Republicans, I want you to get stronger, to get well, to take on Colorado Democrats as equals and not as some gutted minority party, but on the opening day of the special session what happened? You made wearing masks an issue.

Yes, and during a special session to deal with the pandemic that has terrorized the world for months now. Businesses are shuttered or closed for good. Children are studying remotely instead of with their peers. Cities, counties and states are struggling because tax revenues have plummeted.

I understand there are varying schools of thought about wearing masks. But I have been influenced by news stories pointing out that some of the same arguments against wearing masks were delivered several decades ago during the fight to make buckling up mandatory.

“Seatbelt laws were a hard sell in state capitals as opponents argued they were uncomfortable or an imposition on personal liberty. Sound familiar?” The New York Times wrote.

Absolutely.

Democratic lawmakers and Capitol staffers donned masks on opening day Nov. 30 but many Republicans did not.

Republican Rep. Larry Liston of Colorado Springs, who is heading to the Senate in January, jokingly wore his mask as a bonnet at one point, the media reported. “Bonnet?” Is Laura Ingalls Wilder covering the session?

But the reaction to the maskless minority was swift and searing.

“If there’s an outbreak in that building that exposes my wife and child to a deadly pandemic because a bunch of weak little partisans can’t put a piece of cloth over their faces I will spend my career making sure they have no power at all in Colorado oh wait,” Ian Silverii tweeted.

Silverii is the clever director of the leftie/meanies group Progress Now, which has been very successful at toppling Republicans. (See: Gardner, Cory.) Silverii is married to Sen. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat.

The libertarian (small l)-leaning Ari Armstrong said it all.

“Colorado Republicans try to convince voters that they deserve another shot at power by … senselessly putting other people’s health and lives in danger. Immoral, and idiotic,” he tweeted.

Armstrong also wondered, as have others, why the legislature is meeting in person instead of remotely during the pandemic. Because the law says committee hearings must be in person.

But there is some heartening news. Colorado Politics’ Marianne Goodland reported that during the regular session in May and June, Rep. Richard Holtorf, an Akron Republican, did not wear a mask. He was also among the 23 who did not at the Nov. 9 GOP caucus meeting.

“During debate on the second reading of a bill on Monday, he told House members his aunt had died from COVID-19 the night before,” Goodland reported. “He spoke at the House podium with a mask on. He hasn’t been seen without one since.”

Goodland reported that Senate President Leroy Garcia, a Pueblo Democrat, isn’t fining lawmakers for not wearing masks. He could do so, he said, but that doesn’t mean the member would then wear a mask.

“I want to be respectful … we get better compliance by asking and appealing to them. I won’t put one of my sergeants in the position of removing a senator” for not wearing a mask, Garcia said.

The legislature has all kinds of rules about what can and must be worn, although I think they’ve lightened up in recent years. I remember when fellow reporter Michele Ames was giving me a ride to the Capitol, and when I walked out of my house she jumped out of her car and told me I had to go change, that under no circumstances could I wear jeans while the legislature was in session.

But they’re brand new and a deep blue, I argued. And everything else is dirty. It didn’t matter, I was told. In the end I grabbed a pair of black dress pants out of the hamper and changed.

Plenty of people have mentioned the legislature’s “coat rule,” where men are required to wear a tie and a suit or sports jacket until being told “the coat rule is relaxed.” Sweating lawmakers and journalists would jump to their feet to take off their coats when allowed. When pranks were more prominent, lawmakers would get House aide Pat Worley to sew a colleague’s sleeve shut, making it nearly impossible to put the coat back on at the required time.

Gov. Jared Polis issued a mask mandate on July 17 in hopes of slowing the spread of coronavirus. He had initially balked at ordering the mandate. Despite wearing masks, he and his partner, first gentleman Marlon Reis, are now recovering from COVID-19.

Republican Rep. Patrick Neville, the state House minority leader, and conservative activist Michelle Malkin of El Paso County, went to court over the matter. They argued that the governor violated the state Constitution with his many emergency orders, among them the mandate that masks were to be worn in certain public places.

The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, which is why you continue to see notices posted on the doors of convenience stores, gas stations, my condo complex, and lots of other places saying that in order to enter the person has to wear a mask.

As for those seat belt fights across the country, Colorado passed its initial law in 1987. It requires the driver and every front seat passenger to wear a seat belt whenever the vehicle is in operation on a street or highway. Violating the seat belt law is a secondary offense, meaning that drivers may not be cited for failure to wear a seat belt unless stopped by a law enforcement officer for an alleged violation of another law.

The New York Times story includes an interview with David Hollister, a state legislator who represented Lansing, Mich., and began arguing in 1982 that buckling up saves lives. But it took three years for the Michigan legislature to pass a measure.

“The thing that really did it was we started arguing that the opponents were arguing for the right to go through the windshield,” Hollister told the Times.

“That is where it was similar to the mask. It is going to save lives and reduce costs. People eventually are going to come around.”

I did. I ordered dog-faced masks I found online, and debated whether to buy the various Christmas tree decorations featuring Santa in a mask and dated 2020. I keep generic masks in my car for my nieces and nephews. I laughed when I drove by a mask-wearing dinosaur at the Sinclair station.

Republicans, wearing a mask is not the issue that should send you to the mattresses. Wait for the Democrats’ overreach on other matters, including oil-and-gas, elections and spending. We all know it’s coming.