Recapping the VP Debate
Let's play a game called Many Lies and One Truth That Is Totally Infuriating. J.D. Vance, you go first.
Greetings from behind my extra-extra large coffee tumbler.
It’s the morning after the VP debate, during which Tim Walz shared a stage with some sort of alien being wearing a JD Vance Halloween mask — the most obvious explanation as to why he was able to keep a straight face through all the lies.
Occam’s Razor and all that.
Behold: The Lies! (A partial list)
No, Trump did not save The Affordable Care Act. (WUT)
No Trump did not “peacefully hand over power.” (OMG)
No, doctors are not allowed to kill live babies. (GTFO)
No, there isn’t “record fentanyl” or “record illegal guns” coming into our country — unless he meant ”NOT coming into,” in which case, yes, and also yes
No, mass shootings are not a result of weak doors and windows (FFS)
No, immigrants with legal, temporary protected status are not “illegally” in the country. (And stop attacking good, hardworking people supporting the local economy, you ghoul)
“The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check!”
-J.D. Vance
The most notable lie-slash-utter-garbage that you will hopefully hear a lot more about, was Vance’s refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 election. He also implied that he would never do a Mike Pence and certify valid election results, because he’s ride or die with his Dom.
I mean Don.
This is so patently anti-American, it should be an instant disqualification. Go straight to Coup Apologists Anonymous. Do not pass Go. Do not collect one electoral vote, even from North Dakota.
It will get all the attention it deserves in all the op-eds you are probably reading today.
But there’s one more comment that’s really stayed with me and I can’t let it go, because it’s not a lie. It’s his truth. And it’s scary. And weird.
Let me rewind a sec here.
For context, just before the debate, I came across an interview in which JD Vance states that rape is an “inconvenient” cause of unwanted pregnancies.
Just a mere inconvenience, ladies! You know, like when bananas are on sale at Costco but they’re all bright green? And how school shootings are just a fact of life that we have to learn to live with? Inconvenient. Like that.
Infuriating.
First, because the forceful penetration of a body, whether or not it results in pregnancy, has lifelong physical and psychological repercussions. Second, because this statement is a dog whistle intended to assert the idea that those who want or need abortions are selfish, and see children as merely “inconveniences to be discarded.”
He sure likes using that word when he’s trying to take away women’s agency and bodily autonomy, doesn’t he?
Which brings us to last night.
Vance stood on that debate stage with his smarmy smile and dead eyes locked on the camera, fielding a question about reproductive rights. He and Trump want you to know that they have the bestest plan ever to address unwanted pregnancies.
Because — and here’s where he revealed his creepy truth — the goal isn’t actually to eliminate unwanted pregnancies. If that were the case, he’d be handing out
’s best-selling book like candy.His goal is to make more women want to have more babies.
That is, to borrow a phrase, weird.
But it gets weirder. Because you know how Vance said he’s going to accomplish that?
“Childcare policy.”
Vance truly believes that somehow increasing the availability of childcare is going to convince every person with a uterus that up to 42 weeks of pregnancy plus the lifelong commitment of raising healthy, well-adjusted children is not inconvenient at all. It’s super easy and happy fun times all day long.
You just need a good babysitter is all.
Maybe a bigger car.
Throw in a little unpaid labor from grandmas and other post-menopausal humans, along with the elimination of pesky certification requirements for childcare providers so there will be more of them (seriously), women will have all the incentive they need to happily join the Trump-Vance Forced Birth Brigade.
And that right there is the essence of the GOP “pro-family” plan: Make more people have families.
Their plan is based on nothing rational. Just some twisted, outdated religious dogma about being fruitful and multiplying regardless of personal cost, from what I can tell.
For fact-checking sake, here are some of the many reasons people get abortions:
Health problems
Fetal anomalies
Financial concerns
Mental health challenges
The impact of essential health medications on a fetus
Life-threatening conditions, from cancer to preeclampsia
Being too old
Being too young
Unsupportive spouses and partners
Abusive spouses and partners
The need to focus on other children
Lack of childcare
Unsuitable housing
Educational goals
The Motherhood Penalty that impacts income potential for life
Rape
Because they just don’t want to be pregnant or to give birth.
All of these reasons are valid.
Not too many of them are addressed by childcare policy, but all of them are addressed by safe and legal access to abortion.
We're pro-women. We're pro-freedom to make your own choice.
-Tim Walz
Of course families do need a lot of help, and childcare costs need to be capped. Kamala Harris has a solid plan for that — along with other economic policies to make all of our lives easier and more satisfying, whether we have children or not.
I’m so grateful that we have candidates in Harris and Walz, who live in the real world of truth and science, data and reason.
Importantly, they have compassion. They have humanity.
They would never once try to convince you that a 12-year-old rape victim will be just fine as long as she can get over the inconvenience and find a decent daycare with early drop-off so she won’t be late for 7th grade homeroom.
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I hope every man reads this. Every man who thinks this is a woman’s issue. Every man who knows his mother.
I couldn’t even watch it to the end. Vance is so disgusting. I love the way the New York Times commentators noted the ease with which she tells lies and the way he’s practiced his self presentation and reinvention.
The whole childcare part though really burns me! Yes, let’s get rid of car seat regulations because car seats are too expensive and that’s why people don’t have more babies. Let’s get grandmas to babysit. Well I’m a grandma who babysits and let me tell you. I’m really glad that I’m strong and healthy and I can do it, but that is not the answer to all our problems And when my first three grandchildren needed babysitters, I was still working full-time. His head in the sand outlandish is beyond the pale, but what frightens me is it some people think he’s wonderful just like DJ.T.
Thank you for calling out his lies! I hope plenty of people read this. I will share it in my feed.