Unfortunately, the J. D. Vance cat lady stuff has really broken through. Although he at times made the appropriate caveats about not judging people who don’t have kids through no choice of their own, oftentimes he didn’t. Why?
My theory is that in a pre-Trump GOP, Vance would have sold his pro-family policies by simply saying things favorable about families and child-rearing. But there’s obviously been a premium on transgression the last several years, and Vance ran in an Ohio Senate primary where trolling was practically the coin of the realm. He had to be as obnoxious as Josh Mandel (which wasn’t easy), while also being more serious (not nearly as challenging). In this environment, being pro-family naturally became being insulting toward the childless.
It was important to be able to go on Tucker Carlson’s show and raise $1 million via a seven-minute TV appearance. Again, the game wasn’t to say common-sense things that 70 percent of people would agree with, but to say emotive things that 25 percent of people would like and most people, if they were paying attention, would find off-putting.
Vance did this very well, and it won him a Senate seat. It also helped get him a VP nomination. So, from that point of view, it was absolutely worth it. But Vance, and the ticket, are now paying the price.
That said, he’s inarguably a talented guy and if Trump loses, he’s not going to be the reason why. But the cat lady stuff is a sign of the disconnect between what works in GOP primaries (and in the inner sanctums of MAGA) and what it takes to appeal to persuadable voters in a hotly contested general election.