Our Repulsive Vice President
JD Vance is an interesting case. How much insidious calculation can we take before turning our backs on our black lagoon Vice President? I did it a very long time ago, but that was me being me: a rabid, liberal, maximalist Democrat who feels personally assaulted by the conduct of this administration.
You keep hearing that people have shut down on Vance, that they just don’t like him, that he gets under their skin. But then somebody takes a poll and he’s the acknowledged front-runner. Little Marco looked like he could have been a contender, but he has been resolutely eclipsed by Kushner and Witkoff. That certainly clears the way for JD Vance.
All that aside, Vance keeps trying. He just did a number of corruption in the White House, arguing that no taint attached to Donald Trump. You want to tell him about the Pardon Industry that Trump operates from his chair at the Resolute Desk, but that is unlikely to hold his attention for long.
What’s especially egregious was his recent exertion on behalf of the Paxton campaign in Texas. There is still a chance that Paxton will win, but Talarico looks like the more likely victor. The result has been an eruptive spasm in the White House, with insults from the President (“James Tala-freak-o”) and suitcases of cash from oligarch donors who are ready to do anything to stop Talarico.
Vance’s response has been naked homophobia. This is a practiced specialty in the new Republican Party. Trump compared John Osoff to Pee-wee Herman, pressing the suggestion of theatrical effeminacy. He called Anderson Cooper “Allison” Cooper because being gay is really being a woman. But Vance did him one better with Talarico himself. When a fanboy told the Vice President that he loved him, Vance returned the compliment with a careful demurral. I love you, he said, in a platonic way. Can’t say the same for James Talarico.
This is, of course, part of a larger pattern. I am not the first to note that this administration is obsessed with masculinity in its most exaggerated forms. Hegseth wants bodies that look good in front of the cameras, with high-T pecs and biceps and glutes. Trump talks endlessly about beautiful men (“I examined his ass…”) who reflect his preoccupation with retrograde physicality. Athletic prowess is his central category. RFK Jr. can’t wait to strip to the waist. All of them are working a mile a minute to sort out the stimulation of incoming images. You might get the impression that this is about approach/avoidance. I call it the interesting convergence of fearful homophobia and overwrought homoeroticism with an edge of panic.
Which would be OK with me, if it weren’t politically dangerous. I thought that we would be beyond this by now. Gay politicians have succeeded on the right and the left, from the late Barney Frank to the late Lindsey Graham. But it continues to be a point of vulnerability, exploited by the likes of JD Vance. For that alone, I hope he’s thrashed in the next election, preferably by the estimable President Pete Buttigieg.