Does Tom Cotton understand the only people who would respond to his Marion Barry dog whistle are old and white and already in his camp?

Young people don't know who he is or don't know why he's supposed to be so bad.

Time to put these one-trick ponies out to pasture. #dc4life

Case in point https://twitter.com/groombz09/status/1276364942367744000

Hey now, I love a good Ral-Jon joke

Even though no one ever gets them https://twitter.com/musicman495/status/1276365574835224577

Two Marion Barry stories:

My friend Ruben @RCastanedaUSN was a WaPo reporter covering the crack wars who was also conveniently (inconveniently?) into crack himself.

It's not a secret, he wrote a book about it.

You should buy it, it's great.

1/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J5ED8EW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Definitely buy it, he also uncovered a police brutality scandal later in Maryland later in the book. He was ahead of his time.

So anyway, his editor called and said, we got you a room at the Vista, they're about to bust the Mayor. Head over there.

2/

So Ruben went over there, checked in, hung out in the lobby, they busted Mayor Barry, he filed his story. All in a day's work.

Then he was like, "Cool! Free hotel room."

So he called one of his "strawberries" and they spent the night at the Vista smoking crack.

3/

So when I first heard this, I said,

"Ruben this is the greatest story I've ever heard in my life. So did you do it because you knew it would be a great story that you could tell for the rest of your life?"

And he said, "No, Sally. I did it because I wanted to smoke crack."

4/

I would have probably done it just to tell the story, but I guess that isn't how crack works.

Okay the second story isn't nearly as awesome, but it's important.

5/

Summer 1990. I was a freshman in college.

The only thing I knew about drugs was that they were Bad and I should Just Say No.

I was also pretty sure Crack was Whack, which was Really Bad.

And I knew Marion Barry had been busted smoking crack, which was Really Really Bad.

6/

My first day in DC, we all walked from Longworth down PA Avenue to eat lunch at Tune Inn.

At the time I would have sworn we walked a mile, but in reality it's like 4 blocks. (I wore the WRONG shoes.)

7/

We passed Lustre cleaners, which I think is still there. Instead of a storefront with a door, it's sort of open air, you just walk in.

There was a crowd and there were three women getting people their dry cleaning. They were all wearing buttons in support of Mayor Barry.

8/

I don't remember what catchy slogan the buttons said, someone else might.

But I was very confused. Drugs were Bad. Crack was Whack. Why would anyone support that?

I shudder to thing how I worded the question, but I asked one of the women about it.

9/

She stopped what she was doing, and she looked me in the eye and smiled and, I'll never forget this, she said,

"I believe in JUSTICE."

I know there were some follow up question, but she kept smiling, and she put her arm around me, and she talked to me until I understood.

10/

My friends were long gone, and when I finally got to Tune Inn no one was interested in my great awakening.

But that moment is seared into my brain. I remember her voice like it was yesterday.

And it changed the framework through which I viewed...pretty much everything. Forever.