May 07, 2025 10:58 AM UTC

Don Suckla Shows Why this Legislative Session Needs to End

• 5 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

The 2025 Colorado legislative session comes to a close today. If a speech on Tuesday from Republican Rep. Don Suckla of Montezuma County is any indication of how things have been going at the State Capitol, it’s definitely time for everyone to head home.

Suckla went to the well on Tuesday to argue against SB25-288 (Intimate Digital Depictions Criminal & Civil Actions). The legislation, which passed without much trouble, seeks to update the description of “sexually exploitative material” to include anyone who “discloses or threatens to disclose a highly realistic but false visual depiction of another individual  that has been created, altered, or produced by generative AI, image editing software, or computer-generated means.” In other words, the bill makes it illegal to post or threaten to post online knowingly fake graphic images or videos.

Suckla wasn’t having it. He went on a four minute rant that was only occasionally coherent about the importance of keeping the internet accessible to rural Coloradans…which of course had nothing at all to do with this legislation. The former Montezuma County Commissioner was so proud of his speechifying that he posted a video of the rant on the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

After complaining about newspapers not being nice to him, Suckla unleashed this nonsense:

DON SUCKLA: You guys have all of these museums and culture, and you have all of these things. And the only thing that we have in rural Colorado, that at least kind of puts us on an even pace with you – not even an even pace, is the internet. The internet. The internet is where we get our voice. The newspapers…so the way that I did…

It took me six years to kind of figure it out. What I did was, as soon as we made a decision on that board, and we had something else going on, I was already on my phone, and I was putting exactly how it really happened. And I put it out on social media. And it’s the only way that I was able to stop it. Because I was able to have a voice that was faster and greater than that newspaper that did not like me – and a lot of them other newspapers. It was the only way. And so, this is a rural Colorado deal. This is a way to keep our…I’m up here for a different reason. First of all, [if] you think you’re going to stop this or stop that – they’re already running a circle around you. Yes, do we need to do something about it. But is this the way? No. I can tell you what, I’m speaking for rural Colorado, and I’m speaking for those people in those eight counties, and I’m going to do whatever I can – this year and next year…

If there is a bill that comes up and tries to censor the internet, and I have to go and protest so that my daughter can play volleyball, because they forced her because she couldn’t…because she was in a room that was somebody else who had COVID, and all of a sudden she’s gotta wear a mask at physical exercise, and a lot of those kids got sick…[Pols emphasis]

We have such short memories of what happened and how they…they beat us down! And the only thing that we had that put us on par was the Internet. And I’ll tell you one thing: I will fight – I don’t care which party you belong to – if you go after the Internet, which is the only thing that gives a voice to rural Colorado, I’m coming after you. I would vote no.

Um, yeah.

We’ve used this comparison before, but Suckla’s rant is reminiscent of this famous diatribe from Homer Simpson:

It’s Chinatown, Don!