Those of us who have been obsessively following the political campaigns have been struck by Trump’s increasingly precipitous mental decline. In just the past week, he has turned in truly bizarre performances. At a rally, he stopped taking questions and stood for 39 minutes silently “dancing” to music from what was evidently a playlist; in interviews, he refused to answer questions, instead going wildly off-subject, lobbing insults and demeaning journalists at the Wall Street Journal.
With less than three weeks left until November 5th, we seem to be in a race to see whether Trump’s meltdown will be too complete–and too impossible for even MAGA to ignore– before the election, or whether America will risk the unthinkable by electing him and then waking up to the reality that we’ve really elected JD Vance.
Heather Cox Richardson has focused upon that prospect, noting that–even if Trump wasn’t so obviously losing it–he’s 78 years old. The likelihood of a senile 78-year-old serving a full term is, to be charitable, low.
Trump’s issues make it likely that a second Trump presidency would really mean a J.D. Vance presidency, even if Trump nominally remains in office.
Currently an Ohio senator, J.D. Vance is just 39, and if voters put Trump into the White House, Vance will be one of the most inexperienced vice presidents in our history. He has held an elected office for just 18 months, winning the office thanks to the backing of entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who first employed Vance, then invested in his venture capital firm, and then contributed an unprecedented $15 million to his Senate campaign.
Vance and Thiel make common cause with others who are open about their determination to dismantle the federal government. Although different groups came to that mission from different places, they are sometimes collectively called a “New Right” (although at least one scholar has questioned just how new it really is). Some of the thinkers both Vance and Thiel follow, notably dystopian blogger Curtis Yarvin, argue that America’s democratic institutions have created a society that is, as James Pogue put it in a 2022 Vanity Fair article, “at once tyrannical, chaotic, and devoid of the systems of value and morality that give human life richness and meaning.” Such a system must be pulled to pieces.
Richardson described several other “tech bros” who subscribe to that world-view and support both Trump and Project 2025, which–to use academic language–“operationalizes” it. It is a worldview and a plan that JD Vance wholeheartedly endorses.
Like Thiel, Vance has spoken extensively about the need to destroy the U.S. government, but while Thiel emphasizes the potential of a technological future unencumbered by democratic baggage, Vance emphasizes what he sees as the decadence of today’s America and the need to address that decadence by purging the government of secular leaders. A 2019 convert to right-wing Catholicism, Vance said he was attracted to the religion in part because he wanted to see the Republican Party use the government to work for what he considers the common good by imposing laws that would enforce his version of morality.
Vance would continue the Right’s war on education; Richardson notes that Vance has called American universities “the enemy.” But there’s much more.
Vance wants to dismantle the secular state. He wants to replace that state with a Christian nationalism that enforces what he considers traditional values: an end to immigration—hence the lies about the legal Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio—and an end to LGBTQ+ rights. He supports abortion bans and the establishment of a patriarchy in which women function as wives and mothers even if it means staying in abusive marriages.
The available evidence suggests that MAGA folks are far less supportive of Vance than they are of Trump, despite (or perhaps due to) the fact that Vance is a far more articulate communicator of their Project 2025 worldview. I wonder how many of them will knowingly vote for a Vance presidency– assuming they are capable of recognizing that probability.
I also wonder how MAGA voters are processing Trump’s increasingly public deterioration. How are they explaining away the bizarre comments about sharks and the “great” Hannibal Lecter, and Trump’s own “beautiful body?” Do they worry about the fact that every economist–liberal or conservative–says Trump’s love-affair with tariffs would tank the economy, increase inflation and impose a huge tax on American families?
Or does their loyalty to Faux News and its clones protect them from even hearing about these things?
And most obsessively of all, I wonder how many of these fearful, angry, and irrational people are there–and how many will vote?
I recently received a news brief, can’t remember if on line or my cell phone, stating that Republicans are planning on Vance running the presidency while Trump takes care of his many personal problems. This blog comes as no surprise to me but I haven’t seen that news brief again.
If Trump is seeking the votes of black men, his “dancing” display should drive them away.
