David Lynch on politics, smoking and cats

I had always heard that David Lynch was surprisingly conservative politically, given the transgressive nature of some of his movies. Well, it seems the situation is actually more complex (and confusing) than that. In a rambling, funny interview he gave to Nerve.com a while back, Lynch explained that he's basically a Democrat, but he's a reluctant one because he believes that Democrats treat smokers worse than cats.

"I'm a Democrat now. And I've always been a Democrat, really. But I don't like the Democrats a lot, either, because I'm a smoker, and I think a lot of the Democrats have come up with these rules for non-smoking. And I don't think that that's necessarily so bad, but they have to give the smokers a place. You're just like an animal now. Not a clean animal, but a mangy, soiled, urine-soaked animal with remnants, and you're sent outdoors. Animals on my dad's ranch were always kept outdoors, because they weren't like house pets. Now, house pets are treated way better than smokers.

"(Cats are) beautiful, they're brought inside, it's warm, and there're all these little toys for them. I saw on TV that there're even little steps you can get so they can crawl up on the bed in your room. And you can get two steps for the price of one if you order real soon. There are no f***in' steps for any smokers. There is no way to crawl up into bed to have a smoke. You're sent outdoors. And they don't give a sh** what the temperature is. Or if it's raining. It's beyond the beyond. And no one even spoke to me about this. I wake up one morning and it's reality."

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