I spend a lot of ink in this column pointing out and criticizing the immoderate and extreme views of Republican officials and activists in Colorado. Having raised several children, however, I know that the carrot can be as effective as the stick—in fact more so.
Former GOP candidate for Congress Casper Stockham likes to lecture people about what is and isn’t fake news. Yesterday, he posted this on Facebook:
I ran across this post by Pueblo County Republican chair Marla Reichert and it seemed fishy to me.
Derrick Wilburn is a willfully ignorant man who seems to go out of his way to express his hatred for former President Obama whenever he can. Here he goes on a Facebook diatribe claiming Trump said something on Easter that Obama would “never, ever utter.”
Casper Stockham unsuccessfully ran a campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Denver), and will likely run again in 2018. I’ve flagged a few of Casper’s more egregiously nutty posts, because if nothing else, he’s entertaining. Casper’s fake news beliefs are instructive, however, and represent a microcosm of how the GOP base consumes news. Here’s what he said on Facebook a few days ago:
I ran across this post from State Sen. Kevin Lundberg (R-Berthoud). Taking a standard position in the wake of the Hobby Lobby decision, he argues in favor of Senate Bill 283, which would let businesses discriminate on the basis of “the fundamental right of conscience.” That’s shorthand for “religious beliefs.”
I run into this a lot in the Fever Swamps: Someone posts a meme or statement urging a certain sort of behavior that they themselves do not adhere to. Today, I ran into a couple of impressive examples:
I’m gonna miss Derrick Wilburn, former Vice Chair of the Colorado GOP. He is reliably one of the nuttiest and most hyper-partisan members of the party. As a tribute to his history of Fever Swamp hysterics, I offer this case study in double standards. A few days ago, Wilburn posted this on Facebook:
Raymond Garcia, the GOP candidate who lost races in 2014 and 2016 for the District 1 seat in Colorado’s House of Representatives, is a person who will believe literally anything he reads on the internet and happily pass it on without vetting. In this case, he posts an old “news” story from 2016 claiming a Wikileaks release proves Hillary Clinton killed James Foster as if it is brand new.
I ran across a meme posted by Colorado House Minority Leader Patrick Neville (R-Castle Rock) making the argument that since more people die (per 100,000) from driving a Prius than by guns there should be a plan to end Prius deaths.
