The V.P. Debate: Probably Helpful with Swing Voters, If Frustrating to Us Zealots, by John Zmirak

By John Zmirak, The Stream, October 2, 2024

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 10 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.

Let me lead with the lede: J.D. Vance did very well in the debate against Tim Walz on Tuesday night. He seemed to be pursuing a careful strategy aimed at counter-programming Democrat propaganda. Namely, he showed America that the Republican party is not in any way a bunch of wild-eyed true believers, angry Puritans, or enraged “MAGA” extremists. We’re not using The Handmaid’s Tale as a guide to public policy, as the Left constantly claims, while itself treating Brave New World and 1984 as if they were cookbooks.

Vance was calm, collected, and collegial. A little too much for my taste, since the Democrats are no longer the party of ill-considered idealism and airy-fairy daydreams, which you could have fairly said about the likes of George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, and Walter Mondale. Now they’re the party of principalities and powers, who want abortion up through birth, castration for mixed-up schoolkids, bloody open borders, defunded police and felons empowered to vote, pointless foreign wars, and medical fascism. …

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