Silverman: For Lauren Boebert, keeping up with Marjorie Taylor Greene isn’t easy

Finishing first in the race to be the most prominent member of a congressional caucus is difficult. The winner gets financial awards aplenty. Fundraising becomes easy. With true fame, they may just call you by your initials, like AOC or MTG.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Rifle, has done her best with incessant tweeting and the use of fascinating props. Utilizing assault weapons as a backdrop and bringing a Mylar blanket to President Biden’s first speech to Congress demonstrate the Colorado congresswoman’s competitive spirit. 

Q-Anon’s never been more popular. In Montrose in March, Boebert went Q-crazy, proclaiming she had it on good authority from her near-daily talks with Team Trump that control of Congress would switch before 2022 with resignations and arrests of corrupt Democratic officials. This must be how Trump gets reinstated in August.

Boebert further informed her packed Montrose town hall audience that Democrats are trying to cancel Christianity, telling them, “They tried to cancel Jesus. You can’t cancel God.” 

The main qualification for prominence in the Republican caucus is the degree to which you can demonstrate affection for and from Donald J. Trump. Boebert’s entire family traveling to Mar-A-Lago for a meal and a photo has to move you up the leaderboard. But how can Boebert finish first when Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG) enjoys even more Trump love at Mar-a-Lago with not just a photo, but a video, too?

MTG is definitely Trump-approved. Greene brings big Q, and the Big Lie, too. She is currently barnstorming America with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who has been accused of drug-fueled sexual improprieties.

Famed aviator Charles Lindbergh was first to fly across the Atlantic and first to make America First famous. Lindbergh’s pro-authoritarian America First movement is back, and flying high in Trump’s GOP. Lindbergh regularly broadcast his America First message on radio,  Nowadays, Denver Trump Radio even features a daily show titled America First.

Championing the first America First movement, Lindbergh proclaimed, “We, the heirs of European culture, are on the verge of a disastrous war, a war within our own family of nations, a war which will reduce the strength and destroy the treasures of the White race. . . . It is time to turn from our quarrels and to build our White ramparts again.”

Trump and Q-loving donors have bestowed phenomenal fundraising on Greene, Boebert and Gaetz. MTG set records, raising over $3 million in the first quarter of 2021 after losing committee assignments for her outrageousness. Colorado’s Q-friendly Boebert is raking in only half as much moolah. 

Greene and Gaetz recently floated an America First Caucus trial balloon. Its platform called for a “common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions.” It asserted immigrants risked undermining the nation’s “unique identity.” Even the GOP rejected (for now) the America First Caucus, but it’s now morphed into Gaetz and Greene’s America First Rally Tour.

Foremost targets of this second America First movement are remaining Trump detractors within the Republican Party. Liz Cheney got booted for telling truths about Trump’s Big Lie. She now confronts a serious Republican primary battle. 

A new PAC full of Colorado donors called Primary the Ruling Class (PRC) boldly asserts its mission, “Ruling Class of Republicans Out, America First Patriots In.” 

PRC provides members a daily news feed, podcasts, targeted fundraising, merchandise and social media. PRC ad money is flowing big-time to Denver Trump Radio. The spokesman for PRC is the Saturday morning host who secured an MTG interview while filling in on a holiday.

So many good questions were available but went unasked. Greene recently compared mask mandates to the forced wearing of what she called gold stars on Jews’ clothing. Why did she say they wore gold stars? Where does she get off explaining what rational Jewish people should think? Does Greene acknowledge the Nazis came from the political right? 

The host emphasized his credentials as a Tea Party leader, a Republican committeeman and Trumpy enough to be attacked by CNN. Greene barely noticed. She kept repeating “America First” and directed listeners to her America First Rally Tour web site. MTG even threw a bone to Boebert, and said she and Gaetz were considering a Colorado tour stop.

A separate talk radio show host recently encouraged his guest, Donald Trump, to run for Congress and win so he could be elevated to Speaker of the House. 

That would be one way to knock MTG off first place in the fundraising contest and send others like Boebert down the leaderboard.

Craig Silverman is a former Denver chief deputy DA who also has worked in the media for decades. Craig is columnist at large for The Colorado Sun. He practices law at the Denver law firm of Springer & Steinberg, P.C. and is host of The Craig Silverman Show podcast.