I voted for Gabriel Gomez yesterday, and will vote for him again in June.
I understand that many people across Massachusetts -- including many good friends of mine -- will vote for Ed Markey.
I respect their decision, just as I would hope they would respect mine.
One point that I think needs to be clarified, though, is that Ed Markey is the 1927 New York Yankees. He is US Steel, he is Ivan Drago, and he is the Super Bowl III Baltimore Colts. Pick whatever sports or historical analogy you like, but the point is that Markey is the heavy odds-on favorite.
Many Dems wouldn't deny this, and some would even celebrate it. Fair enough -- it's always nice to be on the side that's favored to win.
But I think it's a wee bit absurd when I hear rhetoric coming FROM the Markey side about how it's "the people versus the powerful" or the "battle to save us from special interests," and so on.
Backs-to-the-wall rhetoric is one of the most tried-and-true ways to rally support for a cause. A shared enemy -- just like shared misery (i.e. boot camp or three-a-days) -- is how you build a team. So in a sense, I get that. People love to tell themselves those kind of stories, too: that's why everyone you've ever met grew up poor (anecdotally, I've learned that the national poverty rate prior to 1970 was 100%), every beautiful celebrity was an awkward nerd in high school (but they somehow managed to dazzle at the Oscars by age 20), and every brilliant musician "never had one lesson."
If you support Markey, awesome. I'm not going to try to change your mind. If you think he would represent us better in DC, great. Whatever. Just don't tell me that you're on some kind of rogue mission when you're lining up in the dugout behind Koenig, Ruth, and Gehrig.
I understand that many people across Massachusetts -- including many good friends of mine -- will vote for Ed Markey.
I respect their decision, just as I would hope they would respect mine.
One point that I think needs to be clarified, though, is that Ed Markey is the 1927 New York Yankees. He is US Steel, he is Ivan Drago, and he is the Super Bowl III Baltimore Colts. Pick whatever sports or historical analogy you like, but the point is that Markey is the heavy odds-on favorite.
Many Dems wouldn't deny this, and some would even celebrate it. Fair enough -- it's always nice to be on the side that's favored to win.
But I think it's a wee bit absurd when I hear rhetoric coming FROM the Markey side about how it's "the people versus the powerful" or the "battle to save us from special interests," and so on.
Backs-to-the-wall rhetoric is one of the most tried-and-true ways to rally support for a cause. A shared enemy -- just like shared misery (i.e. boot camp or three-a-days) -- is how you build a team. So in a sense, I get that. People love to tell themselves those kind of stories, too: that's why everyone you've ever met grew up poor (anecdotally, I've learned that the national poverty rate prior to 1970 was 100%), every beautiful celebrity was an awkward nerd in high school (but they somehow managed to dazzle at the Oscars by age 20), and every brilliant musician "never had one lesson."
If you support Markey, awesome. I'm not going to try to change your mind. If you think he would represent us better in DC, great. Whatever. Just don't tell me that you're on some kind of rogue mission when you're lining up in the dugout behind Koenig, Ruth, and Gehrig.
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