JD Vance is worried about democracy in America. And Vance is a man who knows a threat to democracy when he sees one.
In 2016, for example, Vance fretted he “might have to hold [his] nose and vote for Hillary Clinton” because, as he put it in a concerned message to his former roommate at Yale, America was on the cusp of electing “a cynical asshole” at best and a veritable “Hitler” at worst. (Don’t say JD didn’t warn you, America.)
Fast forward eight years and the GOP presidential ticket is Maybe-Hitler/Vance. But only by the grace of God (who’s apparently a Nazi) and a quarter inch. 80 years to the month after a briefcase bomb exploded in the Wolf’s Lair — and a mere 48 hours before Vance became the designated inheritor of Mein Covfefe — an amateur sniper pulled a Claus von Stauffenberg in Butler, Pennsylvania, missing Donald Trump’s pompadour by half a pinky nail.
Like the original eight decades previous, Vance’s maybe-Führer escaped the attempt on his life with a minor ear injury. Vance knew just who to blame: The arrogant, early-thirties Yale twit who forgot where he came from and called Trump Hitler eight years ago. I’m just kidding. He blamed Joe Biden.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance said, against a collage of surreal images depicting a bloodied Trump, fist raised and shrieking about “fights” on July 13.
Again, the irony was almost so ridiculous as to elude satire. It was Vance, in 2016, who said Trump was “an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs.” It was Vance who, that same year, repeatedly went on record describing Trump in the most caustic terms imaginable.
Vance has seen the light, though. Or he’s come over to the dark side, however you want to look at it. Now, he’s a dictator ditto who readily traffics in senseless balderdash and glaring contradictions. On Monday evening, at his first solo rally as Reich vice, Vance said Democrats, by moving to replace the man who Vance blamed for Trump’s near-death experience, were subverting the democratic process.
“What is going on in this country is absolutely disgraceful,” Vance sneered, mimicking Trump’s cadence almost verbatim. He then chalked up Biden’s decision to step aside from the campaign to a conspiracy hatched in “a smoke-filled room” by “George Soros and Barack Obama” who, along with “a couple of elite[s]” took it upon themselves “to throw Joe Biden overboard.”
That, Vance declared, on behalf of… I don’t know, a forlorn, bitter Joe Biden maybe? is “not how it works.” The process of replacing Biden constitutes “a threat to democracy” and “an insult to voters.”
A couple of things. First, if Vance is looking to place blame for the acute concerns about Biden’s mental acuity which ultimately led to his ouster, he might look in the mirror. The GOP’s ceaseless mocking goes a very long way towards explaining the national fixation with Biden’s health in the lead up to the debate in June.
Second, voters overwhelmingly didn’t want Biden in the first place, nor did they want Trump. Poll after poll showed Americans vehemently opposed a Biden-Trump rematch. A lot of that was just partisanship (i.e., many Republicans desperately wanted Trump on the ballot and a lot of Democrats were “ridin’ with Biden” all the way, come hell or high dementia), but generally speaking, the country wanted fresh faces.
It was Trump’s conquestorial usurpation of the GOP and Democrats’ failure to take seriously the risk that Biden wouldn’t be physically able to serve a second term, which foisted upon the country a popularity contest for the unpopular, as I’ve repeatedly described the Biden-Trump match up.
Of course, it’s best to take Vance with a grain of salt. After all, the words coming out of his mouth aren’t actually his. They’re the words of “a cynical asshole” who “might be America’s Hitler,” to employ the language of the real Vance.
Meanwhile, Harris secured the delegates she needs to be the Democratic nominee. Republicans might sue, or some advocacy group on their behalf, but any such efforts to undermine Harris’s campaign through the courts will likely be thwarted by the calendar if nothing else: There just isn’t enough time for any such cases to make it to Trump’s panel of beholden clerics on the Supreme Court before the election.
So, if Trump and Vance want to get into the White House, they’re going to have to go through Harris. No problem. Right, JD?
The Trump true believers would love to disagree with you but they haven’t been fed the appropriate propaganda talking points to parrot, yet.
Spot on
People say Republicans already expressing buyer’s remorse over the selection of the Hillbilly Phony for the no. 2 spot on the ticket. LOL.
Honestly, I thought he was a more effective politician than he appears to be. He’s kinda corny a little bit. And not in the Trump way. Genuinely corny, which isn’t an asset on this ticket, I don’t think.
Fake Red Neck.
Real Cunr.
Although it wasn’t the original intent of the word, I refer to coffee as covfefe nearly every single day.
The GOP talking about the Democrats being anti-democratic is laughable. They had a candidate in declining health, so he resigned before the convention. End of story. They are scared shitless. Hey maybe they still win but the dynamics of the race has flipped. Who is too old and is losing it now?
