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April 22, 2025 12:34 PM UTC

Republicans Mad that Democrats Don't Think Children are Property

1 Comments
by: Colorado Pols

State Representative Ken “Dildo” DeGraaf (R-Colorado Springs) on Monday took time out from his regular routine of complaining about every piece of legislation proposed by a Democrat in order to promote an asinine bill that essentially sought to classify children as property in Colorado.

HCR25-1003 was killed on Monday in the House Committee on State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs. DeGraaf was the prime sponsor of the bill, though it was co-sponsored by every member of the House Republican caucus (notably, not a single Senate Republican signed on to the bill, perhaps because they knew it was a complete waste of time). DeGraaf’s legislation sought to refer to the 2026 ballot a measure that would have placed the following language in the Colorado Constitution:

All persons have certain natural, essential and inalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; OF DIRECTING THE UPBRINGING, EDUCATION, AND CARE OF THEIR CHILDREN; and of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.

As you can see from DeGraaf’s own post on ‘X’ (which included the wrong bill number), Colorado already outlines parental responsibilities in state statute that is mostly about giving parents the right to choose their own preferred schooling options. But DeGraaf wants to go further, enshrining broader rights in the state constitution so that if you are a parent, you can do pretty much whatever you want with your children.

DeGraaf hemmed and hawed when asked to explain what outside groups convinced him to introduce HCR25-1003, but it’s safe to say that he was getting a lot of “advice” from homeschool groups. The only registered lobbyist in support of this bill is Colleen Enos on behalf of Christian Home Educators of Colorado.

As we learned from then-State Rep. Gabe Evans in 2024, many homeschool groups — including those backed by the organization Heritage Defense — have been pushing for lawmakers to remove restrictions on corporal punishment to protect them from investigations by social services. As one witness in support of DeGraaf’s bill explained on Monday, parents should get the “benefit of the doubt” in discussions about corporal punishment because “sometimes kids lie.”

During his testimony, DeGraaf told the committee that he did not believe that children should be considered property…and then proceeded to explain why children should be considered property:

DEGRAAF: But children are, in accordance with the laws of nature and nature’s God, they are considered the responsibility of parents, and that’s what we see represented. So parents have a fiduciary interest in taking care of the kids. My comparison in the sense of property, I think, is that we…Constitutionally, because you cannot be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law…but you could be deprived of custody of your child administratively. Whether that be for one day or one [unintelligible].

So, the comparison is that, in that sense, we treat property at a higher level than the custody of children. Which should be…the custody of your child, the parenting of your child should be much higher than property…

…I think we’re treating property — we’re treating the deprivation of property — with a higher level of scrutiny than we are the depravation of custody. And I think the depravation of custody…is more in lines [sic] with the depravation of life or liberty.

It is always odd to listen to DeGraaf flex his thesaurus muscles while simultaneously barfing out a completely nonsensical argument. His big word energy fails him, however, when he is forced to answer questions that veer away from his prepared remarks.

For example, one of the many problems with this particular bill, which Democrats noted, was how it could impact potential child abuse cases. DeGraaf often tossed out the term “wraparound services” to support children, but when Democratic Rep. Sue Ryden asked him to elaborate on that idea, DeGraaf was perplexed:

RYDIN: During your testimony, Rep. DeGraaf, you mentioned ‘wraparound services.’ That, of course, is a best practice. What sort of wraparound services do you feel are imperative and supportive to be kind of the intervention before children are removed from their parents?

DEGRAAF: That’s certainly not an area that I’m an expert in, but I think the, uh…you would…I think…you would, uh…parenting classes would be a good example. Like, teaching parents the psychology around child rearing. Like, maybe why the child is acting up. Or maybe it’s a look at their, at their diet. You know, are they hyped up on, I don’t know, what’s the thing…red dye number something or other.

Are they, uh, do they have some sort of environmental toxin in their life that might be causing some sort of mental challenge? Could that be lead? Could that be mercury? Could that be any number of things? So, looking into that, I think, um…[long pause]…could be nutrition. You know, could be housing. Could be, you know, making sure that if you get into mold — making sure that these things are looked at. And then, of course, you have to look at what services are available. You know, should they be available through the state? Should they be available through, you know, community involvement? What’s the best way to do that? A lot of church groups will provide parenting classes, you know, to teach parents how to handle their kids, how to address…it really depends on what the uh, what the reason is. Is it an outburst from the children? Is it failure to thrive? If they all have different…they all have different solutions, I guess.

Um…right.

Those who testified in support of HCR25-1003 all did so from the perspective of homeschool parents (again, no surprise). It speaks volumes about the absurdity of this now-dead legislation that no witnesses bothered to testify against it — likely for many of the same reasons that no Senate Republicans bothered to co-sponsor the bill.

This legislation was a terrible idea, sponsored by one of the dimmest bulbs in a House Republican caucus that is not exactly a Mensa meeting in the first place. Republicans like to blame Democrats for killing their legislative proposals…but they sure don’t make much of an argument on their own behalf.

One thought on “Republicans Mad that Democrats Don’t Think Children are Property”

JohnInDenver says:

April 22, 2025 at 7:28 pm

should we expecting DEGRAAF to legislate in favor of life (opposing police "errors" in kiling people on wrongly served no-knock warrants), liberty (opposing ICE "errors" in deporting those with a court order blocking deportation?), and property (opposing police using "civil asset forfeiture") ????

asking on behalf of a few of us in favor of due process of law.

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Republicans Mad that Democrats Don't Think Children are Property

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