Today's Must-Read: Telling It Like It Is

Interesting profile/analysis on Beto O'Rourke -- makes me want to vote for him:

Beto O’Rourke, the former congressman from Texas who is now a Democratic presidential candidate, has been titillating the schoolmarms of the American press corps by saying naughty words. He let an F-bomb fly while dressing down the media for pretending that it was debatable whether Donald Trump was responsible for inspiring the mass shooting in El Paso, O’Rourke’s hometown. He let loose another one in response to another mass shooting in the Midland-Odessa area, which is relatively nearby by Texas standards.

Somehow, the press response to this was simultaneously one of feigned delicacy at his language and hardened cynicism, the assumption being that O’Rourke was using this extremely common word that almost everyone uses in private out of some political calculation. The possibility that mass slaughter in his own backyard had rattled O’Rourke out of political calculation and into talking like a normal person — no doubt the way all these pundits speak in casual conversation — was dismissed out of hand.

But let’s just assume for a moment that it’s real and what we’re seeing now is a man who, shaken by having to deal with unimaginable horrors inflicted on his once-peaceful community, has run out of fucks to give. When it comes to pandering to the pearl-clutching instincts of the Beltway media, Beto’s fuck-giving account is cleaned out.

I confess I've gotten pretty fed up with the Democrats' response to Trump's continuing atrocities against America (this latest bag of bullshit from Nancy Pelosi is just one more example of the Democrats' complete misreading of the mood of their constituents -- mean, is she seriously talking about changing the law to allow sitting presidents to be indicted when everyone knows that Moscow Mitch will spike any such attempt?)

This is a good example of how completely off in space too many Democrats in positions of prominence are:

During the most recent debate in his home state of Texas, O’Rourke didn’t flinch when asked if he was serious about this, saying, “We’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. We’re not going to allow it to be used against a fellow American anymore.”

As Max Boot at the Washington Post noted, some Democrats, such as Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, flinched, scolding O’Rourke for giving Republicans an excuse to flip out about “gun-grabbers” on the left.

But what these Democrats fail to understand is that, buoyed by the radicalism and cash infusions of the NRA, Republicans are already calling Democrats a bunch of gun-grabbers. Since they’re going to make that accusation one way or another, why not do what O’Rourke’s doing, and just stake out a position that might actually open a discussion about real-world approaches to preventing gun violence?

It's not even a matter of giving Republicans an excuse -- they're already calling Democrats "gun grabbers". These Democrats should be shooting back, starting with the fact that a huge majority of Americans favor just that sort of approach -- which, by the way, worked very well in Australia and is now underway in New Zealand. And in both cases, it took one mass shooting to trigger their response. We have one at least once a month, and the Republicans blame everything except the NRA. And what are the Democrats afraid of -- offending Trump's base?

At any rate, read the whole article.