The Best of Joe Biden vs. The Worst of JD Vance
What JD Vance's Phoniness Tells Us About Trumpism & What Real Populism Actually Looks Like. And More.
First, a message on President Joe Biden dropping out from the 2024 race:
Feel free to check the entire blog archives from “Political Pulse” & “Salzillo Report” on the 2024 primary cycle, rural outreach, redistricting litigation, base dynamics, campaign organization, the current media landscape, the issues at stake, Project 2025, Build Back Better, the progressive movement, the true story about 2024 VP contender Gina Raimondo, and much more.
Truly a bittersweet and even somber moment for me. So much could be said about President Biden’s humble Scranton background, so unique to our politics. Much more could be said about his long career of public service, and his historic presidential record. There will never be a man in the Oval Office quite like the President, whatever comparisons and contrasts can be made to the presidential lions of our times. Whether they be George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. The simple truth? President Biden is in a league of his own at such a crucial time.
At any rate, President Biden easily surpasses George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter as the greatest one term President in American history. Nota bene, future historians. What a contrast to Trump’s desire to stay in power no matter what. “Crooked Joe?” More like “Sleepy Felon Don.”
Onto other news. Unless you are Tom Hanks from Cast Away, most people have heard of JD Vance by this point. But how familiar are you with his most infamous statements and positions?
Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. Just take a look below:
“America’s Hitler,” “Cultural Heroin,” “a Cynical Asshole,” “I’m a Never Trump Guy.” These are just some of the things JD Vance has said about Trump in the past. And here is a spliced Vance clip from Stephen Colbert’s show that might as well have come straight from Vance’s mouth.
Vance said he doesn’t care about what happens to Ukraine, nor what Putin would do if he took over the nation. As the most fervent opponent of foreign aid to Ukraine in the US Senate, he also has become one of the most admired American politicians in the Kremlin, using the talking points of Project 2025 in the process.
JD Vance endorses Trump’s position that Taiwan should pay more for its defense. According to Vance, we should not guarantee American support to the nation in the event of an attack by China and its Communist Party government.
JD Vance suggests people in violent and abusive marriages should stay together for their children. In other words, no-fault divorce is not an option.
Vance said the 2020 presidential election was “stolen,” and as Vice President, he wouldn’t have certified that kind of election (meaning an election when a Republican doesn’t win).
Senator Vance has radical abortion views beyond supporting a nationwide ban. He opposes exceptions for rape & incest, arguing that “two wrongs don’t make a right.” He supports weakening privacy laws so the government can track women who get abortions out of their home states.
Senator Vance opposed the 2022 gun reform package when it was up to a vote-and still opposes it now. He touts his opposition to gun restrictions with a story about his “mamaw” keeping 19 loaded guns all around the house.
Public criticism of Donald Trump amounts to “incitement of insurrection” and bringing about “civil war,” per the Vance political playbook. Using that type of flexible language, he has threatened security clearances if necessary, as Face the Nation covered briefly.
Vance has publicly endorsed/promoted the “Great Replacement Theory” that falsely accuses Democrats of opening the borders purposefully to make white people a racial minority in the electorate.
Without any evidence (and recent reports running contrary to his claims), JD Vance falsely accused Joe Biden of inciting an assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
JD Vance apparently considers indigenous peoples across the country to be our enemies.
Not to mention, apparently childless cat ladies have become a terrible thing for the country. If you take JD’s word for it.
And how about this video of JD Vance at a picket line?
These are just some of the worst moments from the Senator from Ohio. Because of this and other incendiary rhetoric, he is called a “right-wing populist.” But that is a very misleading title. He is a fake right-wing populist, just like Peter Thiel, the Wall Street billionaire (or millionaire, with all of his bankruptcies over the decades) who funds Vance, along with Trump himself.
Let’s be clear about this. Being angry doesn’t make you a populist. It just makes you a vicious, vindictive individual willing to divide, conquer, and then exploit the struggles of working people and struggling families. Where is his vision for the future?
Unfortunately, we do know what his vision is. It is represented in the track record of Donald Trump as President the last time around. It revolves around traditional “trickle-down” economic conservatism, combined with cultural right-wing nationalism which culminated in the COVID-19 pandemic, the post-George Floyd racial strife, and January 6th. It is also represented in Project 2025, built by Trump’s own White House team alumni.
