On a couple of rare occasions, we've discussed a conservative advocacy group known as Compass Colorado, which has been on the ground in our state for a couple of years now. Compass Colorado, according to the Denver Post's Lynn Bartels, was founded "to blunt liberal group ProgressNow and similar efforts in the state." Back in February of 2012, as one example of their work, we took note of a video spot from Compass Colorado that very audaciously misused charts and old data to imply Colorado's unemployment was growing when it was in fact declining. At that time, Compass Colorado was headed by former Tom Tancredo spokesman Tyler Q. Houlton. Today, the executive director of Compass Colorado is Kelly Maher of Revealing Politics fame.
Maher appears to have hired a new communications director for Compass Colorado by the name of Jonathan Lockwood. Lockwood was press secretary for Colorado House Republicans during this year's session, and also an area political director for Rep. Mike Coffman's congressional campaign in 2012. On Lockwood's Facebook page, there's a photo of him buying Chick-Fil-A for recall workers in Arvada (above right).
Here's another photo of Lockwood that has been making the rounds on Twitter in the last few days:
Photo by Josh Scott via Twitter
Which we sincerely hope is a joke. And either way, it's very difficult to imagine a more offensive message coming from the spokesman for a major conservative advocacy group.
There are some other, penumbral questions that present themselves with Mr. Lockwood, who from his Tweets does appear to be openly gay, and these photos–like proudly shopping at Chick-Fil-A? But we believe it is more appropriate to leave those questions for our readers to sort through themselves.
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What a confused kid. I really feel bad for him.
That said, this more or less is the GOP's message today, so in that regard it's not shocking.
In the free market economy it's all supply and demand. If being poor wasn't so great fewer people would choose it.
Erg, if we really wanted fewer poor peopl, we would make poverty a less attractive choice.
Mel Brooks got it all wrong . . .
"It's good to be poor!!!"
. . . ???
Strange, new century indeed . . .
I wonder what these conservative/gop/baggers are going to say to all the folks who were just laid off…most of them GOP/bagger/low info folks, and I have to tell them to not count on the GOP/baggers in DC…all they have is the 26 weeks…From 70-80 grand a year to UE…a shock to the system as I well know…I encourage these former GOP supporters to call their congresscritter Scott "do nothing" Tipton…as I, also, mention how our Democrat Senators are trying to get some relief for them, but once again, their Gop/baggers are expressing disdain for the common working man…and poor…and old…and anyone not like them…Some of these folks are starting to "get it"…
"…who from his Tweets does appear to be openly gay…"
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Of course there's not. But he is a dumbass and Lindsey Graham is too.
From his twitter feed (I could only stomach a review of the last 2.5 months) he appears to like gold, skinny jeans and clubbing, as well as LOW TAXES, gun rights, oil and gas, and Israel. I would say he does appear to be FABULOUS in a Moderatus kind of way.
I'm not sure we should be involved in potentially outing someone here. It just might come back to haunt us. Just sayin'.
That's sort of what I was saying. Not all skinny young men who happen to be FABULOUS are gay.
If we're using employees' fashion choices to judge advocacy groups, methinks Alan Franklin need beware of receiving the "Extreme Makeover" treatment on conservative blogs.
And incidentally, he's making fun of Paris Hilton.
Okay then! That makes it all better. Not.
I don't see why it wouldn't. Anyone who's been on social media lately (and that SHOULD include the Guvs, since they said they found this "making the rounds on Twitter") knows this is a meme intended to MOCK Paris Hilton's lack of self-awareness about her own null role in achieving her privileged, wealthy status. Not to mention that gay males often earn much less than straight males. The reasons why aren't established entirely, but I believe the wage gap between gay and straight men is larger than that between all women and all men. So, a gay man certainly has a particular standing, as a member of a largely economically disadvantaged group, to mock Paris Hilton's stupid slogan with an ironic selfie.
