Convicted Felon Picks "Never-Trump Guy" for Veep

I think that I’m going to vote third party because I can’t stomach Trump.  I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.

--J. D. Vance, 

NPR "Fresh Air"

August 17, 2016

The words quoted were spoken when Trump was making his first run for the Presidency. Vance is now the junior Republican senator from Ohio, who began his political career just 18 months ago in January 2023 and today was formally named the vice-presidential candidate at the Republican convention in Milwaukee.  

Vance's remarkable rise from childhood poverty to Yale Law School to author and journalist to the heights of national politics is very well documented in his Wikipedia article as well as today's report on his nomination by the Associated Press.  I recommend these sources to all my truckbuddies for reading and reflection.

In 2016, Vance repeatedly condemned Trump harshly.  But by 2021, Vance had become one of Trump's staunchest supporters.  Now what on earth could make a smart guy like that do a total 180?  I wonder.  I highly recommend watching the following reports by Rachel Maddow and by Nicolle Wallace on Vance's stunning transformation from outspoken never-Trumper to toady-in-chief:

And if there's still any question in your mind where Vance stands, check out this New York Times report from last December that begins, "When a historian wrote an essay the other day warning that the election of former President Donald J. Trump next year could lead to dictatorship, one of Mr. Trump’s allies quickly responded by calling for the historian to be sent to prison."  Yep, it was Senator Vance - himelf a published book author and writer for the likes of CNN and the NYT -  who wanted a fellow writer thrown in jail merely for daring to suggest that the divine DJT could ever possibly become a dictator.  Perish the thought.

Who's really on the side of democracy here, and who's all for dictatorship, hmm?

For another perspective on the crisis in American politics, listen to the remarks by former U.S. Representative (R-Ill.) Adam Kinzinger on the Stephen Colbert show earlier this evening:

Part 2 of 3 - remarks about Vance

While in Congress, Kinzinger was an outspoken critic of Trump - one of the very few Republicans who had the guts to call a spade a spade - and served as one of the two Republican members on the January 6 Committee that conducted an exhaustive inquiry into Trump's failed self-coup in 2021.

And just for laughs, though it is no laughing matter, you could read this dimwitted opinion piece (or plain old propaganda?) by a completely cluleless Guardian contributor in the UK:  

Blue MAGA:  We Need to Talk about the Cult-like Turn of the Democratic Party.

That's as Orwellian a wordfuck as I ever saw:  black is white, white is black, and 2 + 2 = 5.  Sad!

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MIchelle Obama: Vote Like Our LIves Depend on It

The former First Lady gave an impassioned keynote speech yesterday on the first night of the (virtual() Democratic National Convention, and while it might have sounded a bit less scripted before a live audience, her message was right on target. Excerpt:

So what do we do now? What's our strategy? Over the past four years, a lot of people have asked me, "When others are going so low, does going high still really work?" My answer: going high is the only thing that works, because when we go low, when we use those same tactics of degrading and dehumanizing others, we just become part of the ugly noise that's drowning out everything else. We degrade ourselves. We degrade the very causes for which we fight.

But let's be clear: going high does not mean putting on a smile and saying nice things when confronted by viciousness and cruelty. Going high means taking the harder path. It means scraping and clawing our way to that mountain top. Going high means standing fierce against hatred while remembering that we are one nation under God, and if we want to survive, we've got to find a way to live together and work together across our differences.

And going high means unlocking the shackles of lies and mistrust with the only thing that can truly set us free: the cold hard truth.

So let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.

Now, I understand that my message won't be heard by some people. We live in a nation that is deeply divided, and I am a Black woman speaking at the Democratic Convention. But enough of you know me by now. You know that I tell you exactly what I'm feeling. You know I hate politics. But you also know that I care about this nation. You know how much I care about all of our children.

So if you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this: if you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don't make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.

What I Say:  All my truckbuddies, take heed.  There is no reason to fear that Trump will start a dictatorship if he wins this election.  The dictatorship has already begun.  It's here.  It's real.  This is happening.



Trump says, If I lose, it means the election is rigged.  Or to put that another way:  No election is valid unless I win.  If that is not the declaration of a dictatorship over these United States, what the hell is?  You waiting for a nice, polite little ceremony in the Rose Garden or something?

It's no longer a question of if or when: he has the Constitution in one hand, and a lighted match in the other. What are you going to do about it?

I'll tell you what, boys: your Head Trucker is old and infirm, and can barely make a circuit around the grocery aisles anymore, much less stand all day and night in a voting line, but with God's help, he is going to do all he can to make sure his vote counts on November 3rd.

I hope you will, too. Or else you might never get to vote again. Don't think it can't happen here. It already has.

Convention Recap: Three Speeches

For reasons I'll explain in a later post, I missed watching the convention this week, but overnight here I've been catching up with the major speeches and things. Probly all you boys have seen these already, but in case you missed them too, here's my three favorite speeches from the convention.

1. Zach Wahls pays a short but fervent tribute to gay families and "My Two Moms":



Money quote:

Mr. Romney, my family is just as real as yours.