It seeks to dismantle entire Cabinet departments at a whim, overhaul entire federal agencies, eliminate the nonpartisan civil service (loyalty oaths, anyone?), expand the corporate welfare system, cut taxes more to the elite billionaire class, Corporate America, & Wall Street, ban labor organizing entirely, reduce the minimum wage across the nation, weaken consumer guardrails and century-long regulations, double down on environmental degradation, cut healthcare & education, outlaw abortion pill access with the Comstock Act, abolish the ATF, cement racial gerrymandering into codified law, roll back voting rights and civil rights by more than half a century, set up mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and political rivals, withdraw from international organizations like the United Nations and NATO, and reorganize law enforcement agencies and public science institutions with political appointees.
While even more extreme, Project 2025 is only doubling down on Trump’s presidency of failed economic policy, cultural disunity, and foreign policy isolationism. It is the product of what has been building in the Republican Party with the Roberts Court transformation, the Tea Party, the rise of Mitch McConnell, and the Gingrich Revolution. MAGAnomics is a continuation of the failed Reagan-Clinton economic doctrine and a reaffirmation of alt-right wing culture wars that led people like Putin to power in Russia and Orban in Hungary.
But we have indeed seen a new direction with the Biden Presidency and the revolutionary vision of the Build Back Better Agenda. Biden and Harris have focused on the issues and getting things done in the interests of the working and middle classes.
Bashing immigrants doesn’t solve our problems, but you know what does? Making the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes. Instead of paying $0.00 as people like Jeff Bezos and the Waltons are able to do now.
Victimizing same-sex couples and LGBTQ children doesn’t relieve the real stress of everyday Americans, but you know what does? Making sure workers have the right to organize for higher wages and better working conditions, and breaking up the corporate monopolies that artificially inflate food, energy, and gas prices across the board so we can lower costs again.
Restricting abortion access and giving guns away to everyone doesn’t make our nation any better, but you know what does? Tackling the climate crisis that is here instead of mocking it as a fantasy when the truth is crystal-clear. And why don’t we do so in a way that lifts up the agricultural and industrial sectors, so that they can lead our nation and the world into a new era of energy dominance, affordability, and security?
This is what populism looks like. Populism is when you take on Big Pharma and Big Insurance to reduce healthcare costs. Populism is when you take on the fossil fuel industry and Big Oil to protect our environment and create a 21st Century Energy Economy. Populism is when you tell the American people that community college should be tuition free, trade school should be a viable option, and student loan debt shouldn’t be something you carry for the rest of your life to the tune of $100K or more.
Populism is when you reward work, not wealth by having the wealthy do their part and allowing the poor to come up and the middle to stay afloat. Populism is when you tell Corporate America and Wall Street to knock it off or we’ll change the way they do things so lives and livelihoods won’t be ruined again.
Populism is when Big Business & Big Agriculture don’t jack up prices at our expense for their profit. Populism is when you stick it to Big Tech and the cryptocurrency industry, versus begging for their money like Peter Thiel’s Ohio fanboy JD Vance is good for. Populism is when you stand with the little guys, the workers, the small businessmen, and the farmers instead of the elites, the union busters, the corporate executives, and the factory farms that saddle the Republican Party establishment with cash today.
Instead of going after the immigrants, the minorities, and the most vulnerable, populism really means going after the most powerful, particularly the special interests and the dark money channels behind them working to preserve the status quo as it is today.
That is the type of populism a Harris Presidency will bring. That is what ideas like limiting rent increases, Supreme Court reforms, and more are actually about.
The MAGA Movement & Project 2025 isn’t populism. It is more of the same divisive rhetoric to look like something different. Build Back Better and the Biden Presidency are the foundations of the future of our nation. This agenda is the change maker we need, in addition to being the final alternative to the autocratic Trump-Vance ticket.
All of which is why I endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to take the torch and finish what we have started together at this critical juncture in our history as a nation. It is time for the Democratic Party to unify for Vice President Harris and to protect the Biden Legacy from the threat of a Trump-Vance Administration.
P.S Who likes the idea of North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper as our next Vice President? Send your thoughts and suggestions along. And stay tuned…