By Terry Manning
I know the crassness and hatefulness of the Trump campaign are part of its appeal to its base.
I have written about my former coworker who idolized an office mate who “says what’s on his mind“ including inappropriate explosions of profanity.
I also know these people look at themselves as exemplars of what “real” Americans are supposed to be. They are the “patriots.” They are the only worthy defenders of a country whose tenets they undermine at every opportunity. This delusion is what allows them to support the horrible things they witness and replicate.
Like sharpshooters at a county fair, they need a shyster to come by every so often to prop up a new batch of targets, with the promise of they’ll win something.
Across hundreds of years, people like these “othered” the indigenous tribes they found here; the enslaved Africans they brought here; and now the “huddled masses yearning to be free” who came of their own volition.
But that was not enough.
They attack members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans communities, painting them as perverts actively recruiting children. They pushed to deny them the privilege of marriage, saying it is a sacred institution exclusive to heterosexual unions. An institution these same devotees themselves abandon half of the time.
But that was not enough.
Now they target women who don’t or aren’t able to follow the “tradwife” lifestyle. These self-appointed champions of tradition mock women who go to work every day, who have to juggle the demands of work outside the home with the needs of the people inside their homes.
But that was not enough.
Now they attack the childless.
Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance was quoted years ago saying the country was being run “by a bunch of childless cat ladies, who are miserable at their own lives and the choices they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”
At another event around the same time, Vance went after the head of the American Federation of Teachers: “If she wants to brainwash and destroy the mind of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone,” never mind that the “she” in question was a stepmother of two.
When a clip of him making the comments drew criticism, Vance dug deeper. He told conservative talk show host Megyn Kelly, “This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child.”
I could go back and forth with him all day over which party really acts anti-family and anti-child, but I want to speak up as a member of multiple groups Vance and his like have “othered.”
I am one of those childless Democrats he was talking about. As many as 1 in 6 American adults have no biological children. Does it matter why?
When I was younger I had opportunities to have children with women I was involved with, but I opted to wait until I got married. The same coworker who idolized the big talker he worked beside once asked me about it.
“You don’t have any kids? That’s kinda unusual for y’all, ain’t it?”
I knew what he was saying. It didn’t fit his expectation of how a 30-year-old Black man would have answered that question.
But I replied, “If you were a 30-year-old single man, how many kids would you have?”
He stammered, “None, I guess.” That ended that conversation.
Decades later, I find myself having been on both sides of marriages torn asunder by the desire for children. Both were emotionally devastating life occurrences. And they were no one’s business but ours. No one’s hurt to carry but mine.
But that is not enough for Vance, Trump, and the people who support them.
They don’t think about the wounds they salt or the fears they stir. The lies they tell about people they accuse of eating pets or “grooming” children. They don’t think about the people who will pursue the unspoken bounty placed on the heads of the people they target.
No, if there’s an opportunity to score political points, to “own the libs,” they will seize it.
They will always find another “other” because if they didn’t, their supporters might stop to contemplate the horrible things they have done for the horrible people who dispatched them.
Meanwhile, those of us Vance said have “no stake” in the nation’s future will keep on fighting for a tomorrow that benefits all, not only those who sprang from our loins.
Terry E. Manning is a Clemson graduate and worked for 20 years as a journalist. He can be reached at teemanning@gmail.com.
