In the morning thread, valued commenter Jeffro shared this video of Beto O’Rourke’s answer to a question about NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem. O’Rourke’s answer is pitch-perfect, IMO:
Now, when someone asks me if it pisses me off when rich athletes disrespect the flag and veterans, I’m more apt to reply, “No, but it pisses me off when grown-ass adults parrot Trump’s self-serving, racist-ass talking points, ignoring the fact that the players have explained exactly why they’re protesting a million times already. It pisses me off that people are credulous and racist enough to believe that a corrupt, loud-mouthed plutocrat who shits in a golden toilet is the champion of the working man but can’t fathom that highly paid black athletes, who probably get pulled over in their Maseratis every three blocks, would want to champion racial justice in a country where they’re barely treated as human. THAT pisses me off.”
Beto’s way is better. He acknowledges the good faith of people on the opposite side — not necessarily because they deserve it (they don’t) but because then maybe they’ll HEAR him. He invokes the fundamental values we’re all supposed to share — not necessarily because his questioner gives a rat’s ass about that but because it’s an aspirational message no one can publicly oppose without looking like a giant asshole. And he gives a mini-seminar on the history of peaceful protest in this country, leading to the undeniable conclusion that peaceful protest is as American as apple fucking pie.
That’s why Beto O’Rourke is an excellent politician, and your humble correspondent is not. What talent the man has — and Kennedy-esque good looks too. His race against the horrible Ted Cruz is a long shot because Texas, but here’s a link to Beto’s ActBlue account if you want to help out.
PS: CNN is reporting that the DNC called the FBI yesterday “after it detected what it believes was the beginning of a sophisticated attempt to hack into its voter database…” Here we go again.