“The available evidence suggests that MAGA folks are far less supportive of Vance than they are of Trump, despite (or perhaps due to) the fact that Vance is a far more articulate communicator of their Project 2025 worldview. I wonder how many of them will knowingly vote for a Vance presidency– assuming they are capable of recognizing that probability.”
Polls, protestations from both sides, misinformation, disinformation, lies; this election which is serving up a determination on the continuation of our democracy or a slide into some new oligarchy/dictatorship/theocracy combo, keeps us all wondering exactly what the numbers are concerning red vs blue. Who will show up? The early voting clearly shows a greatly increased interest and that is good, but still, we have to assume both sides are motivated. And if the Dems pull it off, will the pushback from trump and his minions end us into a chaotic tangle of challenge, lawsuits, counter-lawsuits, protests, etc., delaying any conclusion for days, weeks, even months? Or will it all go smoothly, with Kamala, as sitting VP, preside over her own ascension to the presidency? Will it come down to how many Republicans decide to stick with voting the party ticket versus those of them who understand just how potentially giving trump a second chance would be? This is undeniably the most consequential election of my lifetime. I pray it turns out blue.
I don’t get why Kamala, et al, are not talking more about this. I definitely believe this *is* the plan, and their intent. DJT is a means to an end. They’ve learned he is not a good “Manchurian Candidate” – too uncontrollable. Vance, on the other hand… Oy. Truly terrified of him and his ilk.
vance wants to “impose laws that would enforce his version of morality” sucker doesnt have any morality to impose. its just a design to control Americans as he sees to his own needs,and whos throwing money at him. thiel is a billionaire who made his fortune off our backs as workers. his investments and over charging on a contractual pay plan with a mega institution like e bay locked in for the most part, has made his fortune in America,where he now demands we the working class,kiss his ass. this whole vance trump stinks of corruption in its own ranks to use money to make power, every dime,off the backs of the Americans who simply want a life free of the oppressions they vance etc, demand we submit too.. KMA
Jack stole my thunder, but one correction: Peter Thiel was the founder of PayPal, which was sold to eBay. He now owns Palantir, a big government contractor in the data security-spying industry. His personal upbringing reminds me of Elon Musk’s. His father was from West Germany, worked in mines, and ended up in S. Africa before living in Cleveland. Suddenly, Thiel ends up in California with money. There is a huge gap between his upbringing and where he attends Stanford.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel
What’s fascinating to me is Thiel is a married gay man with children. He’s had very public gay relationships outside of his marriage. As HCR and others point out, the Christian Right (morality police) are very strongly anti-gay. Why is Thiel backing anti-gay candidates?
Another contradiction is Elon Musk, who has over a dozen kids to multiple women, all done by IVF. Again, last I checked, IVF was a target of Trump/Vance and all the morality warriors. Although, in a recent Trump speech, he called himself the “Father of IVF.” Do you think the tens of millions Musk has given Trump has changed Trump’s tune?
As others have mentioned, right-wing conservatives and libertarians don’t want to eliminate government. They want access to governmental power so they can oppress Americans according to their beliefs. However, there are so many apparent contradictions. In addition to the ones I’ve already mentioned, Thiel and Musk have significant federal contracts that pay them seven figures each easily. These aren’t anti-government oligarchs. These oligarchs want to control how things operate at the federal and state levels.
One last note, why is our federal government, including Biden/Harris, paying billions to Musk to do the work NASA should be doing? Why have they allowed NASA’s efforts to be privatized for profits?
I could go on…
Creepy that some of these republicans have big plans and I wonder if it involves using trump as a Trojan Horse and then casting him aside thru the Section 4 of 25th amendment*.
*initiated by the VP, replaced by the VP.
In my corner of the world I have thought about this for the last three weeks. Here’s what’s likely to happen if DJT wins: I anticipate that tRump will be safe through the State of the Union. That speech will be used to pave the way for JD to propose the invocation of the 25th Amendment to the cabinet.
The success or failure of that strategy will depend on who is in the cabinet. If it’s
filled with Trump sycophants, JD will have to deny he ever brought it up or move to a non-extradition treaty country. On the other hand, if the cabinet is filled with Heritage Foundation picks, then it’s, bye bye Donnie.