The GOP: Tolerance for me, prison for thee

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How Vice President JD Vance and others regard the vile racists in their midst, as opposed to the young Black teenagers they want to prosecute as adults. Robert Mann Oct 16 Politico had a blockbuster story this week about how young Republican activists in several states—the kind who followed Charlie Kirk religiously—talk to each other when they think no one is listening. Here are the first few shocking paragraphs of that piece: Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway. They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery. William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n--ga” and “n--guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as “epic.” Peter Giunta, who at the time was chair of the same organization, wrote in a message sent in June that “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.” Giunta was referring to an upcoming vote on whether he should become chair of the Young Republican National Federation, the GOP’s 15,000-member political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40 years old. A lot of people condemned these texts as the awful, revealing racist statements that they are. But not Vice President JD Vance. As PBS reported: Republican Vice President JD Vance, however, has weighed in several times to speak out against what he characterized as “pearl clutching” over the leaked messages. . . . After Politico’s initial report on Tuesday, Vance posted on X a screen grab from 2022 text messages in which Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for Virginia’s attorney general race, suggested that a prominent Republican get “two bullets to the head.” “This is far worse than anything said in a college group chat, and the guy who said it could become the AG of Virginia,” Vance wrote on Tuesday. “I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence.” . . . Vance reiterated his initial sentiment Wednesday on “The Charlie Kirk Show” podcast, saying when asked about the reporting that a “person seriously wishing for political violence and political assassination is 1,000 times worse than what a bunch of young people, a bunch of kids say in a group chat, however offensive it might be.” Vance, 41, said that he grew up in a different era where “most of what I, the stupid things that I did as a teenager and as a young adult, they’re not on the internet.” The father of three said he would caution his own children, “especially my boys, don’t put things on the internet, like, be careful with what you post. If you put something in a group chat, assume that some scumbag is going to leak it in an effort to try to cause you harm or cause your family harm.” “I really don’t want to us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke, telling a very offensive, stupid joke is cause to ruin their lives,” Vance said. That was amazingly tolerant of Vance. And I’m sure he takes the same charitable view that young people shouldn’t be treated as adults when his GOP colleagues are trying to pass laws to treat young Black men as adults, putting them in prison for life (or many decades) for crimes they committed when they were teenagers. So, let’s check the record. Well, as it turns out, Vance and Trump this year pushed Congress to change D.C. law so that 14-year-olds can be prosecuted as adults for certain violent crimes (murder, armed robbery, first-degree sexual abuse, etc.). The White House’s official Statement of Administration Policy on Sept. 16, 2025, said the administration “strongly supports” H.R. 5140, which “would . . . allow individuals at fourteen years of age to be charged as an adult for violent offenses.” And the Republican-controlled House obeyed Trump’s command. On Sept. 16–17, it passed two D.C. crime bills, including the one lowering the adult-prosecution age to 14. The other tightened sentencing and ended most “youth offender” treatment up to age 24. So far, I’ve not heard from any prominent Louisiana Republicans who’ve condemned the racist texts by these young adults. But where do they stand on prosecuting teenagers (the vast majority of them young Black men) when they commit a crime? I’m sure they are just as tolerant as Vance of the young Republican racists. Gov. Jeff Landry, Feb 19, 2024: “We propose to correct the age by legislating the prosecution of any person 17 years of age charged with a felony, be tried as an adult.” Sen. Heather Cloud (R-Turkey Creek), Nov 22, 2024, on her amendment enabling more adult prosecution of minors: “Given the serious rise in violent juvenile crime, the legislature is simply asking the people . . . for the authority to address the most violent felony juvenile offenses . . . flexibility to protect families . . . from violent crime.” Attorney General Liz Murrill, Apr 22, 2025, supported SB 74 to move 15- and 16-year-olds from juvenile to adult district courts: She pushed legislation to “move hundreds” of such cases each year, criticized New Orleans juvenile judges, and said minors there “are not being held responsible.” Rep. Debbie Villio (R-Kenner), Mar 26, 2025, defending a ballot measure to expand adult prosecution for younger teens: “This isn’t about prosecuting 10-year-olds as adults. . . . It is limited to 15- and 16-year-olds and for serious felony offenses only.” Sen. Alan Seabaugh (R-Shreveport), Apr 22, 2025, who sponsored the AG’s bill to move 15- and 16-year-old felony cases into adult court: “Juvenile judges . . . are not doing their job,” he said, as he backed shifting those cases to district courts that try offenders as adults. Rep. Tony Bacala (R-Prairieville), Nov 2024, during House debate on making it easier to try juveniles as adults: “Some of these kids are already lost when they’re two years old,” he said, supporting a constitutional change expanding adult prosecution. He also suggested some youth may be more suitable for adult prison because they “can’t be rehabilitated,” in support of the same legislation. Sen. Stewart Cathey (R-Monroe), April 26, 2022, introduced a bill to require 17-year-olds to be tried as adults. It’s the same old story. There is one set of rules for young white men: “They’re just boys being boys. You can’t expect children to have the judgment of adults. Stop being so judgmental. They’ll grow out of it.” (Remember, most of these texts were sent by men in their 20s and 30s.) And there is another set of rules for teenage Black men: As Rep. Tony Bacala said, “Some of these kids are already lost when they’re two years old. . . . [They] can’t be rehabilitated.” Let’s be clear here: Prosecuting a 14-year-old as an adult says we think this young person is irredeemable. A society that sends a 14-year-old to adult prisons is giving up on that child because we believe he has no chance of changing his life. In that case, there is no use in wasting money on programs like Head Start or any number of other community-based initiatives aimed at saving young people in poverty-stricken communities across our country. So why do Republicans like Vance think Black kids are beyond help, but young white racist men are full of hope and promise, and more than worthy of our forgiveness and forbearance? What is the difference in the minds of Vance and other Republicans between an irremediable two-year-old and a racist 25-year-old? I guess we’ll never figure that one out. It’s a qwhite a mystery.