The Truman Tavern of Simple Truths and Smart One-Liners 33 1/3: The Final Insult

[brucejoel99]

It’s amazing. It truly is.

Ed Markey:

— Voted for NAFTA
— Voted for the 1994 crime bill
— Voted for the Iraq War
— Didn’t support busing back in the day
— Is an old career politician in office for about 50 years

You know, it's funny; I thought progressives were the ones perpetuating cancel culture by demanding ideological purity from every candidate. But you'd have us as compromising hypocrites.

Surely Markey's victory proves that if you make concessions to the left, you'll win a substantial amount of their support, even if you have made mistakes in the past. Come to think of it, the fact that Biden's cleaning up with progressives in polls probably proves that too - but I understand the narrative that "progressives are immature!!!111" needs to be maintained as an insurance scapegoat in case your guy loses.

I don't particularly mind you guys demonising the left - we're used to it by now - but at least have a consistent caricature.

[brucejoel99]

I was going to make my usual one-liner, but I won't, because the possibility of it being true is just so demented and sad on so many levels. It's not even a patriotism thing - we all knew Trump is a traitor, the literal opposite of a patriot - it's more about the complete and utter lack of humanity.

Ummm...this can't possibly be real....is it?

With any other President, no matter how cynical or corrupt, I would not even entertain the possibility. But the fact that this is even remotely believable says everything you need to know about Trump.

[brucejoel99]

It's almost unheard of for a 25+ year old non-smoker to pick up cigarette smoking. The vast majority of people start as teenagers, so anything to make tobacco products less available to them is a good thing. Vaping, while almost certainly less harmful than smoking, is still addictive (in my experience, even more so due to convenience), and there's no good reason for them to have a different minimum age than combustible cigarettes, as their main benefit is harm reduction.

[brucejoel99]

I don't think it's reasonable to compare midterms to presidential years.  Midterm elections are less ideological in general and tend to be either "I'm mad at the world and blaming the incumbent" or "Thank you for getting us through this crisis."