March 03, 2025 01:31 PM UTC

Let's Make a Deal: No Burning MAGA or Pride Flags

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• by: Colorado Pols

FOX 31’s Greg Nieto reported Friday on a controversy brewing in the far northeastern Colorado town of Severance, located in carpetbagging crusader Rep. Lauren Boebert’s new district, in which a resident family claims to have received a threatening letter about MAGA merch on display in the family’s front yard:

A Severance family says they recently received a threatening letter in the mail, in response to a “Make America Great Again” banner posted in their front yard.

The sign in their front yard reads “This is ultra MAGA country.” A family member says the letter was delivered to their mailbox on Wednesday.

The typed letter said that if the residents keep “putting them (MAGA flags) up for everyone to see” that “someone might accidentally burn your house down.”

The first thing we would say is that if you’ve ever been to Severance, you know that MAGA signage is not at all out of place there like it might be in, say, Boulder or Bonnie Brae. That makes us wonder why anyone would find themselves a target of threats simply for this non-offense. Heather Willard at the station nonetheless covered the response from local political leaders, and from Boebert on the right to Democratic Gov. Jared Polis on the left-ish, everyone agrees that threats over political paraphernalia are unacceptable:

Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, said Sunday that he agreed with GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert after she said threatening letters sent to those displaying MAGA flags will “not be tolerated in Colorado’s 4th District.”

“Americans are free to express their political views,” Boebert wrote on X, a nod to the First Amendment which prevents the government from restricting free speech. “MAGA is a movement of the people and we will not allow our people to be intimidated into silence. Fly your banner proudly!”

But kudos to Heather Willard for, unlike most of the coverage we’ve seen of this incident, putting Boebert’s outrage into proper context–namely Boebert’s own efforts to pull down a flag with a message she didn’t approve of:

Boebert previously proposed an amendment to the U.S. House Rules Financial Services Appropriations Division that would prevent the White House from flying any flag except the U.S. flag and preventing any rainbow flag lighting at the White House or vice president’s residence.

She was also seen at a campus protest at George Washington University on May 1, 2024, where she tried to remove a Palestinian flag draped across a statue of George Washington. She told those around her to also try and remove the flag, according to reporting from The Hill, and said the statue was federal property. She also reportedly threatened to try to withhold federal funding if faculty didn’t address the flag.

And of course, with this renewed talk about protecting people’s rights to free expression by letting whatever flag they fancy fly free, we couldn’t help but recall last summer’s call by the Colorado Republican Party to do something terrible to somebody else’s flag:

With all of this in mind, we would be happy for leaders from across the political spectrum to come together and declare with one voice that everyone has a right to fly their desired flags, as long as those who have personally called for or tried to destroy other people’s flags say they’re sorry.

At the very least, keep quiet so the hypocrisy isn’t so obvious.