Maybe this type of humor doesn't translate well to generations who grew up in a pre-selfie, pre-Twitter era, but I really don't know why this is objectionable to anyone. I'm as fiscally liberal as they come. For fuck's sake, I strongly support reparations. I don't find this remotely offensive, except to Paris Hilton, who deserves to be offended.
Jesus Christ, you're actually serious aren't you?
First of all, the Paris Hilton image is a fake. Know your stupid memes:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/stop_being_poor
Secondly, as BS said above, this is an attitude that is in truth commonly held on the right. The benefit of the doubt you're giving this kid is not just undeserved, it's ridiculous. And please don't insult me by telling me I don't know what a fucking Twitter meme is. You don't know what the fuck you're taking about.
At first I really thought you were kidding. But no, PCG, this is not defensible in the least.
Look, there's enough to be outraged about in the world that making fun of Paris Hilton doesn't need to be on that list, much less be grounds for character assassination against a young man who is not running for office, was not representing his employer at an event, and is clearly participating in a trend sparked by the Paris Hilton meme. (Yes, it's a photoshopped meme, but it IS a meme.)
Does this look like a conservative mouthpiece to you?
How about this poster for an event benefitting charity?
Also a conservative mouthpiece?
How about this guy?
It's an Instagram meme more than a Twitter meme, if you must know, but it's very much a meme that has nothing to do with conservative politics and equal parts to do with gay culture and AN ACTUAL MOVEMENT AGAINST POVERTY. People have co-opted/reclaimed the slogan for anti-poverty fundraisers and for financial education empowering people who are poor. And in the gay culture aspect, quite frankly, it's heteronormative and a touch homophobic to shame a gay man for participating in a trend that sparks conversation in the gay community about 1) wealth-worship and 2) the actual poverty a lot of gay men deal with on a day-to-day basis, and what CAN be done about it.
The fact that you and I aren't in these conversations just means we're not gay men, not that gay male culture is somehow irrelevant, invalid, or identical to conservative white heterosexual male culture. This isn't a conservative political statement. It's a gay fashion statement that relates to a microtrend, mostly within the gay male community. When you spot Ted Cruz in this shirt and gay men working for conservative advocacy groups are wearing it to copy Ted Cruz, call me.
For now, I'm off to make a donation to the Women's Crisis and Family Outreach Center, an organization which deals with situations I DO find worthy of my righteous outrage, like rape and domestic violence.
Oh for GOD'S SAKE. A simple "oops" would have sufficed. The photo is a fake. If anything, Paris Hilton doesn't deserve this meme, and you don't even care that it's fake. Your justifications for a conservative dickweed Republican spokesman wearing it, whatever his sexual preference may be, are totally absurd.
I'm done with this, PCG. Give whoever you want the benefit of the doubt. And so will I.
Thank you for your intellectual honesty PCG. Truly refreshing on this site.
Thanks PCG. I really have absolutely no idea what's making the rounds on twitter. But you'd think Pols would.
I mean, frankly, I personally think it's a sorta-dumb choice of fashion meme BECAUSE it's so easily misinterpreted. But I'm not a GBLTQ person and my brushes with being poor have always been brief and with a big safety net in the form of a middle class family. I'm not going to judge if something about these shirts speaks to the gay male experience — which many gay men have written about as being characterized by pressure to display wealth whether you have it or not, e.g. expensive gym memberships, clubbing, fashion, liquor… puts one in mind of Christian Siriano's famous "I don't have a bed, I spent my money on fabric" moment on Project Runway (endearing in that it showed his artistic passion, in that instance). I'd ask this kid what it means to him, and maybe his answer is dumb, ignorant, and conservative, but I don't think simply participating in the meme is enough to make that ssumption.
Ridiculous…whatever…
I just noticed you used a name. What the fuck is an FPE doing outing people?
Attempting to defend this ridiculousness is very misguided. It's possible that Progressive Cowgirl just gave Lockwood a great alibi and maybe he'll even use it now, but I don't believe for a minute that he intended to criticize Paris Hilton. On a GOP spokesman, that slogan obviously means something very different. I personally think it's silly to pretend otherwise.
