Friends Across the Aisle

You know those inkblots where first you see two vases and then you see two faces and some people can only see the face while others can only see the vase? That's sort of how it is between Republicans and Democrats these days, and it's getting worse every day.

It is literally beyond my comprehension that anyone could have watched the debate between the two candidates for vice-president and come away thinking, "Yup, that's the guy for me! If anything happens to Kamala Harris, I definitely want Tim Walz as my President." Honestly, it would be a joke. Nobody could take him seriously. And yet they do, calling him "down to earth," or "the salt of the earth" and things like that. I know, he grew up in a middle-class neighborhood where kids stayed out til dark riding their bikes; that should count for something.

Those same people saw JD Vance as a sneaky, slick, snake oil salesman, while I thought he was pretty close to the second coming of Jesus. (Is that how you say it, or is Second Coming capitalized? I'm Jewish, don't ask me.)

Vance wished he grew up in a middle-class neighborhood. Instead he grew up in poverty and squalor with a drug addicted mother, yet somehow he flourished in adulthood and became a husband and father and lawyer, and then a Senator and now a VP candidate reminiscent of a young JFK, all by the age of 40.

At least that's how I see it. Can we still be friends?