The GOP needs to convince voters that Donald Trump and JD Vance are regular guys, and, manifestly, they are not.
It would be strange for Democrats to attack the Republican presidential ticket for being āweirdā if it werenāt true. But those men are getting weirder by the day.
Former president Donald Trumpās running mate, Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), isĀ off to a wobbly start. AĀ Harris 2024 campaignĀ email sent on Friday was headlined, āJD Vance Is a Creep (Who Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide).ā The statement continued, āJD Vance is weird. Voters know it ā Vance is the most unpopular VP pick in decades.ā
It was bad enough when footage resurfaced of a 2021 interview in which Vance called Democrats āa bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that theyāve made.ā Things got worse last week whenĀ Vance offered a non-apology, blaming āpeopleā for āfocusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said.ā
Uh, okay, but that doesnāt help at all. The substance ā which Vance said he stands by ā is asserting that adults without childrenĀ do not deserve an equal sayĀ in the nationās affairs. Another unearthed clip of VanceĀ showed him arguing that parents, when they vote, should be able to cast an extra ballot for each child in their family who is under voting age. He didnāt take that back, either, going only so far as to claim it was a āthought experimentā and not a firm policy position.
Maybe, but nobody cares when you call them facists so Iām not sure what the best move is.
I do actually think the weirdness argument does probably play to the suburban traditional values types who want to believe theyāre the normal ones and everyone else is going crazy.
Exactly. Conservatives hold as their highest values, conformity, compliance, cohesion, authority, sanctity, and tradition. They love adhering to their established norms and standards rather than challenging them. They defer to those whom they view to be in a position of authority. They have lines they do not want crossed, things they hold sacred. To be called āweirdā is to be called as existing outside the norm.
It also works because they are in the minority, it counters the outsized voice brought by all the political bs. (Side note: isnāt it so weird we use an electoral college, all the other democracies have come up with more effective ways to make sure all voices are represented in government)
We literally created the Electoral College as DEI for slave states. It went hand-in-hand with the infamous ā3/5ths Compromiseā that allowed slavers to cast ballots in the names of their slaves, so slavers could cast as many votes as they had slaves.