I'd say all those pics PCG posted are pretty hard evidence that this was probably the wrong thing to go into full pearl clutching mode over. It's not as if there isn't lots more solid stuff to go after.
I'd rather try to leave the knee jerk clutching to the righties (they're so great at it we couldn't compete anyway) and recognize when we may have clutched a tad too soon and too hard. In my case it would have been because I'm too old to see the point of following twitter and can't always be current with this kind of thing unless it's brought to my attention by the media or a nice young person like PCG or my son.
Props to you BC for being honest about this.
You should try it sometime.
BC – I am just about always honest. You confuse disagreement with dishonesty.
Elliot, you are our premiere knee jerk apologist and you aren't intellectually honest enough to address direct questions or directly refute points and facts presented.
It has nothing to do with agreeing or disagreeing. You can't do either with someone who simply evades challenges either by whining that he isn't obligated to answer questions if he doesn't feel like it or by building straw a man, putting words into the straw man's mouth that suit his purposes and replying to those creations instead of to anything actually said.
Wait, I almost forgot your other habitual go to technique. The tried and true Johnny does it too argument. So, frankly, I couldn't care less about your judgement of my intellectual honesty or anything else, complimentary or un.
It is always sad to see someone as fucked up as this guy is. Look at me ! Supporting those with a boot on my throat ! Isn't the irony so cute ? Whee !
Two parts self-hatred, one part hypocrisy. It's a complex brew.
I suspect these pics might have been posed for or Photoshopped and sent out with the right-wing group's name attached for the sole purpose of making the righties look bad. I don't think this young man is actually working for them. I think CompassNow and by extension everyone her who is outraged may very well have been had. I could be wrong, but this is the kind of guerrilla activism I might have once expected from a group such as ACT-UP or The Lavender Menace.
Huh? Jonathan Lockwood is indeed the spox for Compass Colorado.
https://twitter.com/JNTHN_LCKWD
I could be wrong, but the guerilla activism of ACT-UP never resembled what you're implying might be happening here in the slightest.
PCG has thoroughly rebutted this post. What is it still doing up without a correction?
What should they correct? That PCG disagrees? That this fake meme excuses a Republican spokesman wearing a "stop being poor" shirt?
There's a difference between correcting a factual error and making whiners happy. I have never seen a front page editor here complain as much as PCG. I hope they don't change a thing.
Because it was clearly a pop culture reference and you guys are obviously taking it out of context.
But hey – intellectual honesty is never important to many on this page when there is the opportunity to sling unwarranted partisan mud at a conservative.
Props to PCG for being intellectually honesty. As for the rest of you all….
Excuse me? Would you kindly point out my transgression? I take exception to accusations of intellectual dishonesty and think it unfair of you to make such unspecific accusations.
See PCG's comments. If you stand by this post after them, then yes, you are being intellectually dishonest.
To begin with, this strikes me as an opinion…
Secondly, I don't really have a clue, nor desire one, about internet memes involving Paris Hilton, young gay men, and fashion statements regarding t-shirt slogans, and I have not commented on this thread, up until now, as a result of my ignorance on the question at hand…
Perhaps you only meant to insult those who had commented but you said this:
and then you said this:
Sloppy, counselor…very sloppy.
Your conviction that the diary has been "thoroughly rebutted" is certainly no justification to remove a diary from the blog. I do not "stand by this post" regarding its content because I am ignorant of the details, but I do not think it should be taken down.
Furthermore…your blanket indictment of everyone on this site, apparently, seems short-sighted and hasty.
I have taken no side in this disagreement. BCs' argument is solid and I am also not convinced that the young mans' choice of fashion has to be motivated by one or the other reason. It could be conveniently both.
Intellectual dishonesty is a serious insult to some people. Try to be a bit more sensitive and not so reactionary with your rebuttals.
Stay sweet….
On subsequent reading, counselor, I see that you did not call for removal of the diary…just a correction. Noting that…the rest of my comments stand.