Family · Statewide · CO · October 6, 2026
Colorado Ballot Measures Would Restrict Youth Gender Surgery, Sports
What Alinsky tactic is being used
3 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 13
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
The dispute has been narrowed onto one person. Kaitlin Lee, a single mother in Wellington, is the named face of all three measures, and the story reports death threats and added security at her home — pressure aimed at her household rather than at the text of Propositions 133, 134 and 135. Once the argument is about her credibility and her daughter, the measures themselves stop being read.
Counter-Rule 13 · Radical Solidarity
Stand publicly with whoever has been singled out. Isolation is the whole mechanism; refusing it disarms the tactic.
Refuse the isolation in public and in writing: if a neighbor or a pastor is attacked by name over a ballot position, say so at the meeting and put your own name next to theirs. In practice this month, that means attending one public comment period and speaking about the measure's actual text rather than about the sponsor, and declining to repeat personal claims about either Lee or Jax Gonzalez that you have not verified.
Rule 12
“The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”
The attack phase here ended badly — the lawsuit against Poudre School District was dismissed and the Supreme Court declined to take it. What followed was construction rather than complaint: three drafted statutory initiatives that gathered signatures and were certified onto the November 3, 2026 ballot among fourteen statewide measures. Tearing down a district policy produced nothing; writing a law that can be read, costed and voted on produced something.
Counter-Rule 12 · Universal Construction
The book agrees with this one rather than inverting it: if you would tear something down, you are obliged to build the thing that replaces it.
Do the same at the level you can reach. If you object to how a club is approved or how a sex-education unit is noticed, bring the board a drafted replacement — a specific amendment to the existing policy number, with the notice interval written out — not a grievance. Read the Blue Book analysis of 133, 134 and 135 first so that what you propose matches language a public body can actually adopt.
Rule 3
“Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
The fight was moved onto ground where ordinary parents are out of their depth: federal constitutional litigation, which ended in dismissal, and now clinical and insurance questions — the Blue Book's fiscal note, Medicaid coverage, and opponents' argument that Proposition 135's definitions are too vague. A parent arguing from conviction alone loses to anyone holding a statute section or a surgical-coding table.
Counter-Rule 3 · Preparation and Width
Prepare the unfamiliar ground before you are dragged onto it. "I don't know, I'll find out and come back" beats an improvised answer.
Get competent on the narrow ground before November: read the full measure text in the 2026 Blue Book, not the summaries, and note which lines define the covered procedures. When asked something you cannot source — a figure on how many minors are affected, or what insurers must cover — say you will find out and come back, then come back. Write down the page number you relied on so you can produce it if challenged.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
Know where you stand
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