“We should support more people who actually have kids, because those are the people who ultimately have more of a direct stake in the future of this country.”
Vice Presidential candidate Senator JD Vance has come under heavy fire from Democrats and their media minions for family-centric comments he made over the past few years. Vance, who came aboard the Trump campaign as the former president's running mate, made common-sense statements that have been taken intentionally out of context in an attempt to smear the pro-family, pro-worker, pro-middle class VP candidate as some sort of anti-woman monster. Don't be fooled.
"Why have we let the Democrat Party become controlled by people who don't have children?," he asked, before speaking with sympathy for those who would like to have children and raise families but are unable to for various reasons. "There have always been people like that, who even though they would like to have kids, are unable to have them. Let's set them aside," he said.
"JD Vance slammed for 'childless cat ladies' comment," ABC headlined their story. "Jennifer Aniston slams JD Vance over 'childless cat ladies' comment from resurfaced interview," was a headline from NBC, only to be outdone by MSNBC's comment "Jesus did not have children." The Washington Post brought "Swifties" into the critical mix. All of these outlets and more took Vance's pro-family comments out of context in an attempt to ridicule not only Vance and the Trump campaign, but American families who eschew materialism and focus instead on the stewardship of America's future.
"I want to take aim at the left, specifically the childless left, because I think the rejection of the American family is perhaps the most pernicious and most evil thing the left has done in this country," Vance said. He made the remarks at a 2021 talk a the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. His talk was about the American Dream, and he drew on his bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy, and discussed how integral the family is to American life and to happiness.
Vance was asked about the comments on Tucker Carlson Tonight, where he summarized "What I was basically saying is that we're effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.
https://twitter.com/theDCshorts/status/1816556665132482870
"It's just a basic fact," he said, "look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children." Harris married at 49 to a man who had children from a previous marriage. Now, 10 years into that marriage, she has been step-mother to those now-adult offspring. Buttigieg and his husband Chasten created their family using surrogacy or adoption. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is engaged to her long-term boyfriend and the two do not have children.
"And how is it that we've turned our country over to people who don't have a direct stake in it?" Vance asked. "I just wanted to ask that question and propose that maybe if we wanted a healthy ruling class in this country we should invest more, we should vote more, we should support more people who actually have kids, because those are the people who ultimately have more of a direct stake in the future of this country."
He went on to talk about the materialistic lives of those who have determined that their careers and their material wealth, not children and family, are the most important things in their lives. He stated a fact that many women who reach the age where having children naturally is no longer an option find themselves feeling that they had made a wrong choice in allowing that to happen. Democrats don't want to talk about that, in fact, they encourage women to stay single and childless by devaluing marriage and motherhood while promoting abortion as a road to freedom.
"These people recognize that they're unhappy," Vance said, "they live in one-bedroom apartments in New York City, they've played their entire lives to win a status game, they're obsessed with their jobs, they're obsessed with their wealth and with their fortunes, and they look at middle American people who are actually pretty happy with their lives and the choices that they've made. And they hate normal Americans for choosing family over these ridiculous DC and New York status games."
And then he made the comment that has Jennifer Anniston and so many others up in arms. "When somebody calls out that 'look, if you're a miserable cat lady, you should not force your misery on the rest of the country, they just get really upset about it." And of course they do, they did, and they have again.
"You know this, Tucker," Vance continued, "the most miserable people in the mainstream media are journalists who have their entire sense of self-worth wrapped up in their crappy jobs instead of in their families. People who know where they came from, people who come home at night and see the face of a smiling kid, whatever their profession, I think they're happier, I think they're healthier, and they're going to be better prepared to actually lead this country."
What Vance said used to be common wisdom in the United States. His message is family first, his message is that money and status are not as important as the people you love or as necessary for joy as your responsibilities to your family. This was a truth that liberals understood way back when. Before girl bosses and brat and lean in, liberals knew that wealth wasn't everything, that job and career were not the keys to happiness, that private jets and gold cards paled in comparison to hugs from your own kids and dinner with your family. They preached it.
Liberals are lying when they tell you that Vance is a misogynist or a hater. He's an advocate for American families. "We should worry," he said, "that in America, family formation, our birth rates, a ton of indicators of family health have collapsed." He said this should be "treated as a crisis in our country. It's a crisis because it makes our media more miserable, it's a crisis because it doesn't give our leaders enough of an investment in the future of our country, and it's a crisis because we know that babies are good."
Libby’s Desk
Commentary and must-reads from Libby’s desk, straight to your inbox.
TPM Newsletter
The Post Millennial’s top stories, delivered to your inbox.
