As the Denver Post’s Bruce Finley and media outlets across the nation have reported this week:
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., has announced that she will be a grandmother at 36 next month when her 17-year-old son’s partner gives birth to a son.
Boebert revealed this family news at a women’s breakfast during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland that ended last weekend, where she received a “mothers of influence” award. Boebert addressed women and men at the breakfast after accepting the award.
“I’m going to tell you all for the first time in a public setting that, not only am I a mother of four boys, but, come April, I will be a Gigi to a brand new grandson,” she said.
Boebert’s son, when she talked with him about becoming a grandmother, pointed out that Boebert made her own mother a grandmother at 36 and he suggested it was “hereditary,” Boebert told those at the breakfast.
We approach this subject at all with some trepidation, since it’s not our policy to entertain gossip about the personal lives of elected officials unless the subject matter has a connection both to public policy and hypocrisy on the part of the subject–both factors being necessary at least to warrant us getting into such matters. But as many news outlets have rightfully noted in the context of reporting a story that Rep. Lauren Boebert herself broke, this is a situation so deeply hypocritical and so innately linked to Boebert’s political agenda that the cognitive dissonance is simply untenable. Newsweek:
Boebert was a teen mom herself and had to drop out of high school because of her pregnancy. She has received harsh criticism online this week for blasting sex education classes in schools. She had said that public school students should not be taught about enjoying sex and what LGBTQ people do in bed.
“There are schools that are teaching worse than just gender ideology,” Boebert said this week during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “I mean they have comprehensive sex-ed. They’re teaching kids how to have and enjoy sex, [Pols emphasis] and even same-sex sex.”
Of course, if you know anything about sex ed curriculum you already know that the point of sex ed is to teach safe sex practices, most importantly the part where they put the condom on the banana (that was our experience) and explained it’s a very good idea to do this before…you know. Because that is how you prevent making babies at age 17, when doing so is statistically proven to mess up your life in all kinds of tangible ways. And if you know that, you understand how it relates directly to Boebert’s 17-year-old son’s predicament.
Added together, it’s one of the most damning self-owns in the history of politics.
And it doesn’t stop there, as Boebert continued to dig while breaking the big news:
“There’s something special about rural conservative communities,” Boebert continued. “They value life. If you look at teen pregnancy rates throughout the nation, well, they’re the same, [in] rural and urban areas. However, abortion rates are higher in urban areas. Teen moms’ rates are higher in rural conservative areas, because they understand the preciousness of a life that it’s about to be born.”
Or maybe the kids in “rural conservative areas” just don’t have good sex ed? Again, when you consider the clear evidence that teenage pregnancy leads to lifelong educational and economic disadvantage, and then compare rural to urban areas of the country by either of those metrics, you realize that Boebert is unwittingly making a case for abortion rights. But Boebert is the last person who will ever realize this. It’s not her own life experience, and Boebert doesn’t comprehend the difference between anecdotes and data.
Much like the tawdry reality-TV experience of following Sarah Palin’s family through their struggles with well-publicized moral hypocrisy, it does seem like we’ll all be obliged to follow along now as these children having children face the challenges of both life and celebrity–the latter stemming from a grandma who has set them up for scrutiny they may someday regret. We had a preview of what that might look like in the Denver Post’s story:
Boebert staffers on Friday confirmed the announcement. Breaking from a meeting for an interview, Boebert verified her son and his girlfriend are not married and declined to reveal the age of the girlfriend, other than to say she’s over 14. [Pols emphasis] (Colorado’s age of consent is 17, with exceptions allowing unmarried consensual sex when partners are within four years of the same age.)
There’s not much left for us to add to this, except to say that we really do wish the best for the kids involved. We have no doubt that Boebert believes her self-immolating spin. But the rest of the world sees the perfect rebuttal, to Boebert’s latest words and everything she claims to stand for, in the same events.
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Hereditary is right: the apple doesn't rot far from the tree.
“All you have to do, I tell myself, is keep your mouth shut and look stupid. It shouldn't be that hard.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
"Christian Family Values", for $500, Alex….
Surprise, apparently even without sex-ed classes, kids are figuring out how to have sex. Go figure…
Yes, however they likely didn’t enjoy it, but were just upholding valued family tradition in performance of an act of hereditary obligation.
MegaMAGAprops to young master Boebert for his noteworthy diligence to locate and select a receptacle over age 14!!
Hope they do find a comfortable rural conservative community pickup in which to deliver. It’s such a blessing the proud father is old enough to drive one.
I suspect that there's a contest going on in her trailer park to see who can become a great-grandmother before the age of 50.
Someone should explain their family heredity to this kid — isn't it the mother who is supposed to be seventeen; and the father is supposed to be in his mid-ish twenties?
or thirties or forties and related.
MAGA-UGHWORTHY
“Over 14”
But, how old was she when he first dipped his wick?
Colorado’s least favorite white trash family is at it again. Frankly I’m shocked that the girl this kid knocked up isn’t his cousin.
Do you know for a fact that she isn't?
Delta, CO is in Boebert's district. They refuse to use the CO curriculum when it comes to sex education, insisting on the religious approach to the topic. This stubborn policy position has resulted in the school district being sued. Since their insurance paid for their "consequences," nothing has changed there.
Age Appropriate Sex Education for Christian Conservatives and Dummies 101:
My assumption is that Boebert’s grandchild will be born on welfare. Unmarried mothers with little or no income are eligible for medicaid, which I think is appropriate. Boebert needs to be questioned about who and how this child and his parents will be supported. Isn’t she against welfare, etc?
In 2021 CPAC, she ranted against welfare.
