All Aboard the Vasectomy Van
I cannot get enough of the Democratic National Convention vasectomy van: Imagine, in an election where, thus far, one party has positioned itself as pro-family—to the point where “childless cat ladies” have become a focal point, brought to the fore by vice-presidential contender J.D. Vance’s catty, mean-spirited cable news comments—the other party is parking vasectomy and abortion vans outside of the convention.
Technically, it’s Planned Parenthood Great Rivers doing it, making reproductive rights—and the Republican Party’s attack on them—a focal point of this convention. But Democrats are, more broadly, all over the place this first night of the DNC, as if they can’t quite figure out what they’re all about or where they want to go, whether they’re the party of joy or a party that just dealt with a succession crisis, or a party that’s riven by the Israel-Hamas conflict or a party that stands in defiance of purported Republican attacks on essential freedoms.
Consider the new ad, unveiled by Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign:
DNC airs new “Freedom” ad to kick off the Democratic Convention pic.twitter.com/lXLqKi2rAN
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 20, 2024
But such an ad assumes Americans have short memories. Ones that forget all the regulations Democrats have imposed that have driven up housing costs. Ones that forget how people were not enjoying freedom when they were shut inside their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, or forced to stay home from school and church, by blue-staters. Ones that forget the last decade of (Democrat-enforced) culture war language policing and hypersensitivity to all manner of grievance. Democrats aren’t really the party of freedom, they’re the party of dictating, in ways big and small, how you live, either for your own good or the greater good, as they define it.
What exactly are they for? The first night of the DNC was a good reminder of the party’s schizophrenia. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D–N.Y.) speech was excellent, proving that they have at least one promising young talent waiting in the wings. Formerly an outsider given a paltry 90-second speaking slot, Ocasio-Cortez has earned her spot as a Democratic Party mainstay, a primetime speaker whose name is chanted by an adoring arena. (This undeniable charisma is bad for the rest of us, mind you, as Ocasio-Cortez is economically illiterate and embraces Bernie Sanders-style socialism.)
At times, they veered away from light-touch diversity—a raft of speakers from all different backgrounds—and toward more explicit identity politics. Hillary Clinton’s speech was all about shattering the glass ceiling. Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison emphasized that a “black convention chair and a black D.N.C. chair lead us in nominating a black and [Asian American and Pacific Islander] woman to be the next president,” saying that “this election is about every little boy inspired by a party chair who looks like them, and every little girl who will finally see a president who looks like her.” (I highly doubt young children are paying attention to the party chair.)
This emphasis—on being a candidate of firsts, on the “I’m with her” mentality—is especially interesting because it’s one Harris has steered away from, ostensibly learning from the mistakes of Clinton’s failed 2016 run. Ocasio-Cortez directly inverted t
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