If you want a little glimpse at who Trump running mate and vice presidential nominee JD Vance is - does he not have a proper name? even his wife calls him JD! - a little snippet from his speech at the Republican National Convention last night affords one such.
Vance makes a big deal about his relatively humble beginnings - the Republicans don't have many members that can do that, so he's a valuable commodity - and one of the tedious anecdotes in his speech was about this grandmother ("Mamaw"), who was found dead in 2005 with 19 loaded handguns stashed everywhere around the house.
Anyway, Vance's point was not, "Crap, that is just so dangerous! No wonder the USA has a problems with gun violence!" It wasn't even, " Now, how did such a poor person get hold of, and manage to pay for, 19 guns?" No, his punchline was, "That's who we fight for. That's American spirit!" Audience members guffawed and cheered wildly, so I guess that was the correct interpretation of the story.
That, of course, is just one snippet from Vance's performance. The one-time "never Trumper" has become Trump's most ardent supporter and enabler, with a set of social and economic views to match. He openly admits that he would have done what Mike Pence would not in 2020: reject the certification of the Electoral College so as to allow Trump to win regardless of the electoral votes.
On Ukraine? "I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other". On NAFTA (and its successor CUSMA): "a bad trade deal that sent countless good jobs to Mexico". On inmigration: "We need to deport every single person who invaded our country illegally". On American economic policy in general: "We won't cater to Wall Street. We'll commit to the working man. We won't import foreign labour. We'll fight for American citizens."
That, my friends, is JD Vance. And, for what it's worth, I'm guessing at Jeremiah Donald.
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