TOTI: Hillbilly Elegy

This morning, former President Trump announced his nominee for Vice President. As the streets predicted, it’s the hillbilly elegy himself, J.D. Vance.

Who is J.D. Vance? Depends who you ask. Or, more specifically, when you ask.

He’s been inconsistent, to say the least, on his flagship issues of labor and the working class.

No I’m not having any sort of existential crisis as a progressive woman working in tech, why do you ask

On reproductive rights, he is responsible for some of the wildest statements I have heard from a mainstream politician.

Shout out, finally, to Biden’s comms team for this one

Did you know? Women can only be one of those two things.

AOC… let me love you again! Also my brother in Christ *what* is this tweet

On no issue has he done a more stark 180 than on Trump himself:

Real pain for my sham friends, am I right?

Trump has clearly staffed his campaign with actual professionals this time around. They are undoubtedly aware of the baggage Vance carries with him. The fact that they are willing to take on that risk suggests they see in his more recent persona a willingness to be an avatar of their ideology — more so than even Trump himself, in many respects!

At least he’s diverse in the recipients of his bigotry 🤗

He is without a doubt a smart and eminently shrewd politician. But of course what will matter more is an all-too-vague notion of likebility.

Maybe a littttttle bit of projection there, Mittens?

Even still, as a Democrat who has been experiencing an emotional cocktail of despair, rage, and insanity these last few weeks, the prospet of taking on somebody like J.D. Vance when we’re already operating with such a deficit is daunting. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

More on ~all that later.

If your texts are like mine, you had a number of people — maybe you were one — expressing discomfort at having propped up J.D. Vance back when Hillbilly Elegy was all the rage in the aftermath of Trump’s election. (I am proud to say this coastal elite did not read the book — another victory for illiteracy!)

…?

Buckle up, it’s gonna be a weird few months.

Trump’s announcement of his running mate coincided with the kickoff of the Republican National Convention and, pretty much to nobody’s surprise, things got weird fast.

When I compile TOTI I group my open tabs by theme, and these are just under “RNC yikes,” a tab group I should probably just keep open all week.

Can’t say that I think it bodes well that the president of the Teamsters got such a prominent speaking slot on tonight’s agenda.

Can’t wait to see what the rest of the week brings.

Now, with great reluctance, let’s turn to the leader of my own party. President Joe Biden gave a few interviews with the goal of demonstrating his vitality and strength as the Democratic nominee. And, well:

I yearn for the coconut tree.

Elsewhere…

This is the type of clip that a month ago I probably would have just chalked up to misleading editing. But I mean…

But if there is one person and I mean *one person* who can turn this around, it’s Nancy the gawd Pelosi.

Well.

Where does the rest of the party stand? Seems mixed!

Great!! Love being alive right now.

Not that anybody needs reminding of the stakes of this election at this point, but over in the legal arena, the four years of Trump’s prior presidency continue to bear fruit:

Talk about timing:

Since Sunday’s TOTI ran long, I’ll borrow from this past weekend’s internet for tonight’s sign off:

“I’m just so happy.”