May 11, 2023 10:16 AM UTC

What in the Hell is Lauren Boebert Doing?

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Near the end of this week’s episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast, hosts Jason Bane and Ian Silverii spent a few minutes discussing the absurdity of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis waging an all-out political war on The Walt Disney Company because it disagreed with his “Don’t Say Gay” law. DeSantis is betting that attacking Disney, which operates massive theme parks in his own state, will help his pending bid for President by attracting MAGA Republican robots who are activated by any mention of the word “woke.”

The argument on the GMS Podcast was that no politician is ever going to come out ahead by taking on a brand as beloved and well-known as Disney. Sure, there may be people who live in Orlando, Florida who are sick of seeing stuff about Disney World, but you don’t need polling data to tell you that the average American generally likes Mickey Mouse and the Disney princesses. If you disagree, try to find a young family that has NOT watched at least a handful of Disney movies in the last year. Go ahead, we’ll wait…

In a fascinating, if inexplicable, turn of events, The DeSantis “War on Disney” has now advanced to become a REPUBLICAN “War on Disney.”

From WOW News Today (a Disney-related news site):

[mantra-pullquote align=”right” textalign=”left” width=”60%”]“Woke corporations shouldn’t get any favors from the government…

…No corporation should get preferential treatment from the government—especially when it is grooming children. Go woke, go broke.”

— Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-ifle)[/mantra-pullquote]

New legislation from Troy E. Nehls co-sponsored by Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene requests the no-fly-zones over Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort be revoked. [Pols emphasis]

After an an initial introduction in 2022 after The Walt Disney Company made a public stand against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Parental Rights in Education” bill, Nehls has reintroduced the Airlines Independent of Restrictions (AIR) Act that would require the Secretary of Transportation to remove the two no-fly-zones over Disneyland and Disney World….

…The no-fly zones were created in wake of the the September 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York City. Both Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California worked with the federal government to designate these zones. The intention was to increase park safety for guests, as there was considerable concern at the time that additional attacks on Americans could be orchestrated via an aircraft, and large theme parks would make an easy target to hurt many civilians at once.

We say again: What in the hell is Lauren Boebert doing?

These comments are similar to those that Boebert recently made in a subcommittee hearing in Congress:

Boebert: The hearing today will help us better understand what congress can do so that activist stakeholders will not encourage woke corporate activism as we have seen recently with Anheuser-Busch, Disney, and even Nike pic.twitter.com/bY4x4iyKwM

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 10, 2023

Said Boebert:

“Today’s hearing will help us better understand what Congress can do to ensure that activist stakeholders will not encourage woke corporate activism as we’ve seen recently with Anheuser-Busch, Disney, and even Nike. Because as we all know around here, when you go woke, you go broke.” [Pols emphasis]

Actually, Congresswoman, when you attack corporations for going “woke,” YOUR STATE could end up going broke.

On Wednesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger hit back at DeSantis and attacks on Disney. From CNN:

Disney CEO Bob Iger said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ attacks on the company threaten its plans for $17 billion of investment and 13,000 new jobs at Disney World over the next 10 years. [Pols emphasis]

In comments Wednesday during a call with investors, Iger defended Disney as Florida attempts to wrest control of powers granted to a special taxing district overseeing Disney World’s zoning decisions. Disney and Florida are locked in a legal battle.

Iger did not mention DeSantis by name or explicitly say Disney is reconsidering its planned investment. But he said Florida is acting unfairly to the company and asked: “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people and pay more taxes or not?”…[Pols emphasis]

…Spokespeople for Disney did not immediately respond to a question Thursday on whether the company is considering dropping its planned $17 billion investment. And DeSantis’ press office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening on Iger’s latest comments.

Whoops!

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis understands the importance of NOT fighting with big corporations for no good reason. As Polis said last year:

Florida’s authoritarian socialist attacks on the private sector are driving businesses away. In CO, we don’t meddle in affairs of companies like @Disney or @Twitter. Hey @Disney we’re ready for Mountain Disneyland and @twitter we’re ready for Twitter HQ2, whoever your owners are https://t.co/r7Vcvu20eb

— Jared Polis (@jaredpolis) April 19, 2022

Some Republicans jumped on this response from Polis but missed the point entirely — criticizing the Governor as though there was actually a proposal to build a Disney theme park in Colorado. What Polis was saying, quite simply, was this: “We’ll take your business.”

Once upon a time Republicans portrayed themselves as the party that supported free-market capitalism and business interests. That time is now over. Republicans such as DeSantis and Boebert now want to tell corporations what they can and cannot do. It’s a bad look, and a really terrible political strategy ahead of the 2024 election.