“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
…Voltaire
There’s an assumption the nominee for Vice President has little influence on voters as they decide who they’ll choose for President. But the older the presidential candidate, the more they should realize they’re electing more than a key advisor; they may be electing the next president. So let’s look at the Republican ticket.
Americans know, all too well, the rapidly declining, character-free, 78 year old Donald Trump.
We know he lies as easily as he breathes. We know he has the communication skills of a fourth grader. We know he’s a narcissist whose only concern is himself. We know he demands total loyalty, and we know he has promised retribution for those whom he sees as enemies. We know he’s becoming more unhinged and addled as each day passes. His speeches are often a series of words without connection or period because he can’t seem to complete a sentence that has a subject and verb. He is diminishing before our eyes. We know he’s a grifter and we know he’s been convicted of sexual assault. He’s a two-times impeached felon, with dozens of charges pending. He knows his only chance of staying out of prison is to win the presidency.
Think about that. Trump stays out of prison only if he’s elected President. Yet Trump couldn’t pass a basic background check to be a school janitor…no offense to school janitors because they have passed a background check.
The Founders must be turning over in their graves. But, given that the election may be close, and there’s the unthinkable possibility that Trump may win, it’s vital to take a closer look at the Republican’s VP candidate.
Vance was sworn in as Ohio’s junior Senator in January 2023. Politically, that’s it. Like many in Trump’s current inner circle, he’s gone from Trump hater to full-blown sycophant. Vance once compared Trump to Hitler, called him an “a—hole,” an “idiot,” and “reprehensible” (Reuters, July 17 2024). Now, he’s a believer. What the two have in common is the need for power and control and it matters not how they achieve either. Each lack character and empathy—Trump by nature, Vance by calculated design. But there’s a difference. Vance is much smarter than Trump. And that makes him much more dangerous.
Just ask the residents of Springfield, Ohio.
We watched in shock as Trump exploded with the ‘news’: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in”, Trump said. “They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people who live there” (Presidential debate, 10 Sept, 2024).
So where did all this b.s. come from? According to research by NPR, the claim “appears to have gotten its start online in early August. A user, on a far-right social media platform, commented on photos of a white supremacist neo-Nazi group marching through Springfield, protesting Haitian immigrants and carrying swastika flags” (https://www.npr.org/2024/09/10). The poster added, “once Haitians swarm into a town, animals start to disappear.” Days later, Vance posted the claim on X.
On Sept.9, a day prior to the debate, Springfield’s City Manager, Bryan Heck, responded to a question from the Vance campaign asking “are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten (by the Haitian community)? Heck responded “no, I told him the claims were baseless.” The Trump campaign ran with it anyway. The mayor of the city denounced the claim, as did the Republican governor who called the rumor ‘garbage’ (ABC News “This Week”).
Vance continued to defend spreading irresponsible rumors, telling CNN’s Dana Bash that “If I have to create stories so the American media pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
The Columbus Dispatch, among others, summed up the results of Vance’s lie (https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2024/09/17).
• The two hospitals serving the community were forced into lockdown following bomb threats.
• Six city schools received bomb threats.
• Wittenberg University and Clark State College both received bomb threats, as well as threats of a school shooting. Classes and athletic events were cancelled.
• The annual city-wide cultural celebration was canceled due to “recent threats and safety concerns.”
• County buildings had to be evacuated due to threats.
• The mayor and other city officials and their families have received persistent death threats.
• Thousands of Haitians are living in panic, afraid to leave their homes.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said there had been (as of Sept 17), “at least 33 separate bomb threats targeting the Springfield City School District.”
What kind of person does something like this? How could someone, knowingly, destroy the ethos of a community? What happens if one of those threats becomes reality? There’s one thing for sure. If someone is hurt by these purposeful lies, Vance and Trump will never take responsibility for what they let loose—all for political gain.
If Vance knowingly treats his own constituents with such care-less, detestable ease, just imagine what else he’s capable of doing. Well, we don’t have to imagine. On a live podcast with right-winger Jack Murphy, Vance said, “the majority of American life and culture needs to ripped out like a tumor.”
Springfield appears to be their first attempt to do just that.
Marsha Shearer is a resident of The Villages and the author of “America in Crisis: Essays on the Failed Presidency of Donald J. Trump.”
