You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Lauren Boebert’ tag.
There you have it. Lauren “Bobo” Boebert (R-CO) switched congressional districts with her carpet bag packed with a tattered personal history and managed to beat four opponents and win the 2024 District 4 Republican primary in Colorado. She left her western slope district where things were looking grim and scampered across the mountains to eastern Colorado where she found primary victory.
Bobo is popular especially with the angry rural white conservative bunch which can be found everywhere to some extent. On a recent trip through the desolate Paradox Valley passing through the town of Bedrock in western Colorado we saw multiple Boebert campaign signs crammed in the scrub brush. Her spirit even lurks in Bedrock.
Lauren’s conservative fundamentalism and support for Trump appeals to a great many. You can protest to a supporter that she is crude, somewhat dense, and harbors appalling political beliefs. But it matters not to her supporters because she is one of Trump’s more aggressive attack dogs, and that is a virtue to them.
Formerly a swing state, Colorado has been electing Democrat state representatives since 2008 and presently has 5 out of 8 members of the US house and two Democrats in the senate. Conservatives are more predominant in the east and west thirds of the state and Democrats are concentrated along the I-25 urban corridor from Ft. Collins south to Pueblo. An exception to this liberal corridor is Colorado Springs, located an hour south of Denver. It is known for its large and politically influential evangelical conservative community.
Colorado Springs is also the home of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family fundamentalist protestant organization as well as many, many others. According to the Cause IQ website, there are 623 Christian non-profit organizations in the Springs with 8,150 employees, revenues of $804,278,628, and with assets totaling $777,104,922. Protestant fundamentalism is big business. By contrast, Catholic non-profit organizations only number at 13 with $5,003,712 in revenues.
These conservatives can be reliably counted on for wanting to convert the country into an authoritarian theocratic state if given the chance. The USA started as an effort to separate itself from a theocratic monarchy in the Revolutionary War and now finds itself full of people who want a protestant authoritarian theocracy. Really dumb.
Colorado’s very own congressperson, the twice elected Rep. (R) Lauren Boebert of the 3rd Congressional District, was caught misbehaving during a theater presentation of Beetlejuice at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts the other day. Besides vaping and some very mild hooliganism, she was caught on surveillance video making out with her date. Like many others who have attended Beetlejuice, they couldn’t resist the urgent pull of their tingly bits. You may recall that Pee Wee Herman had a similar problem as well.
Let me emphasize that there is nothing wrong with making out, mind you. I know many who claim to have done this. After all, this was the true purpose of the drive-in movie theater in years past. Heaven only knows how many solid citizens walking around today were conceived at a drive-in. I think that the move away from bench seating in the automobile had a negative effect in this. But I digress.
Colorado’s 3rd District covers quite a bit of turf as you can see. Most of it is desiccated and somewhat vertical so the overall population density is low, thus the large size. A lot like Wyoming. There is a bit of agriculture but no real corn and soybean acreage like a proper farm state.
As with other western states, Colorado has a mix of folks of polar opposite politics who find themselves concentrated in separate zones. Running down the middle of the state is the majority of the population stretching from Ft. Collins to Colorado Springs. Nobody can decide if Pueblo is part of this corridor despite being on I-25. This is the urban corridor along interstate highway I-25 and west to the start of the Rocky Mountains. This band of settlement has for the last few election cycles voted majority Democrat and has driven state politics in the legislature and the governor’s office. Oh, and the House of Representatives and the Senate too. This includes the I-70 corridor running west halfway to Utah. There are scattered islands of liberalism like Durango smack in the middle of Boebert country. I feel for them- really, I do.
Some have tried to explain away Boebert’s behavior as being not uncommon for a refugee from that Fertile Crescent of sweaty redneck-ism, Florida. She is after all a pistol packin’ grandma at age 36 and close to being properly “deevorced.” Regardless of her background, she has lifted herself from the obscurity of the swamps to become a full-throated Centurion of MAGAstan. It is a real accomplishment.
America is now a place where audio and video tapes of titillating content starring national politicians will not lead to their downfall. Instead, they get an uptick in their popularity by rabid apologists who will make urgent whataboutism style counter-claims about Hunter’s laptop. MAGA folk cheer their politicians like people do at a professional wrestling match- with vigor and encouragement of more violence.
East of the I-25 corridor you soon encounter another conservative swatch of the state, border-to-border between two state panhandles- Nebraska and Oklahoma. This area has much more pivot irrigated farmland than in the western side of the state. Corn, wheat, and sugar beets are popular crops east of the interstate. Through what I suspect were underhanded dealings in the past, Oklahoma is said to have been paid to be a buffer between Colorado and Texas. Many will say that this was a smart move. (Relax- it’s a joke)
In Colorado we have two bookend corridor cities that are well known for their politics. Boulder, northwest of Denver, is to Colorado what San Francisco is to California, but without Silicon Valley or a suspension bridge. It is liberal progressive and a bit on the exotic side. The Hippie movement arrived in the 60’s and never faded away completely. In the 70’s and 80’s you could see ex-hippies with thinning gray ponytails tooling around town in their Beamers. No one bats an eye when weird news sprays out of there. It’s expected. Every state should have a Boulder. Look at Texas of all places- they have Austin.
Colorado Springs, on the other hand, is deeply entangled with far-right conservative Christian evangelicals. Add to this mix a large population of very conservative retired military and you have something very special. The city plays host to Fort Carson and the North American Air Defense Command, NORAD, deep within Cheyenne Mountain southwest of town. You can bet that the Russian and Chinese strategic commands have the exact coordinates of this facility. The US Air Force Academy resides in the forest north of town with its unique chapel jutting proudly above the landscape.
Located at the base of Pikes Peak, “The Springs” enjoys considerable scenic splendor and a conservative upper middle-class tenor. None of my liberal friends contemplate moving there no matter how splendiferous the place may be. It’s a cryin’ shame. This is the city where the wedding cake bakery went to the Supreme Court to protect their right to decline to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. They won. If I were a bakery owner who didn’t want to do business with someone, I would have given an outrageous price or a 12-month lead time or both with payment up front. There are easy yet subtle ways to poison an awkward business deal.
It will be interesting to see if Lauren gets reelected in 2024 given her antics. I have a nauseating feeling that she will be reelected given the demographics of her district. It’s one of those “she may be an idiot, but she’s OUR idiot” things that MAGAstan people can relate to. We’ll see.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
Recent Comments