The United States has undergone significant demographic redistribution over the past decade, which has been accelerated over the past year due to urban flight caused by coronaphobia. The trend has been the depopulation of major metropolitan areas in blue states in favor of rural resort communities in what were formerly red states.

Big Western states like Colorado that used to be considered part of flyover territory, only good for cattle grazing and star gazing, are now the go-to destinations for urban evacuees. And Summit County is at the top of the list for remote workers seeking quality remote living.

Unfortunately, of the thousands of people per month moving into Colorado, most are lefties abandoning over-populated, over-regulated and over-taxed blue states like California, Illinois and New York. This population influx would not be so bad except that these liberals come here waving their dirty political laundry in our clean Colorado air.

They are abandoning cities that they have made dirty, diseased and dangerous. Buildings are on fire, homeless people are doing drugs on the streets, and downtown residents are unable to walk safely in their neighborhoods in fear of shootings, killings and gang violence.

Meanwhile, socialist city councils encourage this mayhem while their puppet prosecutors ignore many crimes and put criminals back on the streets with little or no bail. Their call to defund the police has caused the resignation of large numbers of law enforcement, compounding an already volatile and violent situation.

Thanks to the isolation caused by COVID-19, urbanites with resources discovered that they can work remotely at home. So why tolerate the metropolitan insanity when you can leave it all behind and live anywhere that has a wireless connection? Why endure the sufferings of deteriorating Democrat cities when you can work and live in a place that is safe, pretty and clean like Summit County?

And therein lies the rub. As they flee the crazy, creepy cities, these Wi-Fi refugees bring their same liberal voting preferences with them that ruined the cities they just left. In California, for the past 50 years, they voted to expand government control over individual freedoms, resulting in the absurd, extreme socialism they now seek to escape.

Yet they come to Summit County and vote for the same liberal Democrat policies that has made California unlivable. Summit County is being Californicated by left-leaning lemmings who will blindly send our county and our state over the same central planning cliff. They killed California, and now they are killing Colorado.

As this blue wave descends on our purple state, it redefines the character of our rural, mountain resort community. Because they can purchase million dollar homes here, these intruders expect, even demand, the same big city services, entertainment and amenities that they forced their governments to provide. They impose their big-government mentality on our small-town lifestyle, resulting, for example, in the Board of County Commissioners declaring a fake housing crisis they say only the government can resolve or the local board of education implementing an unpopular equity plan through critical race theory. Welcome to Sacramento, Colorado.

It is certainly understandable why the beauty and friendliness of Summit County makes us a desirable destination for permanent residents able to work and live outside the urban madness. But do us all a favor and check your liberal socialism at the door before you enter our mountain paradise.

Kim McGahey’s column “Conservative Common Sense” publishes Tuesdays in the Summit Daily News. McGahey is a real estate broker, tea party activist and former Republican candidate. He has lived in Breckenridge since 1978. Contact him at kimmcgahey@gmail.com.