“Oh, JD Vance, You just effed up in a way that I’ve never seen in my political life. And I worked for Sarah Palin.”
- Nicole Wallace.
I thought that too and immediately went, “If he’s trying to lessen the political divide, that’s too little, too late.”
Surprisingly, he does come close to that approach:
Vance asked rally-goers not to discard lifelong relationships “because people vote the wrong way,” saying, “Here in our movement, we love every citizen of this country. We want their prosperity because we love this nation, and that means loving the people who live here.”
That’s not how MAGA operate. They are fueled by hatred and anger. Besides, Vance doesn’t have the power nor immunity from criticism that their dear leader has. Asking people to “love each other” is close to hippie-talk, which MAGAts despise.
Not only that, but telling their own followers “not to discard relationships” is a weird take. I get the feeling it’s mostly the anti-MAGAts that are cutting the haters out of their lives, not the other way around. People who define themselves by their social status are unlikely to cut off benign contacts - they like keeping followers of lower status around, both for the power and so they can punch down to lift themselves whenever they feel like it. They only cut off those who threaten their higher status, like those who speak up or fight back, or who can “tarnish” their image, such as family members who are LGBTQ+, who date interracially, or do whatever else they disapprove of.
If Vance is expecting that group to listen to him, he sorely misunderstands everything that’s going on. The only way to reconnect such family is to take the hate out of them and get them to honestly redeem themselves to those they have hurt. Which… yeah, that’s not happening.
God damn dude. I’d read your blog if you want to promote it here.
Maybe it’s because I just watched a John Oliver video, but your writing style leaps off the page as impactful as it is truthful.
Personally I think the puppets are full of hate. The puppeters pull the strings knowing that if they sew hate and chaos, they can reap the profits of their destruction.
And it is SO HARD to accuse them of that, because that’s exactly their line of rhetoric towards us, and that’s why it works. If it was just us showcasing how corrupt and morally bankrupt they are, it would serve to put a spotlight on their behavior. But by doing the same back to us, it comes off as unsustanciated chaos and finger pointing. Which doesn’t put a spotlight on anyone.
Here in Ohio we have Sharrod Brown running a political campaign for democrats. I forget the republican opponents name. But the republican opponents campaign commercial was along the lines of “Sharrod Brown approves of born male athletes competing in a dress in high school female sports! Sharrod Brown has shown support for trans rights! Sharrod Brown is a LIBERAL!!!”
And my reaction to this was…even if you ignore the fact that ONE trans athlete was allowed to compete with female volleyball team. ONE. The commercial makes it sound like every school has hundreds of trans athletes. There was one. In the country. One.
But let’s ignore that for a second. Lets say hypothetically that every womens volleyball team DID have trans athletes. Or lets go even further. Let’s say every volleyball team was now all genders allowed. Lets say Sharrod Brown approved that policy.
The commercial is talking about it like I should be mad that trans athletes competed with female athletes. But my reaction was simply this…
WHO GIVES A FUCK??? IT’S HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS!!! WHO GIVES A SINGLE FUUUUUUCK WHO WINS OR LOSES???
I see no reason men and women can’t play volleyball together. That includes trans. I can’t say I’ve played a lot of volleyball in my life. Not really my thing. Haven’t watched a whole lot either…but I will say, the few games of volleyball I HAVE played, my penis rarely if ever became an active factor in the game. It gave me no advantage. So I fail to see why a trans athlete would have any advantage. And even if he/she DID have an advantage? I would still circle back to the whole “Who gives a shit?” defense.
And I suspect those in power don’t give a shit either. It’s more of a case of “make the base angry over nothing, and we can control them with issues that don’t matter if we lose control over. Therefore there’s no risk.”
