The GOP needs to convince voters that Donald Trump and JD Vance are regular guys, and, manifestly, they are not.

It would be strange for Democrats to attack the Republican presidential ticket for being “weird” if it weren’t true. But those men are getting weirder by the day.

Former president Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), is off to a wobbly start. A Harris 2024 campaign email sent on Friday was headlined, “JD Vance Is a Creep (Who Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide).” The statement continued, “JD Vance is weird. Voters know it – Vance is the most unpopular VP pick in decades.”

It was bad enough when footage resurfaced of a 2021 interview in which Vance called Democrats “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.” Things got worse last week when Vance offered a non-apology, blaming “people” for “focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said.”

Uh, okay, but that doesn’t help at all. The substance — which Vance said he stands by — is asserting that adults without children do not deserve an equal say  in the nation’s affairs. Another unearthed clip of Vance showed him arguing that parents, when they vote, should be able to cast an extra ballot for each child in their family who is under voting age. He didn’t take that back, either, going only so far as to claim it was a “thought experiment” and not a firm policy position.

  • morrowind
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    38
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    Having children is by far more common than not having children.

    Factually incorrect. In 2022, about 40.26 percent of all family households in the United States had their own children under age 18 living in the household. To be clear, when I say “children”, I mean by age too, I’m not concerned about giving 80 yr-olds with 50yr-old children more voting power.

    sperm donors/receivers

    talking like this just tells me you’re unserious about this conversation. I have no further desire to engage with you

    • grte@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      25
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      Factually incorrect. In 2022, about 40.26 percent of all family households in the United States had their own children under age 18 living in the household. To be clear, when I say “children”, I mean by age too, I’m not concerned about giving 80 yr-olds with 50yr-old children more voting power.

      Your assertion was that, “Parents have a greater stake in our nations future”. Do people suddenly stop caring about the future when their children move out? Perhaps you don’t think parents of adult children should have extra votes but you suggested that they care more about the future and the totality of people who have children is still greater than those who do not, putting that class in the driver’s seat.

      talking like this just tells me you’re unserious about this conversation. I have no further desire to engage with you

      More like your stances are weak and unsupportable and you want an easy exit.

      • morrowind
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        32
        ·
        4 months ago

        My stances are perfectly supportable, but I have no desire to debate with immature people on the internet

        • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          4 months ago

          In order for your stance to be correct, not only do we have to have it in our nature to care more about the future, if we have kids, as well as that, what they think is good for the future, is.

          Show proof of these things, and then your argument hold water. Until then this all just what seems like it should be true to you.

    • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      4 months ago

      So once your kids are 18 you don’t get to vote anymore? What about grandkids? Do they count? It seems like step children don’t since Harris has some of them. Would those kids still count toward the other parent even if that parent is a dead beat? What about adopted kids?

      • morrowind
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        11
        ·
        4 months ago

        None of these concerns matter with my proposed solution, which is to lower the voting age.

        • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          4 months ago

          Which is entirely unrelated to giving parents more of a vote than adults without kids.

          You can say the youth should get more of a say and we should lower the voting age if you want; but that’s not what Vance is saying.

          • morrowind
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            4 months ago

            It is pretty heavily related because parents have influence over their children