JD Vance Creates Stories

 

I know this might get lost in the swirl of yet another Republican-ish white male gun-owner possibly trying to take a pop at Donald Trump (thoughts and prayers) but this is really rather serious: Trump's running mate admitted he sometimes creates stories (lies) because he wants people to see the truth (also different lies). To be more exact:

In a stunning admission, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, said he was willing “to create stories” on the campaign trail while defending his spreading false, racist rumors of pets being abducted and eaten in a town in his home state of Ohio.

Vance’s remarks came during an appearance on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, where he said he felt the need “to create stories so that the … media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people”.

And what suffering was that? Because the "suffering" was supposedly happening before the acid thrown on cars and the Proud Boys marching through town and the Klan fliers posted hither and yon. The college campuses going virtual and the suspected arson. 

He can call that the "hecklers' veto" and pretend that people who threaten violence or do vandalism aren't going to do the real thing. We know in El Paso and Buffalo and Squirrel Hill sometimes bad things happen to real people because the real people and the real bad people do exist. 

That isn't "stories". 

So let's look at the "stories":  where is the real truth he thinks his narrative reveals?

Was it the supposed uptick in AIDS that isn't a thing? Was it the strain caused by 20K immigrants that also...can't possibly be the correct math? And why would the Republican Mayor and the Republican governor also say there is no crisis? 

The problem is JD Vance and DJ Trump. The campaign thinks it might like to go there. Like, visit the people they have now visited terror on. 

Let me put it this way--imagine a freight train. Let's call it the "Trump train". Let's imagine it was carrying tons of toxic waste.  And let's imagine it derailed. in a rust belt community, on purpose. And then the train company wanted to pass out water. For the cameras and probably to spread a little more hate while they were there. And to pat themselves on the back that they were "helping." 

I thought I understood what blinding hate was like my whole life. Oh god, racism, sexism, history, washed over me as a writer about these things, and I thought I understood what it was like to just not love someone. To experience the whole absence of love for anyone. I don't have blinding hate for JD Vance, I cleareyed see what he is and I don't wish a bad thing on him other than to see himself as I do. 

And it would be enough. 

I don't want to create stories about the man. Just come and see.