Last night vice presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence squared off in what will be their only nationally televised debate. They spent most of the evening talking about the tops of their tickets, so I’m still a little confused about who these guys actually are. (Apparently one of them represents me?) I suppose this is common, though, especially this uncommon year with lightning rod candidates at the top and inoffensive white guy running mates. Regardless, on a night with little else to be seen in primetime (thanks, Jays and O’s, for waiting), this “debate” was amusing if nothing else.
More illustrative of this campaign was Sunday’s front-page article in The Washington Post: “Finally. Someone who thinks like me.” You’ve got to hand it to the Post to go out and find a Trump supporter to interview, let alone profile with a few thousand words.
Who was this person? The craziest one they could find, showing that yup, all Trump supporters are morons who think that Obama is a Muslim and a closeted homosexual, and that Michelle is either a man in drag or a transvestite. (I swear to God these are all theories highlighted in the article.)
The interviewee, a Ms. Melanie Austin, lives in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, population 2,292. “My crappy little corrupt community” she affectionately calls it. Disaffected, disenfranchised, jobless, a smoker (this is mentioned more than once)… the phrase “bitter clinger” comes to mind. Or perhaps basket of deplorables.
This is how the Washington Establishment sees America. They can barely stomach the fact that these people are allowed to think, let alone vote. Such unenlightened rubes. Cornballs. Hillbillies. These are the yokels who will fall for Trump like they fall for slick-talking, fly-by-night televangelists. People who can’t afford a decent pair of shoes who still send 10 dollars a week to some phony charity pushed by a guy with nice hair. Now they’re falling for the guy with bad hair, too: a certain Mr. Trump, who may very well be the next President of the United States.
With, you know, that Pence guy as Vice President.