). “J.D. Vance on our Civilizational Crisis”, May 4, 2022, The Editors, The entire J.D. Vance “More Votes for Parents Speech”, duration of video 35:32, (the part of the Speech where Vance says Parents should have more votes than childless people is from 24:31 – 26:31), Intercollegiate Studies Association, at < https://isi.org/
2). “ 'No Physical Commitment To The Future Of This Country': J.D. Vance Said Childfree Americans Shouldn't Have The Same Voting Power As Parents In A Resurfaced Speech: 'Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of the children.' ”, Jul 17, 2024, Morgan Sloss, BuzzFeed, at < https://www.buzzfeed.com/
3). “JD Vance Called People Without Kids Childless Cat Ladies' ”, Jul 25, 2024, Incudes J.D. Vance clip from a July 29, 2021 Tucker Carlson Show appearance on Fox News, Inside Edition, Clip of Vance making Cat Ladies smear is from 0:31 – 0:51 of the 2:37 long YouTube Video, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
4). “Vance Can’t Possibly Be VP and a Dad to Three Young Kids: Trump’s choice for VP does not put America first. Instead, Vance claims that he will 'sacrifice professional prestige for the interests of family.' ” (MIGHT BE SATIRE), Jul. 25, 2024, Nell Scovell, The Daily Beast, at < https://www.thedailybeast.com/
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista: J. D. Vance is a far-right extremist and his plans for the U.S. would end, even the weak, bourgeois democracy that we currently live in. Now that he is the Republican Party's Vice Presidential candidate the Democratic Party has been conducting some “opposition research” and they have found some real gems from his past. In Item 1)., “J.D. Vance on ….”, he expounds on his proposal that parents of children be given much larger voting power than Childless People have. He makes the propsal to award votes to all children, with those extra votes to be wielded by their parents (eventually that would be by their fathers only as Vance and his allies also want to deprive women of the vote). He lays this out in his speech from 24:31 – 26:31. He only obliquely addresses the real reasons why birth rates have fallen below replacement, not just in the U.S. of course but in all Developed Countries of the world, and birth rates have also fallen in many of the Developing Countries too. He does suggest providing some support to young couples modeled on the programs implemented by Victor Orban in Hungary, but of course stops far short of actually challenging Monopoly and Finance Capital. Item 2). “ 'No Physical Commitment ….” is an article published in response to the newly revealed Enhanced Parental Voting Power speech.
Item 3)., “JD Vance Called ….” contains a short clip near the beginning of the video during which Vance made his now widely commented upon Cat Ladies statement, found at 0:31 – 0:51. This is the proclamation that has brought the most commentary and criticism. And Item 4)., “Vance Can’t Possibly ….” semi-seriously satirizes Vance's obvious double standard. If he and Trump win the election (only made possible by Electoral College Votes of course) he would barely see his young children, at least until the Fascist Dictatorship is firmly established (that Vance openly supports and has posted many statements about). But, of course, his faithful Trad-Wife would give up her work as an attorney (unless of course they hire nannies, an option not open to the middle class that Vance feigns concern for). To carry on with the satire, shouldn't Vance have reconciled with his 1st wife and returned to have his children with her?? He is reported to be on his third marriage, has he been excommunicated by the Catholic Church, perhaps we need to make sure they are informed about this outrageous behavior, not in keeping with Catholic doctrine.
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J.D. Vance on our Civilizational Crisis - Intercollegiate Studies Institute
J.D. Vance, venture capitalist and author of Hillbilly Elegy, speaks on the American Dream and our Civilizational Crisis.
J.D. Vance, winner of the 2022 Republican primary for Ohio Senate, discusses his book, Hillbilly Elegy, and its influence on his politics. Growing up in the city of Middletown, Ohio, Vance learned about the impacts of globalist trade policies first-hand as he experienced the impact economic devastation had on his family and community. His once thriving blue-collar community became a case study for the opioid epidemic, cycles of poverty, welfare dependence, and civil and social rot.
In his talk, Vance unpacks the real-world implications of the decisions made by elitist politicians who will never have to live with the consequences of their actions. Vance believes conservative nationalism is the only way to combat this decay. The only way to reinvigorate the middle class—and the very soul of America—is with an American system that prioritizes the health of the family.
In order to achieve that goal and undo decades of social deterioration, conservatives must embrace a new series of policy prescriptions that, while different than those of previous generations, stay true to fundamental principles and cultivate the good life for all Americans. Vance then lays out some of these policy ideas.
