On September 10th of this year, one of the strangest things to happen to a United States representative occurred. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado representative, was found in the audience of an all-ages performance of the play Beetlejuice. Don’t worry, that’s not the strange part. She was with a male companion, and they were allegedly yelling, touching each other inappropriately, and vaping while in the theater. But what does this mean for how we view our elected officials in the future?
Lauren Boebert is a conservative politician from Colorado; of major issues she takes stances on, she particularly is opposed to sexual education in public schools. This is the woman who, in a public theater in which there were several children attending, could see her and her companion being intimate; the hypocrisy in the actions of this elected official is clear to see. She is the same individual that pushed the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act,” which essentially works as a national “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, which prohibits institutions, mainly schools, from having programs, events, or literature from funding if they include “sexually-oriented” content, which typically refers to any reference of homosexuality or being transgender.
This hypocrisy is far from uncommon in United States politics and is usually seen being used by opinionated news sources of all political alignments to be used as fodder to influence the public’s view on certain officials. But this political hypocrisy is far from an issue with partisan politics in the United States. One clear example would be under the Bill of Rights. Cruel and unusual punishment, which are all forms of torture, is illegal and has been since the constitution was approved. However, with a quick look at American history, countless uses of torture can be seen; enslaved people in the 1800s and far before were tortured on American soil countless times; however, that was 200 years ago. But the hypocrisy isn’t as old and outdated as we are led to believe. The US government tortured more than its fair share in foreign prisons such as Abu Ghraib, where 50,000 men and women were kept in poor conditions all the way back in 2003.
No matter where our political opinions lie, we should not tolerate the constant hypocrisy of our elected officials and the officials that are appointed by them. With the technology available, we have more than enough information on who the people we are voting for are. Before you go around supporting parties or people, take five minutes and do a bit of research. Is this someone who you trust? Do you agree with their stances on key issues? See if this is someone you would like to put on a pedestal before putting your vote in a ballot box.
