerners believe in an ethic – the code of the west.

We live our own lives – boldly – and we keep our nose on our own side of the fence. We don’t really need to be told what to do (and we don’t like it when we are) because we instinctively know what’s right – and we do it, not because we’re told, but because it’s the right thing to do!

We love our state and our nation. We believe in the concept of a democratic republican and we elect representatives to work in government on our behalf. However, we believe that the regular folks have ceded too much authority to what has become less elected representatives and more ruling elites. These imported ruling elites have twisted Colorado into something we no longer recognize.

We get it – regular folks are busy pursuing happiness. But the only way to stop this Colorado creep toward Californication is to get involved. That’s what the Regular Folks Rising movement is all about – equipping the common person to engage in the important role of self-governance. The nonsense must stop. It begins here and it begins now. It’s time for regular folks to rise!