This speech grabbed headlines in the days after Vance delivered it. Watch it now and see why.
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On Monday, former president Donald Trump announced his vice presidential running mate: Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.
In 2021, Vance spoke at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s conference on the Future of American Political Economy, where he blamed "the childless left" for the nation's woes. As a woman who’s intentionally childfree, I am livid over this rhetoric. According to him, we have "no physical commitment to the future of this country."
This is an American take if I've ever seen one. Vance's hyper-focus on the individual and the nuclear family is nothing new in this country. But in many cultures, including my own, the emphasis lies on the extended family and wider community. While I don't have children, my cousins do, and I certainly have a vested interest in my nieces' and nephews' futures. Beyond that, I want to see my communities flourish — not just while I'm part of them, but after I'm gone because I am a human being with empathy and compassion for others in this world.
Vance specifically called out several Democrats for not having "a personal and direct stake in [our country] via their own offspring": Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, and Kamala Harris (disregarding that the Vice President is the stepmother of her husband’s two children). Since this speech, Buttigieg and his husband have adopted two children.
Vance bemoaned the current state of "family formation" and "birth rates" in the US. But in true Republican fashion, he didn't bother exploring why many Americans are having fewer children. A quick perusal of social media will show countless people torn over having kids due to a myriad of reasons: skyrocketing cost-of-living and childcare costs, climate change, healthcare prices, the fear of school shootings, the increasing maternal mortality rate, etc. The list goes on.
Did Vance propose sound solutions to the "civilization crisis" like addressing climate change? Of course not. (He doesn’t believe that people contribute to climate change.) Other than praising Hungary's pro-natal policies, the only suggestion he offered was this preposterous idea: "Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of the children."
He continued, "Doesn’t this mean that nonparents don’t have as much of a voice as parents? Doesn’t this mean that parents get a bigger say in how democracy functions?" He answered his own questions with a "yes" after admitting "the Atlantic and the Washington Post and all the usual suspects" would criticize him.
Well, I’ll gladly join the chorus of criticism. This is such a heinous notion that it's hard to believe a politician would even think this to himself, let alone say it out loud. I was born in the United States. I work and pay taxes here — hell, I even interned for a senator in college (without pay, I might add). My vote should hold the same weight as any other person's. Though this country certainly wasn’t built on equality, the US claims to stand for it now, and this flies in the face of that. It’s a betrayal of American values.
I shouldn't even need to say this, but having a child doesn’t magically transform someone into an exemplary citizen. While parents have an important and often thankless job, the decision to have kids should not automatically give them a greater voice in our democracy. And aside from all the childfree folks, what about families struggling to conceive? Parents who’ve lost children? Queer couples who want kids but can’t yet afford adoption or fertility treatments? The simple act of voting would always remind them of their hardship — and how the government punishes them for it.
But that's par for the course for Vance, who supports a national abortion ban. According to the Pew Research Center, 61% of women who had abortions in 2021 had given birth before. Despite the evil picture that Republicans often paint about people who have abortions, many are simply parents who want to focus on the children they already have. Why should Vance's irrelevant opinion supersede these parents' informed decisions about their families and health?
After Vance received blowback for his ludicrous suggestion, he appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight, where he double downed. "We are effectively run in this country...by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. And it's just a basic fact."
Let's all laugh together at that one. I'm a dog mom, not a cat lady, but I can wholeheartedly say that waking up at noon on the weekends, taking my pup for adventures whenever I want, and traveling with my boyfriend as we please make for a happy life. Many childfree women report the same. According to Paul Dolan, the professor of behavioral science at the London School of Economics and Political Science who wrote Happy Ever After, evidence from the American Time Use Survey suggests that unmarried and childfree women are the happiest and healthiest subgroup of the population.
It's worth noting that another 2021 speech has resurfaced where Vance said, "One of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace" was convincing people in "unhappy" or "even violent" marriages that getting divorced would "make people happier in the long term." He also criticized people who "shift spouses like they change their underwear" — ironic, considering Trump is on his third marriage.
Vance Can’t Possibly Be VP and a Dad to Three Young Kids
Trump’s choice for VP does not put America first. Instead, Vance claims that he will “sacrifice professional prestige for the interests of family.”
“Look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC—the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it.”–J.D. Vance
The whispers are growing and the stakes are too high to stay silent. It’s time to ask the question on everyone’s mind: Can J.D. Vance be an effective leader while parenting three children under the age of seven?
