No, he’s disgusting for sure, but he has miles to go before he achieves Trumpian levels of reprehensibility.
I’m honestly not all that worried about another Trump administration because I don’t think we’re going to get much of one.
The Vance administration though, that has me extremely concerned.
I hope that Vance is closer to being sane. USA and the world has survived rightwing presidents before. It is the crazy that scares me most.
He’s sane in that he probably doesn’t truly believe what he’s been saying, if that’s any comfort.
Any crumb.
I think Vance will be much more willing to compromise when there is major push-back on agenda items. Especially if it starts costing the oligarchs some of their profits. If inflation makes McDonalds et al a non-starter for everyone, they will put pressure on Vance. He doesn’t seem to have his ego tied up in his position.
The trouble with that is he’ll have a GOP Congress – Senate and probably House – with enough radicals, nutters, and reactionaries in it to wreak all sorts of havoc he’d have no interest in trhying to rein in.
Never said it was a perfect plan.
Not at all perfect, indeed.
Anyway, I expect Vance to be sworn in as the 48th president before the end of 2025, as Trump will have died or become so incapacitated he’s trundled off to some high-end senility care facility.
Which in a way just MIGHT mean we get elections in two and four years, rather than having Trump abrogate the whole electoral system to make himself dictator for life. My gut feeling (for what little it’s worth) is that Vance and his billionaire owner Thiel would prefer to maintain the facade of a democracy as causing less trouble than outright overthrowing of the Constitution, especially since they’ll have set in place enough protections for their minority rule to make elections about as free and fair as in Russia.
Agreed.
Well, all that is some fodder for a tiny and fragile portion of hope.
Uh-oh-- there’s reality showing up again. Hope, we barely knew ye.
I can understand people clinging to the idea that In Two Years We Can Take Back Congress. How can we maintain our sanity if there’s no hope at all?
But the fact is likely to be that all the industrious little Heritage Foundation drones will be working to make sure that the Wrong People are not able to vote in 2026. Possibly all polling places could be moved to ski resorts? And those who work at the resorts would not be eligible to vote—only those who’ve paid for, say, suite-level accommodations. Vance (and Thiel) would approve of that.
It can be managed. And likely, it will be managed. Why give up power at all?
The problem with Vance is that he doesn’t know what he believes, so he’ll go with whatever he thinks benefits him most at that particular time. He has no center, no core. Sound familiar?
“I want. For me. Just because.” is pretty much the mantra / continuous lifelong earworm of a sizeable fraction of humanity.
As hard as it is for most of the rest of us to accept, there’s just not a lot else going on inside a LOT of heads.
The Heritage Foundation does not control voting eligibility.
To the degree the Heritage Foundation controls (or influences) Congress, the statehouses, and the executive they most certainly do.
It remains to be seen how much weight they have. But it might be a lot more than you blithely assume.
Congress, the statehouses, and the executive don’t control voting eligibility, either.
What do you think does?
The Constitution of the US and the constitutions of the 50 states.
Someone remind me what the current SCotUS, and the actual text of the Constitution, has to say about a right to vote?
The 14th amendment states that citizens of the United States have the right to vote for presidential electors, representatives, and senators, and state legislators, executives, and judges, and it and subsequent amendments state that that right may not be revoked on the grounds of race, sex, previous condition of servitude, or in general to those over the age of 18, except for participation in rebellion or other crime.