Politics & Trans

There is a love hate relationship… loved by the liberals hated by the conservatives.

JD Vance, an Unlikely Friendship and Why It Ended
His political views differed from a transgender classmate’s, but they forged a bond that lasted a decade — until Mr. Vance seemed to pivot, politically and personally.
The New York Times
By Stephanie Saul
July 27, 2024

When his book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” was published in 2016, JD Vance sent an email apologizing to a close friend from his Yale Law School days. The friend identified as transgender, but Mr. Vance referred to them in the book as a lesbian.

“Hey Sofes, here’s an excerpt from my book,” Mr. Vance wrote to his friend, Sofia Nelson. “I send this to you not just to brag, but because I’m sure if you read it you’ll notice reference to ‘an extremely progressive lesbian.’”

“I recognize now that this may not accurately reflect how you think of yourself, and for that I am really sorry,” he wrote. “I hope you’re not offended, but if you are, I’m sorry! Love you, JD.”

Nelson wrote back the same day, calling Mr. Vance “buddy” and thanking him for “being sweet,” adding, “If you had written gender queer radical pragmatist, nobody would know what you mean.” Nelson asked for an autographed copy, then signed off with, “Love, Sofia.”

That exchange is from a series of emails between two friends, part of a close-knit group of 16 students who remained together throughout their first law school semester in the fall of 2010. As now-Senator Vance seeks the vice presidency, Nelson has shared about 90 of their emails and text messages, primarily from 2014 through 2017, with The New York Times.

I don’t know it I would remain friends with someone who deadnames me all the time.

The emails, in which Mr. Vance criticizes former President Donald J. Trump both for “racism” and as a “morally reprehensible human being,” add to an already-existing body of evidence showing Mr. Vance’s ideological pivot from Never Trumper to Mr. Trump’s running mate.

And they reflect a young man quite different from the hard-right culture warrior of today who back then brought homemade baked goods to his friend after Nelson underwent transition-related surgery. The visit cemented their bond.

I am sure we all had friends like that who said that they have no problems with being trans but we never hear from them again.

But Nelson and Mr. Vance had a falling out in 2021, when Mr. Vance said publicly he supported an Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for minors, leading to a bitter exchange that deeply hurt Nelson.

It just goes to show you, how two-faced Mr. Vance is, totally supporting until he isn’t. It became politically dangerous to be friends with trans people, so he turned on his friends.

Look at what he said about Trump… but now they are lovey-dovey with one another.

 The Daily Mail writes...

A former classmate of JD Vance has leaked a trove of emails and texts from the GOP Vice President pick - including remarks about Donald Trump in which he called the former president 'a morally reprehensible human being.'

But now they are the best palsy-walsy. Best buds!

Vance told her: 'I'm obviously outraged at Trump's rhetoric, and I worry most of all about how welcome Muslim citizens feel in their own country.

'But I also think that people have always believed crazy shit. And there have always been demagogues willing to exploit the people who believe crazy shit.'

He also wrote in a separate email: 'If you look at the polling, the issue where Trump gets the most support is on the economy.

'If the response of the media, and the elites of both right and left, are to just say 'look at those dumb racists supporting Trump,' then they're never going to learn the most important lesson of Trump's candidacy.'

But as they say politics makes strange bedfellows.

 

Have you noticed all the politicians that are with me in photos? Do you think very many Republicans have their picture taken with a trans person. I doubt there would be any takers. Also I know some trans people who are conservatives do you think any Republican politician will have their photo taken with a them? Look how they shunned Caitlyn Jenner, the Republican party gave her the cold shoulder.

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I think that Trump is thinking right about now that he choose a boat anchor for VP!

It’s not just ‘cat ladies’: JD Vance has a history of disparaging people without kids
CNN
By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck,
July 30, 2024

 Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance has a history of making disparaging remarks toward people without children, a CNN KFile review of his comments shows, including fundraising off his now-infamous “childless cat lady” remarks in a series of emails that called Democratic leaders “childless sociopaths” who “don’t have a direct stake in this country.”

In November 2020, Vance said on a conservative podcast that childless Americans, especially those in the country’s “leadership class,” were “more sociopathic” than those with children and made the country “less mentally stable.” Vance added that the “most deranged” and “most psychotic” commentators on Twitter – now known as X - were typically childless.

In August 2021, one month after launching his candidacy for the Senate, Vance’s campaign sent fundraising emails referring to the “radical childless leaders in this country” following his appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” where he made comments deriding “childless cat ladies” and leaders running the country. The comments sparked a widespread backlash against Vance when they resurfaced on social media following his nomination to the Republican presidential ticket.

Glub, glub, glub as Trump & company try to stay afloat!

The Economist has the latest poll results…

On November 5th Americans will go to the polls to elect their next president. Until June 27th it seemed a foregone conclusion that the match-up would be between the same two candidates as in 2020: Joe Biden, the Democratic incumbent, and Donald Trump, his Republican predecessor in office. But that night Mr Biden delivered a disastrous debate performance. It immediately made Democrats question Mr Biden’s fitness for the job. On July 21st he bowed to pressure and withdrew from the race. He endorsed his vice-president, Kamala Harris, as the Democratic candidate.

Early polls after Mr Biden dropped out suggest Ms Harris is closer to Mr Trump than her predecessor was, but she is still trailing; one by YouGov/The Economist on July 21st-23rd put Ms Harris at 41% and Mr Trump at 44%, while a New York Times/Siena poll from July 22nd-24th put her at 47% to his 48% among likely voters. Once there are sufficient polls to create a reliable average we will restart our tracker (for now we are reporting candidates’ favourability ratings).

Do you think Trump is having second thoughts?

Vote for sanity, vote for VP Harris!