By Michael Schwarz September 9, 2024 at 1:55pm
Democrat elites’ decision to push moribund President Joe Biden out of the 2024 presidential race robbed us of something special.
Imagine, for instance, a debate between Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, who has demonstrated an encyclopedic command of policy-related details, and Vice President Kamala Harris, who cannot string together a coherent sentence — let alone coherent policy.
On Monday — less than 36 hours before the vice president’s scheduled debate against former President Donald Trump in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — Vance took to the social media platform X, where he used a series of eight posts to craft a lengthy and brilliant response to Harris’s campaign policy page, thereby giving the vice president a taste of the debate drubbing she narrowly escaped when Democrats elevated her to the top of their ticket.
Of course, it now falls to Trump to deliver that drubbing. And many expect that he will, albeit perhaps in a different way than Vance would have.
Trump’s running mate announced the policy-rich thread at 12:09 p.m. EST on Monday afternoon. Approximately three hours later, it already had more than 2.1 million views.
“It has been 50 days since Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. In the dead of night yesterday, she finally released her campaign policy page. Here’s what I think of it,” Vance wrote.
It has been 50 days since Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.
In the dead of night yesterday, she finally released her campaign policy page. Here’s what I think of it 🧵
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024
Then, with each successive post in the thread, Vance delivered a masterclass.
Do you think Kamala Harris will lose?
In fact, the Ohio senator crafted a total of 52 paragraphs in response to eight Harris campaign policies. Yet he wrote with such clarity and command as to make his arguments both accessible and unassailable.
A summary of Vance’s eight-post barrage might read as follows:
Unless you rank among the wealthiest people in America, have authoritarian inclinations, hold a gender- studies degree or something equally worthless, worship at the altar of secularism or entered the country illegally, Harris hates you. Her plan has nothing for you.
For instance, Harris promised middle-class tax cuts. But, in the thread’s first post, Vance reminded readers of the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to IRS crackdowns.
Vance also noted that the Biden-Harris administration has produced a “massive wealth transfer from working people to the Green New Deal’s constituencies.”
1) Kamala Harris claims she wants to cut taxes for middle class families, but here’s what’s in her plan:
IRS Audits for working families: Getting audited is a horrendous experience, even if you’ve done nothing wrong. Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to hire 87,000 IRS… pic.twitter.com/NJaM9ARIYI
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024
Next, Vance threw cold water on Harris’s vague plan to lower rent costs and make housing affordable. This can only happen, the Ohio senator correctly noted, by securing the border.
“When a city’s immigrant population increases, the area’s home prices and rental costs rise by a comparable amount. But the effects vary by neighborhood: home values are negatively correlated with the immigrant concentration. The result: only current homeowners in non-immigrant, wealthy neighborhoods stand to benefit from mass immigration. Working-class residents see their rental costs soar, and their home values decline,” Vance wrote.
2) Kamala claims she wants to make rent more affordable and home ownership more attainable, but that’s not what her plan would do at all.
Kamala wants to give every first time homebuyer a $25,000 check toward downpayment assistance. What she fails to leave out is that this would… pic.twitter.com/iy2j70Pfyv
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024
Then, Vance took aim at the Biden-Harris administration’s “overbearing regulations” that crush small and big businesses alike.
3) Vice President Harris claims she’ll “take on the everyday obstacles and red tape that can make it harder to grow a small business.”
However, under her administration, the SEC has promulgated at least 47 rulemakings, the majority of which have not been mandated by Congress,… pic.twitter.com/y0gzo7BHLD
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024
In his fourth post, Vance called out the basic unfairness of the Biden-Harris administration’s student-loan forgiveness plan.
“What will Harris say to Pennsylvania ironworkers who are upset that they have to pay for someone else’s college degree?” Vance wrote as part of a larger critique of the vice president’s platitude-filled education plan.
4) Kamala Harris claims she wants to make our education system a pathway to the middle class.
Take it from me, a working-class kid who went to Ohio State on the GI Bill and then to Yale: education can absolutely be pathway to the American Dream. But I’m not naive enough to think… pic.twitter.com/4KewJqLwfb
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024
Then, the Ohio senator tackled Harris’s equally platitudinous promises of affordable child care. In short, Vance reminded people of faith that Harris and the Democrats have contempt for them.
“Most parents who use a paid childcare center say they prefer a faith-based provider. What would Harris’s plan do for them? Nothing. Childcare providers based in a house of worship would have been excluded from funding opportunities. Other faith-based providers would be subject to additional regulations in order to access funding that might not have been able to meet,” Vance wrote.
5) Kamala says she wants to invest in affordable child care, but again that’s not what her plan would do:
As I’ve said before, I want our public policy to increase access to affordable childcare options and empower parents with the flexibility and resources to make the best… pic.twitter.com/fbOspMRXoz
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024
Next, Vance reminded readers that Biden and Harris have subordinated national energy policy to the demands of climate authoritarians.
6) Kamala Harris made it clear that she views American energy policy as a part of her wider fight against global warming. For example, she takes credit for passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which she claims lowered household energy costs while building a green energy economy.… pic.twitter.com/ZCtfEbGQiA
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024
In his penultimate post, Vance turned to illegal immigration. He held back nothing as he exposed the Biden-Harris administration’s criminal record on the border.
Most insulting of all, perhaps, is the vice president’s insistence that she would secure the border if elected. After all, why not do it now?
“If there’s a takeaway from this section, it’s that Kamala opened our borders to 8.5+ million illegal aliens, lied about it for almost four years, blamed others when she got caught and now wants to reward those illegals with citizenship,” Vance wrote.
7) Kamala Harris says she wants to secure our borders. Her record tells a different story:
Harris touts her record prosecuting international criminals as California’s Attorney General. One of the reasons why California has so much migrant crime is because it is a sanctuary state… pic.twitter.com/QnODI5a4Iz
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024
Finally, Trump’s running mate teed up the former president for what could prove the most devastating line of attack in Tuesday’s debate.
“Kamala Harris has said she wants to support veterans and their families. She has completely failed to do so as Vice President,” Vance wrote.
The Ohio senator then proceeded to describe the ways in which the Biden-Harris administration has mistreated U.S. service members, including the catastrophic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal and its shameful aftermath.
8) Kamala Harris has said she wants to support veterans and their families. She has completely failed to do so as Vice President:
Right from the beginning, Biden and Harris charted a bad course, putting U.S. soldiers in harm’s way. In Afghanistan, as the situation turned chaotic… pic.twitter.com/oxP0qdIDwh
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 9, 2024
All told, Vance delivered the sort of extended critique that very few politicians could muster.
If Trump manages to land something close to this kind of knockout punch on Tuesday, Harris will have no substantive way to respond.
Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.
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