A deep and growing rift among Colorado’s ruling Democrats blew wide open last week in a very public brawl on social media between Gov. Jared Polis and a member of his party’s political fringe. It pitted the Democratic “establishment” — still as liberal as it ever was — against the party’s ascendant socialists on the far left.

“Socialism dangerously concentrates political and economic power together,” Polis posted Tuesday on X, kicking off the exchange of volleys. “Government should be an independent check on the private sector, not the owner of it and not controlled by it.” 

As reported by The Gazette, Polis went on to reaffirm his commitment to social safety nets like universal health care and contended “every other wealthy capitalist country” has implemented such programs. He underlined his point with, “fascism and socialism aren’t the answer.”

Maybe it was his equating fascism and socialism — close cousins, in fact — that set off hard-left Democratic state Rep. Yara Zokaie, D-Fort Collins. She blasted back on X.

“Jared Polis is one of the wealthiest individuals in Colorado, so it’s no surprise that he is scared of Democratic socialists who want to make him pay his fair share,” Zokaie posted.

Polis is indeed wealthy, having been a spectacularly successful internet innovator and entrepreneur. The Princeton grad was a net pioneer with visionary business savvy and a deft understanding of economics. 

He replied to Zokaie: “I’m not scared of anyone. I just care deeply about our state and don’t want the socialists to destroy it. In a Colorado for all we don’t think less of anyone because of their net worth. Whether you have no money or are millionaire, we love you in Colorado and want you (to) thrive.”

The face-off was ironic, of course. Polis came to office almost eight years ago as a “liberal Boulder Democrat” reviled by the political right. Now, as a term-limited lame duck preparing to depart office, he’s denouncing his own party’s socialist left. 

Many who followed the exchange noted the irony, sneering at the governor for feeding the beast in the first place. He marched the entire state to the left, they said, on immigration, crime, guns and other flashpoint issues. He presided over dramatic government growth. 

“…The DSA mob — whom you, in part, nurtured — is now coming to consume you and your fellow Democrats,” responded one post on X. Another weighed in, “Socialists always end up eating their own…” Another mocked him with, “Reap your harvest.” 

The frustration of Colorado’s center-right and especially its business community is understandable. Many wonder where Polis was all these years he should have been swatting down bad policy authored by the legislature’s Democratic socialists instead of signing so much of it into law. 

Sure, he commendably vetoed back-to-back attempts to kill Colorado’s Labor Peace Act and, for years, has said our state should abolish its income tax as several other states have. Yet, those who create our economy’s jobs point to all the regulations he has signed into law — helping drive Colorado downward on every major ranking among the states as a place to invest, do business and live.

Whatever Polis’ culpability for Colorado’s current decline, however, let’s all agree that when even the state’s top elected Democrat — no conservative by any stretch — sounds the alarm about the increasingly bold socialists in his midst, it’s worth paying heed. 

Polis, the state’s Democratic Party standard bearer, has drawn a line in the sand against his own party’s radical left. It seems even he now sees they are leading the state over a cliff.