Having children is a beautiful choice for those who want them. Raising children is also a choice but it’s not always beautiful. It’s a time-consuming, occasionally terrifying process. Vance made that choice and said it was the best thing he’d ever done.
“Some people tell me I’ve lived the American dream, and of course, they’re right,” Vance said at the Republican National Convention while introducing himself to the voters. But, he continued, “My most important American dream was becoming a good husband and a good dad, of being able to give my kids the things that I didn’t have when I was growing up and that’s the accomplishment that I’m proudest of.”
This speech was Vance’s interview for one of the highest positions in the United States government and he flat-out admitted that he was more into his family than his career. It makes you wonder if Vance even wants this demanding job. Or if like other Millennial men, he is embracing work-life balance.
Conservative men have long insisted that women can’t hold leadership positions while juggling family duties. Surely, the same must be true for Vance. How can we turn our country over to someone who doesn’t have the time, loyalty and attention to run it? Let’s explore the ways that juggling family and job could lead to dropped balls.
Split time
In 2023, Kamala Harris traveled to Germany, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, The Bahamas, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates according to the White House. Despite all this travel, the Vice President did not miss a single carpool, recital, or bounce house birthday party. It helped that Harris’ two stepchildren were already in their 20s when she and husband Doug Emhoff moved into the Naval Observatory. But Vance’s kids are still so young that if he became VP, he’d be forced into making tough choices.
In his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, Vance wrote about the pain of growing up with an absent father and a revolving door of stepfathers. In response to his own upbringing, Vance is keen on being a hands-on dad. He’ll want to eat dinner with the family most nights, teach his oldest son how to golf and shoot, and attend church weekly to instill his radical Catholicism.
The constant travel and demands of his job could potentially take Vance away from his family. Perhaps a hybrid work week would alleviate the pressure (but good luck getting his boss to approve that.) The negative effect of Vance’s absence could be irreversible, especially on his two sons. Without proper manly influence, what will happen to Ewan, 6, and Vivek, 4? Some have speculated that it was the lack of a father figure that drove Vance to seek the approval of German-born destroyer of websites and democracy Peter Thiel. By taking on the vice presidency, Vance may be condemning his own children to someday listening to someone like Thiel ramble on about “mimetic theory.” If Vance has a heart, he will not let that happen.
Split loyalty
Vance’s devotion to his family could also have grievous effects on public policy. For Vance, having “a direct stake” in the future might mean caring too much about not getting into war.
Imagine a scenario where Vladimir Putin decides to grab Alaska back and threatens to start bombing D.C. if the U.S. doesn’t comply. Vance might just hand over the oil-rich state to protect his children. Even worse for Republicans, he might stop denying climate change.
Or what if Vance is at the U.S./Mexican border, engrossed in separating Latin American kids from their parents seeking political asylum, and he gets an urgent message from his wife that one of their kids is sick. Will Vance be able to stay focused on the task of sending children into government facilities where many were sexually abused? Will he be able to set aside his cruelty to less-fortunate children at the border in order to race back and nurse his own?
This is speculation, but the odds of one of his three kids falling ill in the middle of a crisis is pretty high. Think of the possibility of ear infections, strep throat, and diarrhea cubed.
Split attention
Often women will show each other photos of their kids in the bathroom out of fear that some male colleagues will consider it unprofessional to put their home life on display. Blah blah blah who cares about your kids? But Vance is happy to bring them up in public. In his convention speech, he spoke directly to his “beautiful children” who were at a hotel. “If you’re watching,” he said. “Daddy loves you very much, but get your butts in bed, it’s ten o’clock.”
Is he going to keep wasting everyone’s time so he can parent? And is Vance going to take the same tone with Americans that he took with his kids—voicing his love for us before bossing us around and telling us what we should do with our butts?
In the past, Vance has admitted that parenting is hard and he struggles to control his temper. Blogging about his conversion in 2020, he wrote that he took his cues for being a father from Catholicism. He claimed it was Catholicism that “demanded that I treat my son with patience, and made me feel terrible when I failed.” He said it was Catholicism “that demanded that I moderate my temper with everyone, but especially my family.” And finally, Vance wrote, it was Catholicism “that demanded that I sacrifice professional prestige for the interests of family.”
There are few jobs in this country more prestigious than the vice presidency. If Vance is compelled to sacrifice that prestige for his family then maybe he should just stay home and let a childless cat lady run the country.
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