The Real Drag on the Republican Ticket
Donald is a bigger disaster than JD (it’s true)
JD Vance is an unmitigated disaster.
He hasn’t been able to shake the charge that he’s a weird misogynist, and his attacks on “childless cat ladies” have exposed him as the narrow-minded creep he is. And this was before Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her running mate. The contrast between them has driven Vance’s favorable numbers even further into negative territory.
Even so, Vance is the stronger part of the Republican ticket.
Because as embarrassing as it is to watch a grown man subjugate himself to Donald, Vance is actually staying on message. The message is vile—fueled by the fascist ideology propounded in Project 2025—but he’s articulating it clearly and he’s sticking to the script.
This past weekend, Vance hit the Sunday shows. He was the same smug and condescending fraud people have come to hate, but he never wavered from his talking points. When asked about his attacks on childless women, he pivoted and claimed he’s just pro-family. He’s neither sincere nor compelling, but he knows how to dodge topics he’s not interested in discussing and .
Donald, on the other hand, seems to be on a mission to prove he’s still relevant and it’s not going well. His “interview” with Elon Musk over on Twitter Space may have been the nadir. He claimed that 66 million people joined but I think he simply conflated two numbers—the approximately 1 million people who logged on, and the 65 million of us who were laughing from afar.
In addition to his incoherent and hateful ramblings about immigrants, at one point Donald actually said Vice President Kamala Harris’ portrait on the new cover of Time Magazine looks like his wife, Melania.
I’m not even sure how to interpret that and I’m a trained clinical psychologist. From everything we’ve seen in the last three weeks, it’s clear Donald’s already tenuous grasp of reality is deteriorating. The success of Kamala Harris’ campaign is getting to him in part because he knows there is nothing he can do to stop it.
On Tuesday, Axios reported that Donald is running an “alternative reality campaign.”
“In former President Trump's version of reality, Vice President Kamala Harris' crowds are AI-generated, he's leading in nearly all the ‘real’ polls, and President Biden might reclaim his spot on the ticket at any moment.
“Why it matters: None of those things is true. And Trump's advisers and allies worry he's spending so much time in alternative reality that it's undermining his real-world campaign.”
The man who is running to be leader of the free world has lost his grip on reality and is conjuring opponents, poll numbers and AI-generated crowds from thin air. Compared to that, JD Vance seems grounded, if appalling.
Vance is still a creep. After all, he’s completely debased himself in the service of getting Donald Trump elected. But at least his numbers show us that Americans can see through his Hillbilly Elegy schtick to the poser he really is. If only the same held true for Donald.
As Vance should know by now, only Donald Trump can get away with attacking veterans and women. It’s an odd commentary on the Republican Party and its base that the most unpopular running mate in modern history is the only functional member on the ticket.
A lot of Republicans have begun to notice what a disaster the party has on its hands. Nikki Haley is doing media hits criticizing the Trump campaign for running one of the weakest races in recent memory. The fissure within the Republican Party are becoming more obvious every day.
Later this week, Vance is going to Pennsylvania with some other Republican veterans, a couple of whom were a part of the attempted coup on January 6th. There he will likely trash Tim Walz and his service. He’ll try to swiftboat him, just as the George W. Bush campaign swiftboated war hero John Kerry. That’s what Republicans are reduced to because all Donald Trump has to offer is the anger, fear and desperation of a man whose act has grown tired. He’s losing, he’s losing it, and the only thing he has going for him is JD Vance.
So yeah, he’s got nothing.
His long awaited smiting is at hand.
Trump may be self-immolating, but this is exactly the time the Dems have to be alert, aware and vigilant to the LAST MINUTE! He’s psychotic but his tribe wants him to win for their own benefit, and will provide plenty of tricks to guarantee they can claim success. It’s our job to be one step ahead of them.