Colorado is a very interesting state and today’s Denver Post reveals why. Aldo Svaldi and Greg Griffin report today that in the current recession Colorado lost close to107,000 jobs.

In an odd way, that is one of the good things about Colorado.  The state has a vibrant private sector and when the overall economy tanks, so does Colorado.  That means that when the economy recovers, Colorado will be one of the first to benefit.

Unlike states like Virginia and Maryland which are so heavily impacted by the federal government that seldom is heard a discouraging word about unemployment, the real America hurts first.  And Colorado is the real America.

Though racially homogenous—sometimes when I walk the streets of Colorado cities I think I’m in Germany—Colorado shows the deeper divisions of American society.  And those divisions are very deep.  There is a large sector of Colorado that supports gay marriage,  smoking of marijuana, green technology and liberal Democratic politics.  But check by jowl you will find Evangelical Christians, public prayer, Charter Schools, and conservative American Jews.  In some ways Colorado reminds me of the act comedian Jerry Lewis performed by walking like John Wayne tethered to an effeminate Truman Capote. One step swagger, the other step swishing forward.  One day you can go to a rodeo and the next to a Jared Polis seminar on gender.  One day a Tea Party, the next a party in drag.

Sometimes I think Colorado is near the Pacific Ocean.  When you want a steak in Colorado, you better go to Del Frisco’s or Morton’s since every other high end restaurant serves Cohoes salmon in season, Maine lobster, trout, mussels or Mahi Mahi.  And Coloradans put Jack La Lanne to shame.  Weekends are devoted to physical activity—hiking, jogging, golf, horseback riding, swimming, fishing, skiing—you name it, Coloradans are physically engaged. 

This is a state of thin people. 

The only time Coloradans sit down is to enjoy Rockies, Avalanche or Broncos games.

So let’s hope that President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid can turn the American economy around.

Colorado deserves a good economy that allows the state’s private sector to produce employment for some of the thinnest, healthiest, Americans of European stock alive today.