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MAGA what MAGA? Lauren Boebert tries behaving like an adult (but only in Colorado) [1]

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Date: 2023-09-14  

As the video of theater management booting a vociferous, vaping, inconsiderate, picture-taking Lauren Boebert out of a performance of Beetlejuice saturated the social mediaverse for 15 minutes, viewers reacted without surprise. Boebert is an ill-mannered loudmouth with little consideration for the targets of her politically expedient opprobrium. To the MAGA base, she will emerge unscathed, as in uber-right calculation, being an anti-social jerk is a symptom of righteous patriotism and American greatness.

However, to decent Americans, her behavior is that of a second-rate person.

Her expulsion has come at a challenging time for her. I am sure she and her fellow travelers expected to ride a rushing red tide in 2022 to a convincing House majority. Instead, she and the GOP just sneaked a win — with no margin for error. The GOP eked out a 5-seat majority. And Boebert won the tightest congressional race in the nation by 546 votes.

A chagrined candidate would consider the result and learn a lesson. However, Boebert is not an educable specimen and kept her dial turned to 11. Or at least she did in DC. Back home, she has apparently adopted a more moderate, reasonable, and grown-up stance — at least by Republican standards.

Boebert may not be an intellectual. But she does have an innate political sense. It may seem like anyone can become a Representative, but there are only 435 of them, so the incumbents have some political ability. To win her seat in the first place, she beat the Trump-endorsed, 5-time incumbent Scott Tipton in the GOP primary before besting the Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in the general.

This political sense has now told her that if she wants to stay in the job past 2024, she must do something different. So, while she continues being herself on the national stage, back in her home district, she has toned down the excess.

Politico reports that, like a little girl wearing her mommy’s shoes, Boebert is experimenting with being grown-up.

Zipping across her mountainous Western Slope district, the stiletto-wearing MAGA darling discussed the economy and housing with the owners of a yurt manufacturing company, then huddled with local officials to talk about water shortages. Boebert, who criticized earmarks before the GOP took back the House — but now says she helped her party “fix” the controversial practice — told locals that congressionally directed spending could ease their water crisis.

Of course, to be an adult, she cannot tout any Republican success — they have not had any since the last tax cut for the wealthy in 2017 (which actually raised taxes on many) — so she has embraced Biden and the Democratic infrastructure bills and other legislation she voted against. It is the political equivalent of regifting — although, in this case, the “gift” has real value, while the gift giver has none.

Besides her well-publicized expulsion, Boebert has two other obstacles to appearing like a mature thinker. Her erstwhile and likely 2024 opponent, Adam Frisch, will keep reminding Colorado third District voters of every MAGA-rousing, red-meat rant Boebert spits out while on the road or in DC. And Boebert may well be like the proverbial scorpion and continue doing what she has always done - no matter how self-destructive — because that’s her nature.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/14/2193360/-MAGA-what-MAGA-Lauren-Boebert-tries-behaving-like-an-adult-but-only-in-Colorado

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