Who knew that the defining moment of U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s congressional career would come during a night out at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts?
Since being asked to leave during the second act of “Beetlejuice” on Sunday, Boebert has been the butt of jokes across the internet. Almost everything about the incident lends itself to mockery, from her choice of attire to her treatment of ushers to the comedic lies told by her office in the aftermath. Plenty of reaction videos and memes have elicited an audible laugh from me this week.
Even new Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, whom Boebert threatened to call as she huffed out, got in on the action. After taking his family to see the musical, he quipped that the “staff was so kind” and he “didn’t find anyone who needed to call the mayor.” His was among the very best shade thrown at the Republican congresswoman.
Except Boebert’s actions are no laughing matter. They are an insult to ordinary Coloradans everywhere.
The way Boebert treated the people around her that night is indicative of an entitled brat who believes her job makes her better than everyone else. That is a disgusting trait in anyone, but absolutely repugnant in a public servant.
Boebert had no qualms about vaping in her seat, carefully avoiding either herself or her date by blowing puffs at other theater goers. When the pregnant woman behind her asked her to stop, Boebert replied with a curt, “no.” In the security footage Boebert’s scorn is palpable as she snapped her head away from the woman. So much for her caring about the unborn.
Boebert whooped and hollered as others around her were subject to a show they never wanted to see. She simply did not care that each had paid a significant ticket price to see professional actors rather than seeing her seated impersonation of Elaine from Seinfeld.
She filmed and used flash photography, not just blinding the people around her, but potentially distracting the cast. She neither cared that the sudden bright point in a low-light environment made others avert their eyes from the stage nor that she violated multiple theater rules. Boebert only cared about looking good in a selfie and collecting a few videos to share on social media.
She brushed aside warnings and requests from DCPA staff, impertinent and obviously believing herself immune from consequences. When security finally escorted her out, she unloaded every barrel on them. Luckily, the hand-cannon strapped to her thigh in so many photo ops must have clashed with her outfit.
Boebert nonetheless let fly with a string of self-aggrandizing recriminations and threats. From stating she was on the board (a lie), to calling the mayor (he probably has her number blocked) to the ultimate fallback for the most entitled members of society, “Do you know who I am?”
These were ushers and security agents simply trying to do their jobs. She chose to belittle and berate them. After hiking up the top of her dress as she marched out, Boebert even used sign language usually reserved for sporting events and road rage to communicate her disdain.
Once media outlets reported on the incident, she had her staff lie to the press and to the public. She only owned up to the photography, purposefully avoiding an answer about her disdainful actions toward others and lying about vaping. When another video was released, that lie went up in smoke immediately.
As Maya Angelou famously noted, “when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” In Boebert’s case, she has shown us over and over and over exactly who she is.
On the campaign trail and in Congress, she is a snake-oil saleswoman and performative fraud. She relies on bloodlust rhetoric to distract from her record of non-accomplishment. She interrupted a presidential address multiple times, even as President Joe Biden spoke about the death of his son. She skipped the debt-ceiling vote after railing against it for weeks.
She has made it clear she does not care about anyone but herself and her own political celebrity. She does not care at all about the people who elected her to office, much less anyone else in this state.
She does not care about theater patrons around her.
She does not care about a pregnant woman protecting the health of her unborn child.
She does not care about cast members trying to perform.
She does not care about the rules and regulations put in place by DCPA leadership.
She does not care about staff members trying to do their jobs.
Boebert simply does not care about anyone else. The voters in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District could do the rest of us a huge favor next year and let her know they do not care for her self-aggrandizing, self-important, entitled behavior.
