UNEXPECTED, BUT WELCOME: Polis just bet on individuals over harsher crackdown.

Everyone I heard from fully expected Colorado Governor Jared Polis to issue a severe state-wide “shelter in place” order at his Sunday press conference.

George Brauchler seemed to think he would. Brauchler, recall, is a district attorney in the state and a prominent Republican who, in an alternate universe, might have been in the governor’s seat during all this. Shortly before Polis’s media conference, Brauchler pleaded, “Please do not issue any sweeping shelter-in-place order without first consulting with the agencies across the state who will be called upon to enforce such an order.”

On Friday, Colorado Public Radio’s Ben Markus asked, “Why Isn’t Colorado Sheltering In Place Like Other States?” During Sunday’s conference, several journalists seemed shocked that Polis did not issue such an order. Meanwhile, Colorado’s journalists have worried how to keep themselves in the “essential services” category and therefore exempt from any statewide crackdown. (Obviously I agree journalists need the freedom to keep working during this critical time.)

Rather than impose an extreme statewide crackdown, Polis instead did something remarkable, something that politicians often have trouble doing. He chose, at least to a substantial degree, to trust individuals to rise to the challenge, do the right thing, and do their part to keep Coloradans safe. Polis chose to lead with moral authority rather than the point of a government gun.

That’s the way to treat a free people.