In February 2013, in the wake of a mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater in my district, the Colorado legislature debated and then passed several measures to promote gun safety in our state. It was one of the most controversial and divisive periods in our state’s political history.
As a mother living with the memory of a son gunned down along with his fiancé by killers connected to a gang, I carried some of the bills we passed that year.
We debated that legislation in an atmosphere of violence and intimidation. Threats of rape and violence against myself, my daughter and my granddaughters took place in an environment of hysteria and paranoia engineered by the gun industry and their political enablers. I received numerous death threats, was stalked by mentally unstable individuals and for a time was under protection by the Colorado State Patrol because of specific and heinous threats on my life.
With my life in danger, attending one town hall was deemed too risky by those protecting me.
Last week I was reminded of that traumatic period while watching many Republican members of Congress not only actively hide from their constituents, but insult and demean the people for whom they were elected to work to excuse their unavailability. In Colorado, we watched Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner use elaborate strategies to dodge constituents concerned and upset about the fundamental impacts on their lives that will come from his votes. Even worse, Gardner had the audacity to dehumanize, without evidence, his own constituents by labeling them “paid protesters.”
We deserve better. When a congressman like Colorado’s Mike Coffman isn’t fleeing out back doors and into waiting cars to avoid vocal senior citizens, he and his Republican colleagues around the country attempt to justify their own frailty in the face of their constituents by saying their voices don’t deserve to be heard.
I did my job despite unbalanced individuals threatening me and my family with rape, pain and death. Republicans in the U.S. Congress are simply being asked to listen to the voices of those they serve. It shouldn’t have to take a profile in courage to look a cancer patient in the eye and hear what she has to say — it only takes a little bit of compassion and an ounce of respect.
The real “threat” to these Republicans is not the violence of extremists, but the mere sound of the honest voices of regular, hard-working Americans. These politicians simply don’t want to hear about the daily reality of struggling citizens who shouldn’t have to sacrifice their health and economic security on the altar of right-wing ideology. That is why they turn to these pathetic conspiracy theories about paid protesters. We also witnessed the self-pitying victimhood of politicians like Sen. Marco Rubio and Congressman Jason Chaffetz — the latter even describing his own constituents as “bullies” for daring to stand up and speak truth to power.
It is disgraceful. It is simply cowardly to say that the pain and despair of the people they work for are not really authentic and do not deserve to be heard. It is also a cynical strategy meant to rob citizens of their voices.
We cease to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people when the Republican majority in Washington, who now have great power over our futures, will not listen to or respect the voices of those of us who will have to bear in our day-to-day lives the consequences of their political agenda. At the barest minimum, at least have the courage to listen to those who stand to die for its sake.
Sen. Rhonda Fields, a Democrat, represents District 29 in the Colorado Senate.
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