Doug Lamborn
Though this issue of the Indy went to press on Monday, before the election results were in, we’re pretty sure Doug Lamborn will have won his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. And every two years when this happens, knowing he’ll use his extended time in office to do close to nothing to improve the lives of people in CD5 and across the country, we wonder what it would be like to have real representation in that seat, instead of Doug, Colorado’s dependable GOP sleeper. Good for a No vote on anything that doesn’t cleave to the blood-red, Trump-lovin’, heat-packin’ party line.
Since he first took office in 2007 — that’s eight terms with an annual six-figure salary and all the taxpayer-funded bennies that come with the job — Lamborn has had just eight of his bills become law. Almost all of them limp legislative specimens, like his naming of a post office on Criterion Drive in the Springs… the World War I American Veterans Centennial Commemorative Coin Act… two (actually somewhat helpful) bills shifting the boundaries of federal land to enhance outdoor recreation, the naming of the veterans outpatient clinic on Centennial Boulevard… not exactly game-changers for America or even the folks back here in CD5.
So what does Doug Lamborn do with his time?
Well, when he’s not voting against the House version of the Health Care for Burn Pit Veterans Act (he really did) or affordable insulin or the Paycheck Fairness Act or the formation of the select committee to investigate Jan. 6, Rep. Lamborn sends emails to his constituents.
So very many emails. To your inbox. All the time.
Emails that show us he’s keeping really, really busy despite his paltry legislative record.
Lamborn sends emails. so very many emails. To your inbox. All the time.
He lets us know when he’s interviewed on Fox News (Oct. 12)… how he opposes “woke indoctrination sessions” at the Air Force Academy (Oct. 13)… or how (Sept. 16) canceling student loan debt will stifle military recruitment efforts (does he believe young Americans should have to risk their lives to get an education?)… or how the Democrats are so (wait for it) partisan.
We got another email on Oct. 21. You probably did too. That’s because on Oct. 20, the Pentagon announced the government would pay for servicemembers to travel for abortion health care if they are posted to states where it’s outlawed. (Tax dollars, of course, can’t be used to pay for the medical procedure itself.)
“I am appalled,” wrote Lamborn, “disregard human life,” he spluttered, “the liberal left’s radical agenda,” “American values,” and so on.
But maybe the Pentagon’s actions are simply a response to the situation on the ground: Reports of a Defense Department survey in September revealed that sexual assault in the U.S. military was up 13 percent in 2021 over the previous year, with a 25.6 increase in reported incidents in the Army.
Anyway, we’re stuck with Doug Lamborn for one more term and it’s frustrating, because the office he holds gives him a bit of power that could be used to change the country for the better, to help harness American ingenuity and our collective will to fight climate change, to neutralize a whole range of systemic inequalities, and so much more.
We would ask him to quit squandering that power — our power — on polarizing, phantom issues like critical race theory and wokeism and the-Democrats-are-coming-for-your-guns. Please, Mr. Lamborn, just focus on the job at hand and get something done.