Casa Bonita Is the One Thing That Unites Colorado Voters, According to New Poll
It sure seems as though political polarization in America is getting worse and worse. But at least voters in Colorado can agree on one thing: the joy of eating sopaipillas while watching people dive off of fake cliffs into intensely chlorine-filled water.
As reported by Westword, the Colorado Polling Institute recently sent out a statewide survey to eligible voters. The poll found that many Coloradans “have very unfavorable opinions of President Donald Trump and his policy choices” and have “negative views on tariffs and the Department of Government Efficiency headed by Elon Musk.” But then again, people aren’t thrilled with the Colorado Democratic Party, either. So basically, the poll can be summed up by saying that everything sucks right now, and most people are miserable.
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But the poll didn’t just cover the current political climate. According to the Denver-based outlet, one thing that a majority of voters actually have in common is Casa Bonita, the giant pink Mexican restaurant that became world famous thanks to South Park.
The poll found that “almost 60 percent of Colorado voters have visited Casa Bonita.” But the vast majority of those people went there before Trey Parker and Matt Stone bought the restaurant, and only five percent of Colorado voters have been since the South Park creators spent roughly “infinity dollars” renovating it.
“Longtime Coloradans are very familiar with Black Bart’s Cave and the famous cliff divers — as three-quarters of Coloradans who have lived in the state for at least 20 years say they have visited Casa Bonita compared to just two-in-five of those newer to the state,” a representative from the Republican-based research group New Bridge Strategy stated. “There’s a regional aspect predictably, too, with two-thirds in the Denver-metro area having raised a flag for sopaipillas, compared to just about half of those in the rest of the state.”
The rep from the Democratic-aligned Aspect Strategic tried to awkwardly shoehorn a South Park joke into their findings, noting that Casa Bonita “was described by respondents as a ‘national landmark,’ an example of the way Coloradans allow creative and unusual ideas to flourish,’ and as ‘awesome’ by a Mr. Eric Cartman.”
This does beg the question: Why did a contemporary political poll include a question about a novelty restaurant at all? Was it some kind of sponsored content paid for by the restaurant? Seemingly no. The restaurant claimed that they had absolutely no idea that voters were going to be polled on their Casa Bonita histories.
It seems very likely that the pollsters asked about Casa Bonita because it gave the survey an element of whimsy, allowing them to report on its results with some degree of humor, despite the fact that the rest of the poll basically confirmed that people believe that the world is a complete hellscape right now.