At Least Doug Lamborn Probably Isn't Your Congressman

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by: Colorado Pols

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Worthless)

In another edition of our long-running series, “At Least They’re Not Your Legislator,” we take you to the U.S. Capitol, where Republican members of Congress apparently don’t have enough work to do to keep them busy.

As NBC San Diego reports, at least four members of Congress — including Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs) — have literally been spending time carrying a painting around the building:

[Congressman Duncan Hunter] personally removed the painting last week from an area designated for finalists in the annual Congressional Art Competition. The piece by David Pulphus, an 18-year-old from Missouri, depicts police officers as pigs, with one aiming a gun at a black panther.

The piece won first place in the Congressional Art Competition in Missouri’s First District. But Hunter said he found the piece offensive, and believes it violates the rules of the art competition.

U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, D-Mo., and members of the Congressional Black Caucus hung the painting back in place in a hallway in the Cannon Office Building basement Tuesday.

“I do not agree or disagree with this painting but I will fight to defend this young man’s right to express himself,” Clay said. “He is entitled to that protection under the law.”…

…After the painting was put back in its position Tuesday, another member of Congress, Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., removed it. Clay confirmed to NBC News the piece was put back minutes later. [Pols emphasis]

We’re not going to get into an argument about whether or not this painting by a high school student — which won first place in a Congressional Art Competition in Missouri — is appropriate to hang in the U.S. Capitol. There’s a larger point to address here: Multiple Members of Congress took time out of their day to literally remove this painting from the walls and return it to the office of Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Missouri).

We can only guess at the number of conversations that took place surrounding this topic, and the amount of time spent lugging said painting around the Capitol, at the same time that the Senate is holding confirmation hearings on Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments and plotting a strategy to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. If you are a constituent of Rep. Lamborn who might have been trying to contact the Congressman today, you cannot rest assured that he was busy doing something important.

6 thoughts on “At Least Doug Lamborn Probably Isn’t Your Congressman”

Conserv. Head Banger says:

January 10, 2017 at 4:07 pm

Only part of the Constitution that Rep. Lamborn cares about is the 2nd Amendment regarding firearms.

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Moderatus says:

January 10, 2017 at 4:10 pm

Doug Lamborn is not a Senator. This is a non sequitur.

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1. mamajama55 says:
  
  January 10, 2017 at 4:26 pm
  
  Mod, Did you miss that part about plotting a strategy to eliminate the ACA? The House is doing that. The House weighs in on the cabinet appointments, although they don't have an actual confirmation vote. Lamborn could have been listening to his constituents instead of practicing censorship.
  
  Re: the art piece:
  
  In my classroom, I don't allow students to refer to police officers as "pigs". I do, however, allow them to tell stories about what has really happened to them in their own lives – a kid that started out with the "pigs" epithet told how his mother was knocked down and dragged out of the home. This was a white kid, in case you care. He's not going to use the word "pig", but his feelings about what happened aren't going away. And in an era when 708 people died at the hands of police, 52% Black, Latino, or "other", just making people say "All lives matter" or "Blue Lives Matter" doesn't begin to address the problem.
  
  I'm guessing that the art piece had artistic merit, and was no worse than cartoons or political speeches full of stereotypes: EX: Mexicans are rapists, Muslims are terrorists, Blacks are lazy welfare cheats, women are murderers if they have an abortion, etc.
  
  We encourage freedom of expression by the powerful, and punish it by the powerless.
  
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Unitary Moonbat says:

January 10, 2017 at 9:05 pm

It is deeply troubling to learn that our Capitol building has no designated safe space to which Rep. Lamborn could retreat and compose himself after he saw a painting that made him mad – had he been able to work out his issues with some coloring books and videos of puppies, the Congressman might not have become so unhinged that he would commit larceny in order to prevent anyone else from seeing the offending work. If Speaker Ryan's caucus is found to contain too many more thin-skinned snowflakes like Rep. Lamborn, perhaps one of his first orders of business should be to set aside a nice, cozy little room off the Rotunda for distraught conservatives to hide whenever they get triggered by a piece of art.

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1. mamajama55 says:
  
  January 10, 2017 at 10:30 pm
  
  +10 Moonbat.
  
  Here's the artwork in question, by David Pulphus.
  
  The young man is undeniably talented. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and the killing of Michael Brown, with the subsequent protests, the militarized response to the protests, and then the complete lack of consequences for Brown's killer, is the social background of the painting. The work itself is busy, but draws the viewer into the details.
  
  From Pulphus' art, I get that the police dehumanize themselves when they respond to a young black man with disproportionate violence. The young black man who is being shot is also dehumanized – the police wear pig masks, but he wears a dog mask. The artist is trying to show how people dehumanize each other, and showing the relative power in the size and position of the figures.
  This happened in Ferguson, and dozens of other places. It’s still happening. If it makes us uncomfortable, it damn well should.
  
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  1. The realist says:
    
    January 11, 2017 at 7:45 am
    
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