Rep. Boebert Does Not Represent Coloradan Values
by Sara Elizabeth Grossman
Lauren Boebert does not represent Colorado values. Let me repeat that: Lauren Boebert does not represent Coloradans.
Rather than sparking important conversations about the environment, COVID-19 vaccines, the snowpack being too low for water levels, or hell — even pit bulls now being allowed in Denver — things that Coloradans actually care about, she is busy trying to strongarm her glock into Congress as one of the NRA’s newest shills.
She’s young, she’s cute, she’s wanting to be the right-wing AOC and it could not be more apparent. How the hell did we get here though?
I remember the very first time I watched FOX News. It was an accident in college. I was awake late at night, flipping through the channels and landed on what seemed to be a parody show. I thought the people on the television were supposed to be conservative Jon Stewarts. I thought they were trying to be funny. What I later found out was that this drivel was being peddled as news, with intent on confusing its viewers by pushing opinion, rather than fact.
Since then, QANON, OANN, Breitbart, and a slew of other FOX News extreme wannabes have popped up to encourage viewers and readers to “trust no one!”
This is how Lauren Boebert was created.
I can assure you that she doesn’t give a flying you-know-what about her constituents. No, this gun-slinging restaurant owner just wants attention and the NRA is fanning her flames — happily.
To bring us back — Lauren Boebert does not represent Coloradan values. I have been working for gun violence prevention candidates and nonprofits since then-Rep. Rhonda Fields introduced life-saving gun violence prevention laws in 2013. We have been fighting for a safer Colorado since the eye-opening Aurora Theater Shooting in 2012.
Session after session, the NRA trots out its “best and brightest” to tell us why a person with Parkinson’s deserves an exception to be able to use a bump stock or why a man who is wheelchair-bound in his home needs a massive magazine because “what if he has to reload when there are two assailants coming into his home?!” I kid you not — these are the arguments used when trying to roll back the important and life-saving laws we have passed. Unfortunately for Boebert and her pals, we continue to prevail at the state-level. Magazines are capped. There is a life-saving Red Flag Law in place. And in Colorado, our background checks work.
I have had to go into the Colorado State Capitol to lobby and testify against the dangerous bills Boebert and her ilk have proposed. I do this because I have felt the effects of gun violence, myself. I have to live with the knowledge that my friend Drew Leinonen’s heart weighed 263 grams and he took almost a dozen bullets trying to save his boyfriend on the dancefloor of Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL before being left in a heap of blood, bodies, and ringing cell phones the night of June 12, 2016. Ironically, the site of the shooting was a mere 30 minutes from where Boebert grew up in Altamonte Springs, FL. Even still, I doubt she’d care.
Actually, I know that the Lauren Boeberts of the country don’t care about this. They want to sow chaos and division and make sure all eyes are on them as they openly march their guns into DC. (Which is, by the way, completely illegal.) And what more could the NRA want? Boebert has been using the talking points. She wants to “protect her family.” There is only one problem. Her family is on the Western Slope of Colorado and not in DC with her. They are certainly not in the halls of Congress, either.
Rather than using logic, like we do in gun violence prevention, Boebert is simply trying to stir up emotion. Perhaps that worked at her heat-packing restaurant in Rifle, Colorado (yes, that is the town’s name), but it’s not going to work like that in politics. It’s not going to work in DC, where she is actively and intentionally breaking the law. By the way, her “bold attitude” and glock were nowhere to be found on the 6th when “her base” staged a coup on the Capitol Building. She did what most people would have done in that situation: she ran.
And hopefully it’s not going to work when her seat is up for re-election in the 3rd congressional district of Colorado. Let’s make sure her win is a fluke. Let’s make sure someone who represents Colorado’s values is sent to DC next time. Didn’t we learn our lesson with Cory Gardner?
She may cry about her right to “stand her ground” all over Twitter and in her ads. But I’m standing mine right now: I will work as hard as I can to ensure Boebert does not win re-election. Our state deserves better than her histrionics.
About the author:
Sara Elizabeth Grossman is the editor of Matthew’s Place. She is a writer, advocate, and communications specialist who has her own marketing firm — CODE mktg. After losing her friend Drew at the Pulse Nightclub shooting, she repurposed her life to be the voice for those without and helped launch The Dru Project. She has worked or volunteered for other nonprofits, as well, such as: Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, One Colorado, the Matthew Shepard Foundation, COLOR, and the Gill Foundation.
She resides in Denver, CO with her girlfriend Emma and their pups — Baxter and Finley.
