How the Internet Broke J.D. Vance's Brain
How the Internet Broke J.D. Vance's Brain
Plus: Our Veterans, Ourselves
Recently in The Bulwark:
BILL KRISTOL & ANDREW EGGER: Harris Can Win—Or Lose—in the Next Three Weeks
JVL: Kamala Has Lift-Off
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MARTYN WENDELL JONES: How the Internet Broke J.D. Vance's Brain
BY NOW, YOU’VE PROBABLY SEEN a recently recirculated 2021 clip of then–Senate candidate JD Vance attacking Vice President Kamala Harris as a representative of “childless cat ladies” who are so “miserable at their own lives and . . . choices” that they want nothing else but to bring the rest of us down, too.
It’s an ugly and misogynistic sentiment, and if it were coming from a more typical right-wing pug, it would probably have ended there—a nasty, sweaty soundbite. But Vance has a more capacious mind. He wasn’t satisfied with the insult alone; he knew he needed to sharpen his stick into a spear. So he worked in this point: “The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. . . . We’ve turned our country over to people who don’t have a direct stake in it.”
ILYSE HOGUE: I’ve spent a lifetime championing women’s rights. Harris should pick a male running mate.
THERE IS AN OLD POLITICAL ADAGE that no one pulls the lever for the second in line.
That’s out the window this election cycle. Kamala Harris’s choice of running mate will shape the race in the next four months. And it’s for precisely this reason that Democrats need to resist magical thinking about an all-female ticket going up against Donald Trump, a man with a history of misogyny who’s been found liable for sexual abuse.
READ THE REST, & watch Ilyse talk with Sam Stein about her item. 🎥
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Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Rick Perlstein: The Alternative Is Apocalyptic
The Next Level: Kamala's Perfect Storm 🔐
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WILL SELBER: Our Veterans, Ourselves
WHEN I TALK TO MY FELLOW AMERICANS about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, I get uncomfortable looks. Over hundreds of conversations, I’ve learned how to calibrate the truth about these wars. Because most of the time, most people don’t want to hear the full truth about them. They want stories of gallantry and courage, not despair and horror. In more intimate settings, like small gatherings of friends, I’ve had people ask me to change the subject. During a private dinner party in my early thirties, I told a gruesome story about the Taliban’s penchant for raping children—not exactly ‘table talk,’ I know. My date grabbed my arm and looked at me with an unmistakable message: Please stop horrifying my friends.
READ THE REST, and take a listen to Will on the Write About Now podcast🎧.
A.B. STODDARD: Nancy Pelosi: How She Got the Job Done
ON SATURDAY NIGHT, as Democrats were abandoning a sick and sequestered President Biden, Nancy Pelosi stepped up on a small stage in Raleigh to the song “Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About.”
None of the speakers at the North Carolina state party dinner were talking about the saga then playing out in the Democratic party. And Pelosi’s performance was flawless. The former speaker of the House energetically touted the accomplishments of the Biden administration but not the candidacy of the president as she rallied the assembled, bewildered Democrats.
CATHY YOUNG: Biden’s Exit: Views from Moscow and Kyiv
JOE BIDEN’S WITHDRAWAL from the presidential race, and the all-but-certainty of Kamala Harris as his replacement atop the Democratic ticket, dominated Russian television news on Sunday and Monday—and, not surprisingly, conspiracy theories recycled from right-wing American Twitter ran wild.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Wednesday! Today’s Overtime will be shorter than usual today.
They don’t like him! Voters really don’t like JD Vance.
Fix the Insurrection Act! Tomorrow, a valuable webinar from the Brennan Center for Justice Thursday (RSVP Req’d).
Rep. Spartz is just asking questions… And Chris Wray (rightly) got angry with her.1 His reaction when she keeps going and going is priceless.
Welcome to Hog City… Ohio voters have put gerrymandering reform on the ballot. And I am here for it! (The Rooster).
Meanwhile, in Missouri… Gubernatorial candidate Bill Eigel seems to have hired ad people similarly offensive and cringeworthy to Kelly Loeffler’s.
You love to see it… Extremist webpage VDARE is shutting down, thanks to the work of NY AG Letitia James (Newsweek) Some background is in order from the SPLC.
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.
Yes, the same Rep. who tried to bring a gun through security at Dulles.