Here us a link: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/lauren-boebert-cpac-colorado-undemployment-b1882735.html
Granny’s opposed to public schools providing kids with birth control (and, for that matter, education), but I do actually think I can see the old gal becoming an advocate for in-school provided daycare? (After all, she’s got three other budding proud fathers-to-be whose childrearing needs will soon be a consideration.)
Does 6” thumb still have his million-dollar consulting agreement with O&G?
Curious, as to her wording of the announcement that our Congresspunchline is going to become “a Gigi”: I don’t recall ever having heard the word used in that way before. Did she mean GG? Is that a term one might actually hear being said by real people outside her trailer park? Or, is that maybe just another instance of her GigiED showing?
Isn't "Me Maw" the appropriate way to address a white-trash grandmother?
I'm thinking "Grannie Oakley."
+6, Shooter!
Sheldon Cooper would like a word.
Way to sell this with responsible people. "Well, she's over 14…"
“Gigi” is just a grandma name, like Nana, Bubbe, or in my case, Bomma. Sometimes they reflect an ethnic heritage; more often, it’s the mangling of the infant’s first attempts to say “Grandma”. Mine were Mimi and Ganka.
And what is it with all the bashing of folks who live in trailer parks?
That is, elderly and disabled folks, working families, single parents raising kids alone? People of all races, not just “white trash”?
It used to be a way to have a fairly decent home on a limited income, before all the profiteering out of state investors tripled the lot rents.
I considered moving into a trailer park last year, and was active in advocacy for park residents trying to organize to collectively own and keep their housing. If I had succeeded in finding a rental in a park, no doubt you would have enjoyed feeling superior to “trash” like me.
At any event, Boebert lives in a ranch home outside of Rifle, with other upper and middle income folks. Her housing and Grandma name are the very last things you should despise her for.
People of all races, not just “white trash”?
You're right. Henceforth let's call them trailer-trash instead of white-trash so the term is race-neutral.
And when you call people "trash", does that then make it OK to treat them like trash, i.e. as disposable and worthless?
Relax, kwtree…. I didn't invent the term but, in many cases, it is apropos.
Do I give folks credit for being ambitious and working hard to move up from a Coleman tent on 14th and Broadway to a trailer park in Englewood? You betcha.
Do I think some people are poor through no fault of their own? Yes, some.
But I also know people who are comfortable living like that because they made lifestyle choices that they later regret – like not finishing school because the asked and answered the question why finish high school when I can: (a) work full time at McDonald's and buy a used car and hang with my friends, (b) get pregnant, be a mom and perpetuate the cycle of poverty, or (c) spend more time smoking meth with my tweaker friends.
You're right, I don't have a lot of sympathy for those folks.
But you know, we have a social safety net in place in this country that allows people to access: (1) section 8 housing, (2) SNAP benefits for food, (3) Medicaid for health care, (4) RTD bus passes for transportation, and (5) public defenders and legal aid lawyers for legal services.
The fact that some people are too stupid to fill out the forms and access the free stuff (public benefits) is not my problem. I work, I pay my taxes, and in doing so, I contribute to making those public benefits available.
Not all trash is in trailer parks. In fact, I would argue that there is more trash in multi-million dollar mansions than in trailer parks.
Donald Trump certainly has never lived in a trailer park and yet he has six kids by three different Mom’s and paid (at least) two women for sex….and he nearly destroyed our form of government.
Tucker Carlson is the scion of the family responsible for foisting “Swanson TV Dinners” on the American public…and rallying troops to overthrow a popularly elected President.
It wasn’t trailer park residents that caused the economic melt down in the late aughts….or more recently, the failure of the Silicon Valley Bank.
I have a few friends who live in Holiday Hills in Federal Heights…and if you talk to them, the only “lifestyle choices” they regret is getting their degree in Social Work, Education, or nursing and then spending their career attempting to educate or heal other humans who simply don’t appreciate it in a way that would afford them the ability to live in a place that people don’t look down their noses at them as they call them “trailer trash”.
Tell us you're a privileged white male without telling us you're a privileged white male. You sure are comfortable telling others how they ought to live their lives by your values and standards and just pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Is LB a "worthless POS" because she's living your dream?
"Tell us you're a privileged white male without telling us you're a privileged white male"
So now the white trash who live in the trailer parks are the victims of a racist and sexist society?
Give me a break.
If privilege means getting off my ass and going to work and earning money, then yes, I'm privileged.
Or… here’s a crazy idea… let’s not insult large swathes of people based on socioeconomic factors outside their control?
I, too, would be proud to own a trailer in this day and age, but as it is the median home price in my area is $400K . Even “double wides” go for $200K or more. VCs buying up real estate and neolibs voting against affordable housing doesn’t make trash of the victims of such projects.
Focus on the people and the policies and leave the inappropriate epithets behind.
Relax. You’re safe. No one here dare question your position as our preeminent posturing virtue signaler. Wherever you happen to choose to live wouldn’t affect that one whit, I’m sure. You have no superiors or even would-be challengers to your superiority, and are in fact universally acknowledged as being unequaled and without peer.
I'm sure kwtree can fend for herself, but I for one appreciate her input and perspective. She's got values, agree or disagree with them as anyone should, but I don't take her posts as mere posturing because she'll give examples or info to show where she's coming from.
Of course, you're right. "Posturing" was a bridge too far and out of line — s/b "preeminent virtue signaler."
In other words, you had no comfortable answer to my question, and so went to your default mode of personal attack. Duly noted.
Nope; there are no “other words.”
I see the first question. I’m sorry if you, in your haste, misread my comment as inappropriately bashing folks who live in trailer parks; I could have been clearer; perhaps made the effort and included a disclaimer.
You then expanded upon what I didn’t say. I think you own those, and the implied personal attacks are yours.
Your duly notation is duly noted. (Yet another mark, the most recent so far this week, now officiously inscribed upon my ever-expanding permanent record. Sigh.)