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#love. Ben describes perfectly and with great humor the uneasiness many of us centrist Dems feel about our left flank. When I watched student protestors at elite colleges saying ridiculous things like 'We're Hamas, we're all Hamas!" and heard a DEI manager at the university where I work instructing us to treat students differently based on race, I thought: do I laugh, or do I cry? Either way, this aint the party I grew up with.

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Ben is one of the best articulated, sensible, minimally opinionated and pragmatic reporter on TFP. I've enjoyed 100% of his work. The 10 min speech was rich!

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Dear Ben, brilliant in so many ways! I wish it was longer! Maybe you can write an article based on the speech?

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Ben,

I am more than twice your age. I woke up to the evils of the left and its Jew-hatred back in the early 1970s when I went to protests to let Soviet Jews go. Books and articles I read then showed the Jew-hatred the radical left was spewing out in the Soviet press, and they are practically identical to what you'd see in the Guardian or Independent, or what you hear on college campuses, NPR or the NY Slimes.

Better late than never, I guess.

And never forget the great lie of the 20th century - that the Nazis were far-right.

Nazis and fascists are leftists.

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Ben, Great speach! Loved it!

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Perfect summation of what the word "woke" has become.

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Ben, this is so great. Funny and honest. As someone still being deprogrammed after years of being badgered by woke ideology, so grateful for clear thinking and plenty of humor.

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Ben deserves a Pulitzer or at least a Purple Heart for his persistence with the mayor.

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I didn't know Ben had had cancer. I'm glad it was caught early and that he's cancer-free.

But Ben should understand, and acknowledge, the full, 360-degree effect of the program he says saved his life. In order for him to get insurance while having cancer, many, many other people are paying way, way more for health care than they ever have. Insurance companies were never going to absorb that cost. The cost of insuring sick people. They passed it along to the rest of us.

The program also failed in its promise to insure "everybody." Millions (I don't know the official stat) are still uninsured because health insurance is not "affordable" for them. They earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford a Marketplace plan.

And just speaking for myself, I still have fear of getting a serious illness even with Obamacare, because the out-of-pocket and "annual OOP maximums" are so high that it would decimate my bank account. I would like to see some research on what has happened with medical-debt bankruptcies since Obamacare was enacted. That was supposed to be one of the justifications for it. It's very hard for me to believe that medical-debt bankruptcies are not still taking place, with all the out-of-pocket costs which are many thousands of dollars.

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Great speech…and thanks for clearing up the truth about WOKENESS!

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Jun 7·edited Jun 7

Oh, dude. What makes *liberalism* so insidious is that it believes it can address problems it created. Wokeism is liberalism taken to its logical conclusion. The answer isn't more liberalism or moving the country more left to heal pathological leftism. It's yanking society back from the abyss. I wish guys like this could see that. What makes wokeism so insidious is the liberalism that enabled it, allowed it entertained it, excused it, indulged it, ignored it, and thought it wasn't so bad. Sorry.

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Oh, Jen, THAT is PERFECT!

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You should talk to more liberals about what they think liberal means. It sounds like your definition of liberalism is left-wing stalinism. Trouble with labels is that they mean different things to different people.

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So, what drinks did you choose?

I could see going with WHISKEY neat cause, Repubs.

or maybe Bud Light cause ;-^)

Stay thirsty my friend!

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Yeah whatever. When you stop calling yourself a liberal which you are nowhere near being you might start to scrape the truth. You're part of the problem. That the problem has grown exponentially to the point your existence is threatened is what you're subconsciously.acknowledging.

No one cares if you're a homosexual. How you satisfy physical needs is only your business. You people are a collective of malcontents that don't quite grasp decorum. The very animals you've culivated are those that will come for you.

Loathesome leftists

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Greet speech.

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Thanks dude, well said, all of it

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Ben! You are so brave! This resonates so much with me. Thank you for giving us centrists a voice 🙏.

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