At the beginning of March this year, I was scrolling through Twitter at 2 a.m. when I saw a headline that Scott Tipton had lost the Republican primary race to Lauren Boebert.
For months I had only been focusing on which candidate the Democratic Party would vote to set against Tipton, a five-term incumbent, without even realizing that Representative Tipton had opposition within his own primary race. Yet there it was: the representative of my district had lost by almost 10,000 votes to local grill owner Lauren Boebert.
I didn’t recognize Lauren Boebert until I saw the name of her restaurant, Shooter’s Grill, which has gained popularity nationally for the waitresses open-carrying, as well as locally for refusing to follow our county’s COVID-19 guidelines.
Due to Colorado District 3 historically voting red, it is more than likely that Boebert will win, and I am scared. Not because of her extreme enthusiasm for guns, but rather the rhetoric she uses on Twitter. She goes from calling Mitt Romney a RINO, to posting pictures of her crowded rallies without any masks visible, to repeatedly calling Democrats “left-wing lunatics.”
When visiting Boebert’s website, it is apparent that her platform is not about helping improve America with in-depth plans, it’s about defeating Democrats. This is what scares me. It scares me to see that a candidate was able to win the primary on the platform of diminishing compromise instead of trying to unify the republic.
Boebert has repeatedly tweeted about how she will uphold the constitution, yet her platform is against many of the Founding Fathers’ ideals. If you look at Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison argues that the purpose of a large government, as proposed in the constitution, ensures that one faction does not oppress the rest. This virtue highlighted by Madison is no longer an admired trait by not just Boebert, but for either party in the United States.
In light of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, this lack of respect for the opposing party is being exposed. Instead of having any time to mourn one of my biggest inspirations and heros, I am too worried about the future of America and my right to choose. As Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham are going against the precedent they set in 2016, it is apparent our political system does not value fairness, it only values winning.
I am now asking myself if Democrats were in the same position as the Republicans are now, would we stick to our word and wait until the election? Would we honor our promises? My answer is no. According to The Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center, out of senators with the lowest frequency of co-sponsored bills, Democrats hold 7 of the 10 lowest scores. 3 of these senators were running for president a few months ago.
It is apparent that our democracy is no longer the voice of many: it is the voice of two. I now admire politicians just for speaking against their party. I am gaining respect for politicians like Mitt Romney, who has spoken against Trump even though Romney has advocated for policies that would hurt immigrants and women. The bar is set so low for me that if a politician shows a hint of country over party, they become my only hope for maintaining our democracy.
I fear that this election is becoming the breaking point of our union. I fear that politicians like Lauren Boebert will win and there will no longer be room for respect or bipartisanship. Politicians like Boebert, who has tweeted things like, “I have far more respect for a Democrat that campaigns as a Democrat than I do for a Republican who campaigns as Republican and proceeds to vote as a Democrat,” are becoming the new normal.
Our country was built on compromise, yet American history has proven time and time again that the idea of what is fair and right is subjective based on how it benefits a party. We are reaching a focal point in our democracy where our views are so different, so divisive, and so polarized that I fear we will no longer be the union that our founding fathers set off to create.
Photos: Her Campus Media