2. Bill Clinton demonstrates that he still has the golden tongue when it comes to oratory, and teaches the Republicans a little something about arithmetic:



Money quote:

Don’t you ever forget, when you hear them talking about this, that Republican economic policies quadrupled the national debt before I took office, in the 12 years before I took office, and doubled the debt in the eight years after I left, because it defied arithmetic.

It was a highly inconvenient thing for them in our debates that I was just a country boy from Arkansas and I came from a place where people still thought two and two was four.

It’s arithmetic. We simply cannot afford to give the reins of government to someone who will double-down on trickle-down.

Now, think about this. President Obama’s plan cuts the debt, honors our values, brightens the future of our children, our families, and our nation. It’s a heck of a lot better. It passes the arithmetic test and, far more important, it passes the values test.

My fellow Americans, all of us in this grand hall and everybody watching at home, when we vote in this election, we’ll be deciding what kind of country we want to live in. If you want a winner-take- all, you’re-on-your-own society, you should support the Republican ticket. But if you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibility, a we’re-all-in-this-together society, you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

3. The honeymoon being long over now, there's not the same excitement about Obama's campaign this time around - but he still had your Head Trucker in happy tears by the time he finished:




The money quote, which references the gays three times, among other things:

We don’t think the government can solve all our problems. But we don’t think that the government is the source of all our problems, any more than are welfare recipients, or corporations, or unions, or immigrants, or gays, or any other group we’re told to blame for our troubles.

Because, America, we understand that this democracy is ours.

We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which asks only what’s in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.

As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. That’s what we believe.

So you see, the election four years ago wasn’t about me.

It was about you. My fellow citizens, you were the change.

You’re the reason there’s a little girl with a heart disorder in Phoenix who’ll get the surgery she needs because an insurance company can’t limit her coverage.

You did that.

You’re the reason a young man in Colorado who never thought he’d be able to afford his dream of earning a medical degree is about to get that chance.

You made that possible.

You’re the reason a young immigrant who grew up here and went to school here and pledged allegiance to our flag will no longer be deported from the only country she’s ever called home, why selfless soldiers won’t be kicked out of the military because of who they are or who they love; why thousands of families have finally been able to say to the loved ones who served us so bravely: “Welcome home, welcome home.”

You did that. You did that.

If you turn away now--if you turn away now, if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn’t possible, well, change will not happen. If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void: the lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election, and those who are making it harder for you to vote; Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry, or control health care choices that women should be making for themselves.

Only you can make sure that doesn’t happen. Only you have the power to move us forward.

Those of you who watched the convention live will recall that after the President and his family took their bows, they were joined onstage by the Vice-President and his family - and the song playing at that time was this one by another pair of your Head Trucker's favorites, Brooks and Dunn. This song sums up all that America means to me in these two simple lines:

We all get a chance,
Everybody gets to dance

I hope it means something to you fellas, too.

The Two Americas

Yup. Two very different places, two very different peoples. Related; but distinct. Like your own family and your in-laws. Or like Yankees and Southerners, only not demarcated along quite such neatly geographic lines, despite all that's said about the blue state/red state thing. These Americas live next door to each other, literally.

From the Chicago Tribune:

In Denver's America, George Bush is the president, he's a Republican, and almost everything is his fault. In St. Paul's America, liberals are running and ruining the country, and some guy named George makes a brief cameo from a video screen, never to be heard from again. . . .

The back-to-back Democratic and Republican National Conventions sketched wildly different pictures of America, its challenges and the qualities it needs in its next president. Now the visions will collide for the two-month homestretch of the general election campaign, and the outcome could depend on which version rings truer with voters.

“It was like night and day between the two. . . . They were just describing different experiences altogether,” said Paul Green, a Roosevelt University professor of public policy who traveled from Chicago for both conventions, as he has every four years since 1984.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-two_americas_bdsep07,0,3127838.story

On a different note, the Trib says about the national conventions, "Most of all, they tell stories and set priorities—a once-in-four-years opportunity to show voters what each party is all about." Yup. And contrary to friends who think it's all a big, unnecessary show, I think it is more necessary than not, part of the social fabric of the nation.

As I remarked to one friend, You don't have to get married in front of God and everybody; you could just move in together and start shacking up. But that would be to miss the essential point of a wedding: the public affirmation of the choice you've made, and the public validation of that choice. It matters. A lot.

Which of course is exactly what we gay folks have been missing out on all these many centuries . . . but that's another post.

The Democratic Convention in Three Minutes

Link to Time magazine video: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1485842900/bctid1760455467

There is no political party that has a monopoly on truth and goodness; no human being who can single-handedly right all the wrongs of the world. But omg, when I look at this capsule summary of the Dems' convention, it sure feels like home to me. Cool water in a parched, arid land. A big, loud, proud family all together at the table . . . where everybody has a place. Where everybody belongs.

Unlike that other convention, so notable for an unbroken sea of straight, white, tight faces.

And even though this show, like all shows, has an admixture of conscious theatricality . . . omg, how can anyone who truly believes in "liberty and justice for all" not feel the fresh breeze of dawn blowing across his face? A quickening of the pulse, a catch in the throat . . . an inspiration.