Amid the toxic partisan chaos dragging down the American political system, I’ve definitely moved toward the middle. Like me, the vast majority of Coloradans are registered to vote as “unaffiliated” with either party, and for whatever reason, likely hold values that are independent and varied, rather than strictly holding to one party’s line.
It’s been fascinating to watch the growth of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, or MAHA, nationally and here in Colorado, which seems to cross all over political boundaries as well.
On Aug. 11, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal ran very positive articles about the growing appeal of MAHA across the political spectrum in the U.S. On Aug. 15, Politico ran an article about how MAHA-supported bills were sweeping across state legislatures in the U.S. in both red and blue states. Recently here in Colorado, The Colorado Sun and The Denver Post ran positive MAHA stories about how the governor had embraced the call to remove sugary sodas from food-stamp programs.
Though not a political party, MAHA has partially merged with the Republican Party nationally to achieve the goals of MAHA’s de facto leader, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration. While that merger may prove lasting, MAHA itself crosses party lines and includes left-leaning crunchy granola moms and right-leaning fitness bros in the manosphere. Even old-school left-wing seniors like Bernie Sanders have supported pieces of MAHA as has our somewhat independent governor, Jared Polis.
If you look closely here in Colorado, you’ll see lots of cross-boundary politics supporting MAHA, including homeschooling Christian moms in Colorado Springs and clean-eating Birkenstock moms in Boulder. Likewise, macho paleo-hacking food influencers seemingly unite with big-game hunters to support wild and natural foods as a bulwark of physical and mental health.
Like many things about Colorado, MAHA here is different — sure the vaccine issue is a big and controversial part of the story, as are concerns about ultra-processed foods, pesticides and chemical food dyes — but Colorado’s unique outdoor lifestyle plays perhaps a bigger role.
In that vein, Coloradans know that public health and environmental health are linked, and the Colorado lifestyle — outdoors, filled with sunshine, and active — is central to how we spend our free time for physical and mental rejuvenation, or even as medicine of which we take daily doses to help us thrive.
Let me offer three policy ideas for how nonpartisan MAHA advocacy could accelerate even faster in Colorado to support and enhance the Colorado lifestyle:
Clean air: This advocacy could include supporting the reduction in air pollution caused by power plants that generate electricity, reducing the pollution emitted from automobile tailpipes, and reducing the pollution from a wide array of industrial processes used in chemical manufacturing. Clean air is absolutely essential for our health.
Clean water: This advocacy should include the reduction in water pollution caused by farming practices that raise meat and other food crops, the reduction in pollution caused by municipal wastewater systems that discharge partially treated water back into our rivers and streams, and the reduction in development that diminishes wetlands. We all rely on clean water for survival.
Public lands and open space: This advocacy, critical to the Colorado lifestyle, should include the protection and enhancement of landscapes where people recreate, rejuvenate, hunt, fish and visit for exercise and enjoyment. These landscapes include our vast federal and state lands, as well as county and city neighborhood parks and open spaces.
The MAHA movement offers a great opportunity to make an increasingly positive difference in public health and environmental outcomes that bridge the partisan divide in Colorado.
While our federal, state and local governments are divided into departments that compartmentalize their work — economy, health, education, natural resources and so on — in Colorado we know that the air, water and landscape is the crust that holds our economy and culture together, and when that crust is healthier, we are healthier too.
Gary Wockner, of Boulder County, is an environmental activist and MAHA supporter in Colorado.
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