Our Platform for Outlining Colorado’s Future

In 2022, as Russian missiles devastated Ukrainian cities, Western companies continued operating in Russia, inadvertently channeling resources into Putin's war machine. This was no anomaly—it starkly illustrates the moral and strategic failures of a global trade system that prioritizes short-term economic gains over democratic values, human rights, and global stability. Whether it’s Western technology enabling China’s surveillance state or oil revenues financing extremism, trade too often empowers authoritarian regimes to undermine justice, freedom, and security. To address these systemic issues, we must fundamentally rethink global trade policy. Import tariffs should be determined by a transparent formula based on objective scores from reputable indices, such as Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report and Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. This approach would replace politically motivated trade deals with a values-driven framework, rewarding nations th...