Knowing how to laugh at or with your own is invaluable in modern politics, and is something conservatives just cannot do. I had to smile when I read this mild jab at the rhetorical stylings of Joe Biden from FiveThirtyEight's analysis of Delaware in their Road to 270 series, a state-by-state analysis of the presidential race and some of the bigger downballots.

One of the great flaws of the modern Republican narrative is that it must, by its very nature, disenfranchise a huge number of Americans in order to be successful. They've gotten savvy enough to know that it can't be overtly racial disenfranchisement, but sexual orientation, religion, profession and, most importantly, where you live can still all be factors of what a real American is and isn't.

As I see it, there are three reasons we have a penal system in our society. Our communities should be protected from those who have demonstrated an inability to keep themselves from harming others. Those that do harm others should have the opportunity to rehabilitate themselves. And there have to be demonstrable consequences to bad acts to give those who might be thinking of harming others reason not to.