Family Values... Whose?

[Essay]

Here we go again with "Family Values." How many times have you heard Republicans harp on "Family Values"? I don't know about you, but I don't like JD Vance's family values of hate.

Vance's speech at the Republican lovefest was an eye-opener!

USA Today reported...

Vance says Democrats are 'party of hatred'

Vance declared Democrats the "party of hatred" as he led the charge among Republican convention speakers to paint their midterm opposition as a dangerous threat to the country.

It was Vance’s debut at the convention, and it might have been one of the most pivotal speeches he will make ahead of a widely expected presidential bid in 2028. He arrived on stage to chants of "JD."

Whoa! The Republican party is a party of lies.

Fresh off a recent campaign visit to Michigan, Vance above all aimed at Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, who the vice president has attacked aggressively for invoking his wife, Usha Vance, on the campaign trail.

El-Sayed wrote in an Aug. 22 post on X: "So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…" To El-Sayed’s critics, his remarks seemed to imply Vance’s white grandfather would not accept Usha Vance because of her Indian heritage.

Now he just got finished saying that the Democrats are a "party of hate" but what does he say next?

Fresh off a recent campaign visit to Michigan, Vance above all aimed at Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, who the vice president has attacked aggressively for invoking his wife, Usha Vance, on the campaign trail.

El-Sayed wrote in an Aug. 22 post on X: "So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…" To El-Sayed’s critics, his remarks seemed to imply Vance’s white grandfather would not accept Usha Vance because of her Indian heritage.

To me, that seems xenophobic and racist!

Then we have JD's family values... which are not mine.

Vance positions himself as a fighter for family values and a ‘national birthright’

The vice president drew on the recent birth of his fourth child, a son, and the first anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s death in his speech at the Republican midterm convention.

NBC News

Sept. 10, 2026

By Henry J. Gomez

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday offered his young family — in particular, his newborn son — as a model and a window to the future that the potential 2028 presidential contender envisions for America.

In a speech here at the Republicans’ midterm convention, Vance broadly criticized Democrats who he said do not share his values.

I will second that!

My family values are love and acceptance, not authoritarianism.

He added a moment later, “To the radicals who wish to abolish my family and the thousands and millions of other families all across our country, we have a simple message for them: Stay the hell away from our kids!”

Ah... but it is okay to force our kids into models of your family image? It is okay to force a trans child into a body image that is not theirs? It is okay to mold them into little images of "Dick and Jane" with Spot and their cat Puff?

And then... good grief! He says he might run in '28!

Vance reserved his vitriol for Democrats and the progressive left. He went on an extended riff against El-Sayed, who last month mockingly wondered whether Vance would take his Indian American wife, Usha Vance, back in time to meet his late grandfather. Vance also alluded to El-Sayed’s alliance with Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer who previously said on a livestream that “America deserved 9/11.” Piker has since apologized for the remark, which has become a staple of Republican campaigning this year.

That is playing to a xenophobic and Islamophobic audience! I don't know about you, but those are not my family values!

My family values are about love and acceptance; it is about the Golden Rule and helping others.

My family values are not about seeking vengeance on those he thinks "wronged" him.

My family values do not involve seeing women as sex objects.

My family values are not about cheating your contractors.

My family values are not to cheat on your taxes.

I see the whole Republican convention as a "hate fest." It was not about "Family Values," but rather who to hate. Hate the immigrant. Hate the trans children. Hate those who worship differently.

No, those are not my family values.

[/Essay]