JD Vance has a nasty habit of continuously doing and saying things that make him one of the most reprehensible people in United States politics. Donald Trump’s 40-year-old running mate and the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee in the 2024 presidential election may have the brainwashed MAGA base on his side, but anyone those awful red hats haven’t blinkered can see what a terrible human being he is.
His most recent faux pas occurred in the wake of the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, which left four dead on Wednesday, Sep. 4. Speaking at a campaign event in Phoenix, Arizona, in response to a question from a CNN reporter about what specific policies he plans to implement to stop school shootings from happening, Vance uttered one of the most diabolical lines imaginable, calling the tragedy “a fact of life.”
“I don’t like this. I don’t like to admit this. I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you’re, if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets, and we have got to bolster security at our schools.”
The idea that accepting school shootings as “a fact of life” is so ludicrously inept that it warrants sheer contempt. Of course, accompanying those appalling words was the standard Republican Party response that the solution to ending school shootings was to bolster security in schools rather than the more obvious solution i.e., implementing stricter gun control rules (seriously, people can’t shoot kids if they can’t easily access guns — it’s genuinely not that complicated).
Naturally, the response on social media was divided between the sensible among us who refuse to accept school shootings as “a fact of life” and the indoctrinated gun nuts who agree with him because disagreeing would mean giving up the completely unnecessary automatic weaponry they can wield so nonchalantly.
Vance’s defenders attempted to point out that he preempted the line “a fact of life” with words that made it okay (“I don’t like that this is a fact of life”). To be clear, they don’t make it okay. Not at all. One said, “Fake News ! Vance actually said, “I don’t like that this is a fact of life.”,” someone else said, “Except that’s not what he said at all. Do you have any other strategies besides lying?,” and another wrote, “Full Quote: “I don’t like that this is a fact of life.””
Several pointed out the hypocrisy in Vance’s words, with one saying, “Pro-Life but not when it comes to guns,” while another didn’t mince words and pointed out how “no one can bring a firearm into JD Vance’s events….” The biggest hypocrisy? He was dumping his abhorrent sentiments from behind bulletproof glass while being protected by the Secret Service.
Others vented their anger at him, ranging from calling him a sociopath who should “have no role in governing” to one refusing to believe his logic as such tragedies are not a norm in places like Europe, which only doubles down on the fact that Vance “not leadership material.”
A particularly passionate response came from a user who rightly said, “No this is not a fact of life and normal people will not accept it as such. Universal background checks and red flag laws are not unreasonable. Actual living and breathing children just aren’t worth a damn to Republicans.”
If you “don’t like” it, JD, do something sensible about it instead of arranging gun fights between potential school shooters and armed school security.
The United States remains the only place in the world where school shootings happen regularly. Therefore, the idea that they are “a fact of life” and there’s no way to prevent them without throwing more guns into the mix is absolute nonsense. The sooner people like JD Vance and his mindless followers get that, the better.
Published: Sep 8, 2024 01:33 pm