SCOTT LUDWIG: Disgust with Republican dialogue

“Trump is America’s Hitler.” That sentence came directly from J.D. Vance in September of 2016, about two months before Donald Trump was elected president – and instantly began doing everything in his power to prove Vance was right.

Somehow we were able to survive those four years while he was in office, if you don’t include the more than 1 million people who lost their lives to a deadly virus — most of which could have been avoided had the president done his job and called attention to it when he first found out about it.

So when Trump ran for re-election in 2020, the country collectively spoke and said they’d had enough and put Joe Biden in the White House.

Fool me once; shame on you.

Then, for the next four years of Biden’s term, Trump did his fair share of stealing the headlines for any number of things, most of them bad. How Trump didn’t end up in jail for his, umm, indiscretions, is anyone’s guess.

So when Trump ran for president for a third time in 2024 – this time as a convicted felon – half the country was cursing our Founding Fathers for not having the foresight to prevent anyone on the wrong side of the law to run for the highest office in the land. Inexplicably, enough people in the country sent a man who had proven his incompetence time and time again to the White House for the second time.

Fool me twice; shame on me.

When someone pulls the wool over your eyes, you should have learned your lesson the first time to prevent it from happening a second time. More than half of the country wasn’t paying attention. So once again, Trump is doing everything in his ever-expanding power (thanks to the Supreme Court) to do absolutely whatever it is that he wants to do.

Somewhere down the road, he’ll be ranked right up there with Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and possibly even his role model, Vladimir Putin, as a dictator. No question about it: That’s how Trump is going to be written about in the history books. 

But for now, let’s get back to J.D. Vance. Recently it came to light that leaders of Young Republican branches had exchanged hundreds of violent threats and racial slurs amongst themselves in a group chat. For example, one referenced rape as “epic,” one mentioned throwing opposition into gas chambers, and another – this a direct quote from the (now former) chair of the New York branch, no less – that proclaimed, “I love Hitler.”

When asked about it, this is what the VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES had to say: “The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That’s what kids do. And I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke – telling a very offensive, stupid joke – is cause to ruin their lives.”

That, my friends, is truly alarming. Mister Vance, I have two comments: (1) They are not “kids.” Some of them are close to your age, and (2) defending them clearly proves you are not fit to be next in line should the president be removed from office – for one of any number of reasons that I’m sure you’ve acquainted yourself with since you appear to be chomping at the bit.

Also, for your own preservation, you may want to check to see if the 25th Amendment
applies to you as well, not just the president. Here’s why I say that. You said that you’d be cautioning your own children about what happened. But then this is what came out of your mouth next: “Especially my boys: Don’t put things on the internet, be careful what you post. If you put something in a group chat, assume that some scumbag is going to leak it
in an effort to try to cause you harm or cause your family harm.”

What you failed to say is, that kind of discourse is not acceptable, should not be tolerated, and is not how citizens living in a democracy should even think, let alone talk. What you said amounted to this: ‘If and when you say bad things, don’t get caught.” Which may be the most alarming thing of all.

But getting back to Vance’s comment nine years ago, that Trump is America’s Hitler. It’s entirely possible that it wasn’t intended to admonish him. It may have been Vance’s way of expressing his admiration.