One of the things I learned about myself during my run for the U.S. Congress back in 2008 was that my skin is not as thick as I would like it to be. I confess that while most politicians (which, by the way, is not a dirty word) just laugh off silly insults and attacks on one’s character, I had trouble in not stewing on such perceived slights. 

Perhaps spending the last 25 years or so portraying Alexander Hamilton in a one-man show has caused me to absorb some of his prickliness. Hamilton could not let an insult slide, which caused him significant suffering during his life and ultimately led to him finding himself facing Aaron Burr in a duel that – spoiler – did not end well for Hamilton. I remember that, for example, it really grated on me when someone with exactly zero days in uniform claimed that in spite of my 25+ years of active duty, I wasn’t really a good American. Heck, that still bugs me. 

Which, of course, brings me to Colorado’s own U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert…

While I chafed under criticism, I did have the smarts to not respond. When someone posted something nasty on, say, my campaign’s MySpace page (old folks, look it up, it used to be a thing) I was ticked off, but I knew it was smarter to ignore the insult than to respond. 

That, dear readers, is a lesson that Ms. Boebert has apparently not yet learned.

As noted in a recent Colorado Politics story, some clever people have figured out a way to poke a bit of fun at our most junior and most fundamentally unqualified member of Congress. It seems that the business acumen of which Boebert bragged during the campaign – regarding her gun-themed restaurant in Rifle – may have been a bit overstated. Apparently, she forgot to renew her state and federal trademarks for the business’s logo for Shooter’s Grill. And as always happens under the law, these unclaimed trademarks were auctioned off online. It seems that Boebert forgot to take care of her business, literally. The buyer is an individual who is donating the logo (and any profits from it one might presume) to an anti-Boebert organization dedicated to defeating her in the next election.

And if that was not insult enough, Boebert’s thin skin has recently been demonstrated in a way that also suggests her commitment to free speech doesn’t extend to those making fun of her. A parody website – TheLaurenBoebert.com – was created to, well, mock this public figure for her stances on the whole Q thing and other nonsense she has spouted. It seems Boebert got some rather lame legal advice and attempted to censor/shutter/shut down the site making fun of her. Her team’s nonsensical email demanded the entire site be shut down because they were using pictures from her congressional website (note: those are public pictures folks) and because they had the audacity to post her actual tweets, as well as other links to what she actually said. 

Here’s the thing: if there was ever any part of speech the Founders really wanted protected it was political speech. Coming from an empire ruled by a king that could not be criticized, folks like Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and the others all were quite clear that we as citizens have the right, if not the duty, to speak publicly and critically about our elected leaders.  The Boebert email claimed that the parody site was “a defamatory impersonation” and therefore, they claimed it went against U.S. law, and had to be taken down immediately, or they would “face further action.”

Not so much…

The photo in question is the one that Boebert herself sends out regularly in her press kits, and again, it just doesn’t matter: The Founders were clear in that political speech is absolutely protected. I’m not sure what is more troubling. Is it that Boebert’s reaction to being criticized was that she demanded the posters surrender to her demands of censorship, or is it the simple fact that she didn’t instantly know that she is supposed to be attacked and criticizedby the people? 

As noted in the CP article, all Boebert really did was to kick off a “Streisand effect.” It seems some years ago the gifted singer tried to suppress a public records photograph of her Malibu home. The result was that rather than a tiny handful of geography nerds seeing the picture, the image became viral, and her home was plastered across all of social media. Had Boebert ignored the website, which again is www.thelaurenboebert.com, a few folks might have seen the site and been briefly amused by it. But now, the traffic to the site is likely to be much higher, resulting in even more embarrassment for the member of Congress who thought she could suppress the free speech of others.

My unrequested advice for Boebert is that she work very hard on thickening her skin and, maybe, reread the Constitution and a selection of the Federalist Papers. Oh, and pay attention to the little things, both in Congress and in things like trademark renewals. 

The devil, as they say, is in the details.