Copyright Santa Rosa Press Democrat
I have been paying close attention to politics since Donald Trump first came into power in 2017. It’s often hard to pay attention to politics these days because his administration floods the zone with so much information and misinformation and disinformation that it can make your head spin. But some things stick out. Tear-gassing peaceful protesters in Washington for a photo op with Trump and his upside-down Bible. Taking children from their parents at the border. Praising foreign dictators while attacking American intelligence. Sending American troops into American cities. Inciting an insurrection and then pardoning insurrectionists. An artificial intelligence video posted by the president of the United States showing him releasing excrement on U.S. citizens below. The list could go on for the entire space allotted to me here. But recently, something else stuck out: the Young Republicans’ leaked group chat. My god. It was stomach churning bile expelled in texts by folks who work in the upper echelons of Republican politics — people who knew all the players and the ins and out of the Republican establishment. People who work as staffers to attorneys general and legislators across the country. People who should know better. The group chat was exposed by Politico, and it was met with almost immediate condemnation. Democrats and even some Republicans came out in opposition of its misogyny, racism and xenophobia. Politico journalists reported that the discussion consisted of 2,900 pages of chats over a seven-month period. There were at least a dozen “young” Republicans in the chat. The chat included the use of the N-word at least 12 times, and used other slurs to describe Black folks. The messages discussed “loving” Adolf Hitler and placing political opponents in gas chambers. The staffers talked positively about rape and used slurs to describe LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities. It was more terrible than I can say here, but Politico reporters went on to state: “The dynamic of easy racism and casual cruelty played out in often dark, vivid fashion inside the chats, where campaign talk and party gossip blurred into streams of slurs and violent fantasies.” And then, the unthinkable. Vice President JD Vance was asked about the chat. It is something reporters should ask about. Many of the people who made those statements work with and for elected Republicans. One was a state senator. Vance dismissed the story: “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,” The vice president went on to say that critics are “pearl clutching” over statements made by kids. Remember that word: “kids.” The Young Republicans is part of the Republican National Federation, and is an organization for Republicans between the ages of 18 and 40. Vance is 41 years old. He is also the vice president of the United States. What is most puzzling is Vance’s assertion that the people in the group should be treated as children, because he’s demonstrated that he thinks actual children should be treated as adults. It’s strange that the vice president thinks full-grown men and women shouldn’t face consequences for their racism, misogyny or xenophobia, while also thinking a 12-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by her uncle should have to bear the consequences of incest literally. Vance has stated on numerous occasions that he wants to ban reproductive care nationally. He thinks children should be forced to give birth no matter how the pregnancy occurred. Vance holds the simultaneous beliefs that pregnant girls are adults, but GOP men working as staffers — reaching middle age with full beards and children of their own — are “kids.” This is the exact way many folks who write legislation for the GOP understand the world as well. Men are men until they do something stupid. Women are women from conception. It is wrong and backward. JD Vance’s motto? Men will be boys and girls will be women. Jessica Piper is a rural mom and former teacher. From the Kansas City Star.
