“Sparkles” photo by Susan Thistlethwaite
J.D. Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, has a net negative approval rating following their convention.
Personally, I’d like to thank cats for that and the women with whom they live.
On a Fox News program, Vance famously said, “women who haven’t given birth like Kamala Harris are childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives,” and have “no direct stake” in America.
“Childless” as a critique of one’s presumed lack of patriotism is enormously revealing. It seems that to Vance women have no standing as citizens, even as human beings, independent of their role as baby-makers. It is a dismissive and really very hurtful view.
Jennifer Aniston of the enormously popular Friends TV show who has been open about her struggles with fertility called Vance out for this stance: “All I can say is... Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day," Aniston wrote. "I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too."
In a party well-known for its misogyny, Vance still manages to stand out. Vance objects to people not staying in marriages that are perhaps even abusive. He railed against being questioned about whether he thinks women should stay in violent marriages and played the victim card that he and his mother had been victims of domestic violence.
I read Hillbilly Elegy, Vance’s book, when it first came out, and I shelved it as just another faux economic populist “explanation” of why working-class white men like Trump. I thought at the time it was baloney, and I have not changed my view on that.
In that book, Vance manages not to even see and thus name racism in why many white men (and women) rejected President Obama. He disguises racism as anti-elitism.
Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, who is clearly emerging as a strong vice-presidential pick for presidential candidate Kamala Harris, just said , “J.D. Vance is a phony, he's fake. I mean, he first says that Donald Trump is like Hitler, and now he's acting like he's Lincoln. The problem with J.D. Vance is he has no conviction, but I guess his running mate has 34."
I think that sums it up nicely.
I thought of trying to interview some cats for this Substack, but I assumed they would just stalk away.
I’m sure they’re right.
Wonderful! And I'm a dog lover, but I'm with the cats on this one: "stalking away"!
This is the best!!