An Open Letter to JD Vance

Dear JD,

Protestors at Vance's Vermont ski trip

I hope you enjoyed your recent Vermont ski trip and that the protestors who lined the road to the ski lodge and to the airport for your exit weren't too much of an inconvenience for you. I also read that this weekend, you and your children were followed by a group of pro-Ukrainian protestors and you had to ask them to back off while you were with your kids. I agree that following you when you are with little children is inappropriate and I'm glad you spoke with the protestors civilly and worked out a solution. But I hope it made you think about Ukrainian children whose lives you are helping to shatter by supporting Putin's invasion of their country. 

Billy Mumy in The Twilight Zone
episode "It's a Good Life."

I'm writing to you because you don't seem to be a total nutcase like your boss. You at least might listen to reason. I can't fathom how you and the president can support the thug-like Putin over the courageous Zelinskyy. In the weeks preceding the disastrous White House meeting with the Ukrainian President, it struck me that Trump is like the character played by Billy Mumy in the classic Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life." Mumy is a spoiled little boy with supernatural powers. All the adults in the community indulge his every childish whim for fear he will turn them into jack-in-the-boxes. Macron and Starmer were like the frightened adults, offering the powerful brat Trump flattery and gifts like a state visit to King Charles. Zelinskyy was not prepared to fawn or supplicate in front of Trump or pretend Putin is not such a bad guy. Perhaps that was a diplomatic mistake, but it does not merit your humiliating treatment of him. Trump's withdrawal from USA's traditional role as a strong supporter of world democracy will have tragic consequences and lead to a less stable world. He only sees the world in terms of transactions rather than morality. I know that's how it is in business, but the world is not a business. If you make a deal with the devil (Putin and Xi), he will never honor it.

I also wanted to bring up your recent statements about the left and mischaracterizing us as totalitarian ideologues who want to impose wokism on everyone. You said we want all men to be "androgynous idiots." I don't want that. But I also don't want anyone who is androgynous to be afraid to be themselves openly. When I was growing up, it was a bad thing to be effeminate and I was bullied mercilessly. There's nothing wrong with being androgynous. Just as your idea of a "real man" who likes to drink a beer and tell jokes with his pals should not feel judged or condemned, LGBTQ people should not be socially ostracized. I don't want everyone to think exactly like me, but I want the freedom to conduct my life as I see fit without social or political repercussions as long as I don't infringe on anyone else's life. My being openly gay does not do that. 

In a recent appearance on Fareed Zakira's CNN show, Bill Maher said that the reason Trump won is because MAGA and moderate voters were convinced that the left is worse that anything Trump would do. Really, JD? Having to list your pronouns is worse than unnecessary trade wars, eggs at $14 a dozen, gutting the federal government with a meat axe and dismantling vital social programs, foreign aide, and potentially life-saving scientific and medical research? 

Just something to think about.

David Sheward