More than a decade ago, a few plutocratic leftists launched a project to make Colorado a “blue” state — i.e., turn it into a reliable state for Democrats and their big government agenda. It worked to a considerable extent. But pushing back slightly, some Colorado free market supporters have managed to secure a visiting professorship for a scholar who advocates limited government, property rights, and free enterprise. The third of these professors, Brian Domitrovic, writes about his experience in today’s Pope Center article.

Domitrovic, whose permanent faculty post is at Sam Houston State, has written a number of sharp books, including Econoclasts in 2012, a book about economists who challenged the reigning Keynesian beliefs to get the U.S. off the road to serfdom (for a while, anyway).

The University of Colorado is very much dominated by leftists, but Domitrovic was pleasantly received by the faculty. More importantly, when he discussed free market concepts himself or brought in guest speakers, the message that big government is a problem played well in the “laid-back” atmosphere of the Rocky Mountains. “In the fight for the soul of Boulder,” he writes, “laid-back is winning and that provides an opening for conservatives.”

You might have expected Art Laffer to get a hostile reception in a leftist college town, but just the opposite happened. “Progressives and conservatives alike were one-upping each other in affirmation of the talk,” Domitrovic writes. Perhaps it isn’t so hard to un-do years of leftist thought-control.

The big question: Is this a good idea? Domitrovic thinks it is, and it’s hard to disagree with his assessment. A professor who presents free market arguments well can indeed make a difference. I’d wager that right now more than a few young (and some not-so-young) Coloradans who the “blue” crowd thought they had as lifetime supporters are wavering or even “lost.”

This Colorado experiment seems to work well. Let a thousand Boulders bloom.