Lauren Boebert's divorce exposes the dark little secret of red state life

[Nevilledog]

https://www.salon.com/2023/05/18/lauren-boeberts-divorce-exposes-the-dark-little-secret-of-red-state-life/

When so much Republican behavior these days is too gross to be funny, there's something downright refreshing about old-fashioned Christian right hypocrisy. This time, it comes from Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a biological human being who nonetheless sounds exactly like ChatGPT channeling a Breitbart comment section. Boebert built her career on sanctimonious, though often incoherent, lectures on the supposed threats to the family of leftist sexual "depravities" like same-sex marriage or contraception use. She also filed for divorce last month, a fact that only got into the press this week. This follows other comical examples of Boebert's "family values," such as celebrating teen pregnancy or standing by her now-to-be ex-husband after he exposed himself to teen girls in a bowling alley.

Her choice to leave Jayson Boebert might be the first sign that there's functioning brain activity in Lauren Boebert's skull. As the bowling alley story suggests, the guy is a creep. He started dating then-Lauren Roberts when she was 16 and he was 22 years old. She dropped out of high school to give birth to their first child at 18. They got married two years later. During this time, he was arrested on domestic violence charges after a fight with her. In August, he was still at it, getting the cops called on him for reportedly threatening neighbors.

His behavior when she finally served him divorce papers was reportedly more of the same. As the Daily Beast reports, "He chased away a process server with an expletive-laden tirade and let his dogs loose when he was served with the divorce papers." Jayson Boebert denies the process server's description, including the mention of alcohol consumption. He told the Daily Beast that "divorce is sad." In a statement, the congresswoman defended Jayson Boebert: "Our divorce is a private matter, but the misrepresentations must be addressed. Jayson deserves his privacy, not slanderous stories."

This story is tasty gossip. But it's also a window into an aspect of red state life that hasn't been much discussed, one which is likely fueling the ugly surge in misogynist rhetoric and policy being pushed by Republicans, especially the men. The dark little secret of red state life is there's a lot of Lauren Boeberts out there: Conservative women who disavow feminism, but, when given a shot at more independence for themselves, gladly use hard-won rights like divorce and abortion. Republican men are getting increasingly angry about even this minor loss of control over women.

*snip*

[Marcuse]

1. Coming Attractions.

State Republican parties are adding the repeal of no-fault divorce to their party platforms, and even the national party looked at the issue in 2016. (And probably would have taken it more seriously if their candidate, Donald Trump, wasn't twice-divorced.) The reason isn't mysterious: 70% of divorces in the U.S. are initiated by women.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. This is not especially a red state thing.

It's purely and simply the hypocrisy of the right, especially the Christian right.

The right-wingers who are most sanctimonious, who claim that liberals, Democrats, progressive are immoral, are themselves almost always extremely immoral. They are the ones who are married multiple times, who have divorces, father children out of wedlock, embezzle, harm children . . . should I go on?

[sheshe2]

3. I didn't like the article.

It made Bobo the victim and perhaps she is. However she preaches the gospel to all of us, one that she does not follow. She tells us how to be a good Christians...she had a child out of wedlock, her son, who she praises, impregnated an underage girl and we have not heard about a wedding to follow it up.

Fact is she votes with the repukes 100% of the time. She votes with the very men that wish to control her. I have no use for her.

[Blue Owl]

4. She has dirty, filthy, vile little secrets

I can’t believe her “good christian base” still supports her after her blatant disregard for all that is holy to them

[Grins]

8. Ha! Now do the Evangelical frauds and Trump!

Can there be a more duplicitous bunch of hypocrites than Reich-wing Evangelical “Christians?”

[Silent3]

6. "The dark little secret of red state life is there's a lot of Lauren Boeberts out there"

There's some nightmare fuel for you.

[Azathoth]

7. Or it could be a little simpler

I guess it's good fun to try and turn this into a screed against conservative white men, but in reality conservative women like Boebert are no different from their male counterparts.

This isn't about women who are finally "given a shot at more independence for themselves." Outside of the hardcore fundamentalist communities, women on average are better educated and more financially independent than men, including in red America. There are countless deep red households where the man pretends to "rule his castle" while the wife is the one with the steady salary who pays the bills and has the only credit score in the household high enough to get approved for loans and leases.

A better explanation is that conservatives, men and women alike, are hypocrites with very low empathy scores. These are people who will vote relentlessly to take food stamps aways from the "takers," and then will spin 180 degrees overnight and demand food stamps for themselves the instant their own fortunes land them in need. And to top it off, they'll rage at all the hoops they're made to jump through to collect those stamps -- hoops which conservatives like them voted to put in place -- and cite that obstacle course as proof the government doesn't work and that they were right all along.

[Abolishinist]

9. Why does the author keep referring to this as a 'red state'

thing, especially when considering Colorado has a Democratic Governor, two D's in the Senate, and 5 D's vs. 3 R's in the House.

Perhaps rural white trash would be closer to the point.