On Huntington Beach

The city council is facing one of the biggest tests in its history. I am skeptical this lot of zealots can pass.

Butch Twining. Misunderstood, or just sucky?

So some of you have likely noticed that a post from the other day, concerning a Huntington Beach City Council member named Butch Twining, came and went from this site.

The entry concerned Twining’s appearance earlier this week at a vile and racist neo-Nazi rally in Huntington Beach, and was boosted by both imagery and video of Butch at the event. I called for him to resign; I noted that a city council—no matter where—is no place for racism.

Then, after Butch’s wife, Dana, posted a bunch of comments in defense of her husband, I was inspired to update the entry. Dana insisted Butch didn’t realize what was happening. She insisted she and Butch thought they were attending a vigil for Charlie Kirk, and as soon as the white power stuff broke out, they left. She insisted her husband is a good man, a kind man, a decent man, a misunderstood (by me) man.

So, after pondering this, and seeing the way Dana loved Butch, I took a long pause, then a longer pause, then rejiggered the post.

Here’s why: From my SoCal vantage point, Butch Twining is a grotesque pretzel twist. He was, factually, at the event where the white power circus broke out. And if he was horrified by it—why the fuck didn’t he say anything? Bro, you’re a member of the Huntington Beach City Council. This monstrosity occurred … in Huntington Beach!!! Why, in God’s name, would you be both (a) terribly offended and (b) silent? Aren’t you, as a municipal leader, supposed to speak out? Use your voice? Stand on a box and scream, “Hey, this is not right!”? Isn’t that, precisely, what leadership is? As opposed to slinking away and having your wife fire off agitated missives to a lightly-read Substack …

Along those lines, why were you OK with the crazy-ass MAGA library plaque? With the anti-librarian rhetoric? Why did you sit silently earlier this year (then applaud?) as a vile homophobic nut job named Arthur Schaper spoke to the Surf City Tea meeting? Why do you celebrate the Confederacy?

I don’t get it—in any way, shape or form.

But I thought about Dana’s insistence that Butch is, deep down, a good man. So I edited the post and am going to channel (of all the people) Charlie Kirk, and make this offer: Butch, I want to sit down and interview you for this website. To chat. I will post the entire video, with zero edits or changes. You, too, can record, to make certain I keep my word. As Kirk seemingly attempted to do with liberals, I want to understand your views. I want to have a conversation where we talk to one another as humans in Southern California.

I want to hear the saga of your life journey and grasp what you’re thinking, and why you think that way. I will not try to convince you of anything. I’ll merely ask, then listen.

I say this with 100-percent sincerity: I want to understand how you, an Air Force vet, can be so unflinchingly supportive of a president with five draft deferments, who referred to POWs as “not heroes—because they were captured” and mocked enlistees as “suckers” and “losers.” I want to grasp why you, a married father with a (clearly) devoted wife, take no issue with a president who cheated on wife one with wife two, wife two with wife three, wife three with a porn star he paid off in hush money. I want to see why it’s OK (to you) for a president to mock people as fat, stupid, ugly, dumb, gross. I want to hear your thoughts on the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. I want to know why you seem to loathe liberals so deeply—and whether you loathe Huntington Beach liberals deeply, too. I’d like to know if—in the wake of your city’s recent violence—it’d be OK for the federal government to send National Guard troops into Huntington Beach. Just to deal with the white nationalists.

Mostly, I want to see how two people who live in the same geographic region view the nation so differently. I am fascinated. Riveted.

I was no Charlie Kirk fan, but I can—if nothing else—appreciate the time he spent talking with those of different beliefs. I’d love to do the same with you, Butch. Your wife says you’re a good dude merely misunderstood by dicks like me. Prove her right. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll expose me to stuff I simply don’t understand.

That would be amazing.

And appreciated.

•••

Huntington Beach—much like America—is on fire.

This past week there were multiple alt-right marches/rallies, including this gem from Saturday …

And this, from the same evening …

I have no faith (and, I mean, literally zero faith) that Butch Twining and his fellow MAGA-obsessed council members will do anything about it. Why? Because all they do is follow and kneel before the hate-monger in chief. When Trump lied about Barack Obama being a Kenyan-born Muslim—nothing. When Trump damned all the “shit-hole” countries—nothing. When Trump started sending masked agents to grab Brown people and kidnap them—nothing. When Trump said immigrants have murder “in their genes”—nothing. When Trump said the white power march in Virginia featured “fine people on both sides”—nothing. When Trump pardoned the 1.6 rioters—nothing. When Trump mocked Paul Pelosi for being attacked—nothing. On and on and on and on—the MAGA Seven of the Huntington Beach City Council have, quite literally, never publicly stood up to racism, xenophobia and violence. If anything, they seem to endorse the anger, hostility and hate emerging from the White House. They revel in it.

When one attends a council meeting, they see in the flesh: These folks are culture warrior brawlers.

Well, Butch, prove me wrong. I mean it—prove me wrong. The next City Council meeting is Tuesday. Talk about Patriot Front and hard-right Nazis and white supremacists marching through Huntington Beach. Call them out. Damn them. Take a few minutes and express your disgust. Tell us shit has gone too far. Say that your city needs to take a step back and calm the fuck down.

Maybe acknowledge that baiting liberals with the MAGA plaque and the library nonsense was unnecessary and uncalled for. Ask for your people—the people of Huntington Beach—to come together as one. To bond as a city.

Butch, I implore you: Prove Dane right.

Show me I was wrong.

I’m begging you.

Please.

PS: The end of this video gives me a ton of good vibes. Trust me …

PPS: This is a sincere offer to Butch. Let’s talk.