Since
I don’t tell Republicans how to handle their
business, I was somewhat indifferent to the
Veepstakes that surrounded candidate
Trump. Though South Carolina Senator Tim
Scott did a good imitation of Mr. Bojangles, I
was sure that Trump would not pick Scott, no
matter how obsequious he was. A group of
women and I thought if he dared choose former
South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, Dems
might have something to worry about. But
his ego was too big to consider Haley, who
might have tipped some suburban women his
way. Marco Rubio might have expanded
Trump’s base and offered a nod to Latino
voters, but instead of expansion, the former
president’s vice-presidential pick signaled
that he is drilling down on extreme
conservatism, and he is suggesting that the
Republican Party will embrace extreme
conservatism for many years. JD Vance is
the 39-year-old MAGA conservative who began
his career calling Trump “unfit” for the
presidency. Fast forward to 2022 when JD
Vance fawningly ingratiated himself to the
45th President, earning an endorsement,
but also the ridicule of the former President
who roaringly announced at one of his rallies
that “JD Vance is really kissing my ***.”
The Trump-Vance
combination is bad news. It is a double
dose of rabid conservatism, a double dose of
an anti-woman, anti-Black, anti-diversity
agenda. Lots of people say that
vice-presidents don’t matter, but JD Vance’s
extreme conservatism ought to give us all
pause. He has said that feminism has
gone too far, and thinks women should stay
with their husbands, even if they are
abusive. He is staunchly
anti-abortion. In his scant two years in
the Senate (he would be less than any major
party candidate), much of the legislation he
has introduced would “turn the clock
back”. For example, he would eliminate
any tax breaks for those who purchase
electronic vehicles (EVs). Those breaks
move us away from fossil fuel and are
important, given our climate crisis. But
Trump and Vance don’t believe there is a
climate crisis, so there’s that.
From my
perspective, one of the most disturbing things
about Vance is his anti-affirmative action,
anti-DEI stance. He says he opposes
“racism in federal government hiring.”
In other words, no focus on diversity, no
focus on the historical exclusion of Black
people from federal employment and
contracting. Vance’s College Admissions
Accountability Act would enforce the Equal
Protection Clause and Title VI prohibitions on
racial discrimination or racial
preferences. Though Republicans swear
they hate bureaucracy, this College Admissions
Accountability Act would create a Special
Inspector General for Unlawful Discrimination
in Higher Education, a burdensome initiative
for higher education. Similar legislation is
being drafted on the House side. A
Trump-Vance administration would restrict
access to higher education. That
administration would also likely restrict
access to public assistance, health care, and
more.
When former
president Trump gets on angry rant, it
sometimes feels as if his anger is
manufactured. Trump, after all, is not a
working-class white man whose job disappeared
because his manufacturing plant closed, or
because some foreign entity bought it and cut
wages. Trump is an upper-class
billionaire who didn’t want for a thing a day
in his life, but he has cannily given voice to
the white working class who feels lost and
left out.
Vance’s
anger is real, and it became even more
authentic when the elite treatment he both
chased and craved didn’t come to him. He
earned “hillbilly” spokesman status with his
book, Hillbilly
Elegy,
that gave plaintive voice to the abandoned
white working class. But the so-called
elites didn’t embrace the movie, and that
angered him. After trash talking Trump,
he ingratiatingly embraced him and lobbied for
the second seat on the ticket.
Vance lobbied, but
so did many others, including Junior Trump and
members of the donor class, like Elon
Musk. These billionaires want Vance on
the ticket to serve their economic
interests. By choosing the young Vance
as his VP, Trump has transformed the
Republican Party into the MAGA Party.
It’s likely to be that way for decades.
That’s dangerous for most Americans,
especially Black Americans. That, if
nothing else, ought to be an incentive to
vote.
