Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Vance Pick Weighs on Trump Campaign
Normally, a presidential candidate chooses a vice-presidential running mate who brings some added appeal to the ticket. It can be in the form of a geographic balance, like JFK choosing LBJ. It can be a choice for ideological purposes, when Ronald Reagan chose George Bush the Elder. It can be a generational balance, as the elder Mr. Bush chose Dan Quayle. In the case of Donald Trump choosing J.D. Vance, one can only think of lost opportunities. Mr. Vance is younger than Mr. Trump, but that has not been an issue. He is a fully engaged Trumpist who simply makes the appeal to the same voters stronger. In addition, he is something of a buffoon.
The best example of just how bad a choice Senator Vance (R-OH) is can be summed up in the words "childless cat ladies." He has opined that people without children have no stake in the future, and so they are not trustworthy on matter of politics. He says that the people with kids should get more votes than others. He believes the Democrats have anti-family and anti-child policies. Since his selection, he has spent hours explaining his idiocy, and in doing so, he has managed to keep the issue alive. Explaining the statements he made in the past is not what the VP choice should be doing. If one is explaining in politics, one is losing.
In truth, Mr. Vance has it wrong. The Republicans are anti-family and anti-child if one judges by policies. The Republican Party opposes such simple things as school lunches and parental leave. Today, the Senate will consider an expansion and expansion of the Earned Income Credit for parents. This boosts the funds people with kids have to raise their families. The GOP has already said it will die in the Senate, lacking the 60 votes needed to over-come the filibuster. So, judge by actions not words.
What Mr. Trump failed to do with this pick is expand his base. The Trumpist approach to elections is to energize the base until they are about to explode, and then hope enough turn out to vote so that outreach to other segments of the electorate does not matter much. That is why Mr. Trump has never won the popular vote. He works on the theory of subtraction, and politics is about addition.
This is why the Harris campaign is likely to pick a much more sensible second banana for the ticket. Vice President Harris is a California liberal from the Bay Area. That pigeonholes her immediately as a person out of touch with the heartland. Picking someone from the more centrist, middle of the country is almost inevitable. She is also a mixed race woman, something that should not matter any more than her blood type, but this is America, with a racial caste system for most of its existence. And there is still some misogyny in the body politic as well. So, choosing a white male from the middle has the potential to increase the appeal of the ticket. One is almost certain that is the direction she will take.
In her choice, she must define the role of the number two on the ticket. Usually, that is the attack dog role. Anything too vicious or mean to be said by the top candidate can come out of the mouth of the VP pick, and there is some room for deniability if it goes badly.
This is where the Vance choice might have made some sense, but all other things are not equal. Senator Vance is a good politician when it comes to attacking the other side. It would be better if he grounded his arguments in facts, but the appeal to the lizard part of the brain works on many. The problem is that he has become the issue. It is impossible to be the attack dog when one is on defense the way Mr. Vance has been for a couple of weeks now.
© Copyright 2024 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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