Mass Deception in Attacks Against Amendment 49, Amendment 54

This morning Mike Rosen, Colorado’s leading radio talk show host, called out the group “Protect Colorado’s Future” for deceptive ads run against Amendment 47, Amendment 49, and Amendment 54 on Colorado’s ballot this fall. Here’s the transcript:

CALLER: A fairly deceptive ad running on TV. I’ve seen it a number of times recently. It’s a fireman from Littleton, and the background is sort of set against a real sympathetic figure fighting fires, been doing this for 14 years and, you know, I’m in the same league with nurses, and teachers, and policemen, and all that, and vote against these “deceptive” amendments 47, 49, and 54. He never, they never come right out and say what these amendments are obviously, but –

ROSEN: It’s a clever tactic because people like firefighters, I like firefighters. But there’s a difference between firefighters as individuals and their union. Same applies to cops. I like cops. I don’t necessarily like the police union, and I don’t necessarily like the firefighters union.

CALLER: So anyway, it’s kind of put across, I feel, in a very deceptive manner.

ROSEN: It’s designed to enlist your sympathy for firefighters so that you can vote against these three amendments. 47 is the Right-to-Work amendment…. 49 is the Ethical Standards Now, and it stops government from bundling money through public payroll and delivering it to special lobbying interests. [emphasis added]

Here’s the audio clip of the 1-minute exchange.

Clearly, the opponents of Amendment 47, Amendment 49, and Amendment 54 are unwilling and unable to grapple with these real and substantive reforms, and so resort to deceptive attacks. But this is not the first time Protect Colorado’s Future has used mass deception. They’re a terribly hypocritical bunch, too.

But, when you have a hollow case to stand on against reforms that promote clean government and workers’ rights, what else do you do? Protect Colorado’s Future goes back to the same old ugly playbook.