There are many sources of irony in the current situation, the main one being that there actually seems to be little difference between the cognitive realities of MAGA boi and the “grown-up” who came to his senses. Our new candidate for the grown-up role needs an understudy and the apprentice fascist may well end up as the top dude midway through the next go-round. As my late best friend used to say, I’m not mature enough for this ***t.
Seeing Vance and all of the other politicians that have gone from never trump to well…let’s just say bending the knee, it makes me wonder what my price would be to make that conversion. Granted, politicians are a special breed of self-serving creatures, but even then, I don’t see how I could ever justify that to myself. Guessing we’ll never know my price though…
Your unapologetically fierce wit and verve is always appreciated, but perhaps more so now than ever. These are surreal and absurd times indeed. Please keep the Heisenberg-unleashed election dispatches coming as you wish– I suspect they will help many of us persevere as the macabre theatrics unfold!
Vance has no honor. I wonder how that is going to go with the wife though?
as far as I’m concerned Vance is nothing more than a purchased politician by Peter Thiel…I have no doubt that Thiel’s donations to Hitler (Trump) bought his endorsement for Vance in the very contested Ohio Senate race in 2022, and now have elevated him to veep…Trump was arrogant in his selection (understandably when thinking Biden was the opponent imho), and simply went for the money…hope his buyer’s remorse continues to play out in the next 100+ days or so…
Both parties are ridiculous and insane. But democracy does not need an external threat, it is a flawed system by design, as it is basically a popularity contest where the biggest group of people that think the same win.
And when in the history of the world, has a large group of people that think the same ever done any good ? NEVER.
So long as we put democracy on a pedestal, and we continued to be mostly “law” centered (solving any and every problem with a law, written by those that won the popularity contest), things will get worse.
You might want to consider what Winston Churchill once said: “Democracy is the worst system of government ever devised; except for all the others”
The markets are in the process of pricing in a Harris victory and a Trump defeat. I’m not sure how deep the current correction goes.
The sell-off started well before Biden stepped down. Back then, I thought the Mag 7 were leading us down after reading JD Vance’s opinions on the need for more anti-trust action against large tech companies. Alongside some creeping pessimism around when AI would actually start to increase corporate earnings.
Assuming no exogenous events: markets will likely set new ATHs by Q1 2025 regardless of who wins the election.
Current weakness in equities is an unwind of massive over leveraged positioning/trading tactics in numerous areas of the financial world that H has aptly covered over the past few weeks. It also aligns with pre-election and season liquidity (or illiquidity) that are normal/regular trends historically.
I mean fair points about Vance but did you not write this 5 years ago about Harris and Biden? Point being – opinions change…..
Having set Joe up, Harris delivered a haymaker.
“And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing”, Harris said. “And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”
“ Waylaid, and seemingly on the verge of tears, Biden tried to fight back. “It’s a mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true, number one”, he said, clearly floundering. “Number two, if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I’m happy to do that.””
Is this is a serious comment? That comparison is laughable.
Kamala didn’t call Joe Biden “Hitler,” my friend. Nor did she call him “cultural heroin.”
Apparently, you want to push this issue, so… here you go:
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy. I never liked him.” — J.D. Vance
“Trump’s unfit for our nation’s highest office.” — J.D. Vance
“My god [Trump’s] an idiot.” — J.D. Vance
“I can’t stomach Trump. He’s noxious.” — J.D. Vance
“[Trump] is leading the white working class to a very dark place.” — J.D. Vance
“I think there’s a chance, if I feel like Trump has a really good chance of winning, that I might have to hold my nose and vote for Hillary Clinton.” — J.D. Vance
“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler. How’s that for discouraging?” — J.D. Vance
I can go on, and on, and on, and on. There are dozens of these.
“Point being” — Your attempt to compare this to Harris and Biden in the debate isn’t apples-to-oranges, it’s apples to … I don’t know, apples to something that’s even less like apples than oranges.
On the bright side, I’m glad to see at least someone knows how to use the search feature to locate older articles. I was beginning to think it was totally useless.
It’s not the comparison of what they said that I am pointing out. Because agreed, they are not apples to oranges or apples to anything. The comparison is that they are politicians – they will say and do anything to get elected, get on the right side of an issue, etc…
Harris said this in 2019
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she believes women who say they felt uncomfortable after receiving unwanted touching from former Vice President Joe Biden.
“I believe them and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it,” Harris said at a presidential campaign event in Nevada.
I sincerely doubt she believes that.
Biden said Romney was going to put black people in chains. I seriously doubt he ever thought that when he said it or since.
I am not in agreement with Vance at all, I just think politicians will say whatever they want just to be elected (Harris, Vance, Biden, Trump, anyone….)
PS And yes long time subscribers/readers (6 years and counting) use the search feature. I even pulled up all your Navarro / Mnuchin goodness from 2018-2019 when I actually saw Peter on stage at the convention.