And we’re back to the races.
I have a few more things to say about the horrific events over the weekend, and I will. I have another draft almost ready to go about the continued fallout from that disastrous debate that occurred a little more than two weeks ago, or twenty years if you’ve actually been trying to follow the news and comment on it. But the news is coming so thick and so fast, I need to comment briefly on several different things in several short posts.
First of all, I want to comment on Donald Trump’s brand new vice presidential candidate pick from my own home state of Ohio. As you may have already heard, Donald Trump just announced that his running mate will be the venture capitalist Senator J. D. Vance. And my comment is: what the heck?
They’re going to balance the already polarizing Republican ticket by running J. D. Vance?
They’re balancing out Trump, a surly white businessman from a red state who hates hillbillies but pretends to have their best interests at heart and who wears far too much makeup, with Vance, a surly white businessman from a red state who hates hillbillies but pretends to have their best interests at heart and wears far too much makeup?
They’re trying to mitigate the bad press Trump is getting because of Project 2025, by nominating a man who openly praises Project 2025?
At least Mike Pence had a soothing voice. Vance is just about the most irritating human being who has ever lived.
What voting bloc is J. D. Vance going to bring to the table? The absolute only people I know who had kind things to say about Vance were well-to-do armchair liberals from the West Coast who read Hillbilly Elegy and made patronizing remarks about Appalachia, and they’re not going to vote for him. Actual Appalachians hate him. I would call him the Rachel Dolezal of hillbillies, but that’s an insult to Rachel Dolezal.
Of course I know the answer to the questions I’ve sputtered. Vance is on the ticket because he’s exactly like Trump, except perhaps for being more of a financial success. He will carry on Trump’s legacy. He’s Trump’s heir apparent, the son Trump never had.
And Trump doesn’t want to be a president, Trump wants to be a king. What’s left of the Republican party is doubling down on authoritarianism in a truly horrifying way. They don’t care about appealing to a wide swath of Americans; they just want to double down on their most enthusiastic base. They don’t care about the undecideds. They don’t care about courting Haley voters. They don’t care about reassuring moderates, of which there aren’t a lot left anyway. They just want their MAGA movement.
And it might work out for them.
Things look awfully dire for democracy just about now.
I refuse to give in to despair, but I’m not going to deny it’s a mess.
I certainly hope Trump’s choice turns out to be as bad for him as it looks.
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