As I mentioned last week, J.D. Vance’s standard response to being quoted accurately is to whine about how unfair the media are. Did he complain too many Democratic leaders are childless women with no stake in the future? Well obviously what he was really saying is that the Democrats have anti-family, anti-child policies (in contrast to Republicans?), how could anyone misconstrue that?
Now Usha Vance is insisting we completely misunderstood J.D.: what he’s really saying is that “it can be really hard to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder.”
Um, no. He didn’t talk policy, he said childless women should not be leaders. And he’s said the same thing on other occasions, or said Kamala Harris should “get her own kids to brainwash” rather than come for his and Usha’s. I look forward to how the Vances will explain J.D.’s comment that outside of Harvard Law professor Amy Chua he doesn’t know any Chinese-Americans.
I think Vance is an opportunist whose views shift with the wind but I’m sure his misogyny (excepting his own wife and daughter) is deep-rooted and sincere. And this is the man Trump and many Republicans want one step away from the Oval Office — given Trump’s age, not a very big step. And I despise journalist who try to be coy about it, like the NYT saying Vance wants to “break norms and test constitutional limits.” No, he wants a Republican dictatorship. See also this one. Or this one. (More on press bias here).
Of course, a lot of Republicans are fine with misogyny. Vance’s mentor Peter Thiel doesn’t think women should vote because they don’t vote libertarian enough for him — which is to say, I assume, that they don’t believe in a totally unregulated capitalism, which could mean the billionaire might make slightly less money. He also believes the modern US has reached the same point as Germany in the 1920s, when Hitler had to intervene to fix it. He’s also horrified Christianity cares about the downtrodden and oppressed. On the plus side, Vance’s fellow Thiel lackey, Blake Masters is too weird even for Republicans.
Thiel’s not unique. The idea of ending women’s suffrage is one of those quiet parts more of them are saying out loud. After all, having the vote makes women equal citizens in America and misogynists hate that. Hell, Jesse Watters, Tucker Carlson’s even more buffoonish replacement, “thinks” voting for women makes you a woman (I use quotes because I doubt 99 percent of what comes out of Watters’ mouth represents his sincere thoughts).
Equally buffoonish, novelist turned right-wing pundit Andrew Klavan claims women cannot care for themselves so they need to belong to a man. And Harris is a “cackling, venomous serpent.”
Tim Walz being a football coach and former Marine turned non-toxic masculine type is freaking them the hell out. Particularly since he provides students in Minnesota schools with free menstrual products (in contrast to Ron DeSantis who veoted a bill for doing the same). I don’t think the new label “Tampon Tim” is going to hurt him (though slacktivist discusses the way the news media now feel obligated to treat fighting period poverty as a controversial issue, simply because Republicans claim it is)
For more on misogyny and its countless stupidities check out my Undead Sexist Cliches, available in ebook and in paperback.
