I don't think taunting a Huntington Beach City Council member about his vaping habits is a winning strategy
Yes, Butch Twining absolutely sucks. But this isn't the way to go.
Received some excited messages the other day, asking whether I’d seen “The Butch Twining Video.”
“Nope,” I replied. I had not.
Here it is …
And I get it. I do. Twining is a member of the Huntington Beach City Council. He’s one of the MAGA bros who is all in on Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk and porn in schools and book bans and the plaque and the statue and he’s rude and crass and dumb and, yes, he vapes at age, like, 70. Which, unless you’re Billy Joel, is super weird and legitimately perplexing.
However …
What does this sneeze in time—captured on video for the world to behold—do for Democrats trying to win a seat or two on the City Council in a very conservative metropolis? Does it make our party appear dignified? No. Mature? No. Reasoned? No. We look (and I hate to say this) sort of unhinged and rabid, and the post-exchange jubilation over getting Twining’s goat is less win, more ode to the gotcha! landscape we now occupy. People who abhor Twining will love it. People who support Twining will see it as libs being libs. And it’s all on video—the 2026 universal medium of choice.
Again, I do get it. Hell, I love the spiritual release of making fun of MAGA buffoons. But the goal here is to flip the city council, and to do so means convincing on-the-fence folks better people than Butch Twining walk the earth.
Also, not for nothing, there are productive ways to get a goat, and nonproductive ways to get a goat. Had the man outside the vehicle said, “Hey, Butch, I think building a Trump statue is crazy …” and then Twining fires off, “Fuck you!” … that’s a solid win. It’s an irrationally crude reply to a fair observation stated by a constituent.
But if someone ran up to my car and cracked that vaping line, I’d probably tell him to fuck off, too.
Maybe I’m growing soft, but it’s just not for me.
Yeah, I see what you're saying. It's kind of like when people make fun of someone for their appearance. I find that immature and not useful to the discussion EVER. But I see a lot of people do it and no matter how many times some of us try to say that isn't the way to go about having a constructive argument, people still do it. I think we can *all* do better, honestly.
It's not that a 70 year old vapes, it's that he was caught vaping in the City Council chambers, which is illegal.