(...no, a different Dogs context)
If one had "watched" the Vice Presidential debate in the sense of having it on in the family room while attending to other tasks in another room, the first impression would have been that Vance came out on top. He sounded relaxed, words combined with other words according to recognizable patterns of grammar, syntax and meaning and he sounded like a rational person. Walz sounded a bit nervous and the folksy schtick grows tiring quickly.
If one had actually watched the debate with full attention, Vance's performance appeared much more disconcerting. And that's what it was, a performance. Didja notice how calmly he looked right into the camera and stated that Trump led a bi-partisan effort to save the Affordable Care Act? Or how, without batting an eye, he repeated the lie that Minnesota's laws allow "abortion after birth" and abortion up to nine months? Each time this claim is made, the person making the claim is clearly implying elective abortions are allowed (encouraged?) to term. That's not what is happening. No woman is purposely waiting until the third trimester to abort a pregnancy they don't want. While fact-checking the Trump/Harris debate, Minnesota Public Radio reported on the change to Minnesota's abortion laws after the Dobbs decision:
https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2024/09/11/minnesota-mentions-trump-harris-presidential-debateThe move was in response to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and several states enacting abortion bans or stringent restrictions. DFL lawmakers, abortion providers and patients said viability bans elsewhere could cause problems for women with wanted pregnancies that experience devastating health problems late in their pregnancies like a miscarriage.
And while opponents of looser abortion laws raise concerns about abortions late in pregnancy, it’s worth noting that they are extremely rare. According to state data, in the last five years just seven induced abortions have been reported in the third trimester of pregnancy.
(NOTE: DFL is an acronym for Democrat-Farmers-Labor, the name of the Democratic party in Minnesota...). In other words, Minnesota wrote its updated law to avoid any explicit restriction based on "viability" to ensure problems occurring later in a pregnancy that threatened the life of the mother could be treated without legal uncertainty or delay. No one is leveraging that to arbitrarily terminate pregnancies near term.
Vance's coup de grace was perhaps his refusal to state who won the 2020 election and his claim that Trump peacefully transitioned power on January 20, 2021, ignoring people who were killed and hundreds of police who were attacked on January 6?
Vance and people like him might very well be more dangerous than Trump. They all support the same fascist fantasies of instantly purging all political persuasions they dislike out of government. They all support economic policies that continue concentrating wealth to billionaires and impoverishing a growing share of the population. But people like Vance can get up on a stage and still make it sound reasonable to the masses who have been cheated out of an education in basic history, math, science and morals.
While watching Vance's performance, all I could think about was Pink Floyd's Animals album. Particularly, the song Dogs. I'll only quote two verses here:
You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need
You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street
You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed
And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking
And after a while, you can work on points for style
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you,
You'll get the chance to put the knife in
There are still aspects of these debate opportunities that prove maddening. Walz missed opportunities to cement two essential points.
In the discussion regarding the mayhem in the middle east, Vance ended his answer with a comment to the effect that President Trump supports America's allies like Israel. Walz should have paused for dramatic effect, then asked Vance a question. "If Trump supports America's allies, why was he unable to state that he wants Ukraine to win its war defending itself from Russia while meeting face to face with Volodymyr Zelenskyy? Ukraine's perseverance at defending itself has destroyed vast amounts of Russia's military capabilities and shown its military technologies and leadership to be in a shambles yet Donald Trump seems to want to tip the balance back towards Russia. Why is that?"
In the discussion regarding abortion rights, Vance repeated the Republican talking point of "winning" the abortion battle by overturning Roe v Wade and returning it to the states so "the people" can choose as they see fit. If some want to restrict it and others do not, that's the way it should be. Walz made the correct point that when it comes to rights, we cannot operate a patchwork country where human rights vary state to state. However, he failed to mention the multitude of states in which Republican legislatures are FEVERISHLY attempting to add extra hurdles to PREVENT popular votes from overturning legislative votes produced by gerrymandered districts that FAIL to reflect the will of the people.
There's nothing "democratic" about what Republicans are trying to do with abortion restrictions at any level of government. It is important for ANY Democratic candidate to make this point any time the opportunity comes up because voting for Harris for President alone is not going to return abortion rights to ANY of these states. Voters MUST see and play the entire chess board in order to roll back these draconian bans. Key figures failing to point this out is political malpractice.
WTH
