photo: YouTube screenshot, Ohio Debate Commission
JD Vance speaks during a debate in the Ohio Republican Senate on March 28, 2022.
Is Middleton a native of the United States and a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Ohio Republican J.D. Vance?
Hardly. But a recent tweet from Elegy of the Highlander The author forced politicians to scratch their heads.
Vance, who promoted far-right views after previously criticizing former US President Donald Trumpcaused a stir on Twitter on April 10, when he seemed to mean that the electoral board had expired.
“I have a friend in France, and the election has just taken place there. The polls closed a few hours ago and they already know who the winners are. It’s probably nice to live in a first world country,” he tweeted.
I have a friend in France, and the election has just taken place there. Polls closed a few hours ago and already know who the winners are. Probably nice to live in a first world country.
– JD Vance (@ JDVance1) April 10, 2022
In the first of two rounds, On April 10, French people voted for their presidential candidate. Incumbent President and Centrist Emanuel Macron and far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen will go on tour on April 24.
But France uses voting in two rounds nationwide, not multi-date voting, multiple states, representative voting in the United States College of Voters, plus residents are automatically registered to vote at age 18. This facilitates the rapid summing up and certification of ballots in France, according to Vance.
In contrast, in the United States, federal elections use mass voting with an incomprehensible set of primaries, personal voting mechanisms, voting rights, advocacy, and postal ballots. Voting availability, resources, and timing vary greatly by state or city. In addition, residents ’votes are simply representative and directed to their state’s voters, who then cast official federal votes based on the results of the vote (some states have different rules, and some voters vote differently). Currently, the first candidate to garner 270 or more votes from these voters is winning the U.S. presidency.
Many historians and political scientists believe that the Electoral College, which was signed into the U.S. Constitution in 1787 and has been in force since 1789, is outdated and does not in fact represent the direct “will of the people” as a popular vote. The unequal distribution of state voters – based on a delegation to Congress – sometimes means that the United States ultimately nominates a president who wins the Electoral College, but not a popular vote. This happened most recently in 2016, when Trump received 304 votes from the Electoral College against 227 from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, although Clinton was ahead of Trump in the popular vote by almost 3 million individual votes more.
The most vocal were the Democrats on a call for a public vote rather than a representative vote, while Republicans were against it, so Vance’s tweet caused a stir. Moreover, in order to sum up the results immediately and confirm them, the United States will need to significantly standardize and simplify voting and eligibility mechanisms, which Republicans also did not want to do.
Significantly, simplifying the U.S. electoral system – probably through rounds of direct public voting – to speed up confirmed results, Vance suggests, would mean that Trump would not be declared the winner of the U.S. presidency in 2016. This, of course, is the case Trump’s persistent insistence that he win the next election in 2020 against current US President and Democrat Joe Biden (Trump has lost a series of lawsuits alleging that some states “falsified” their results against him. An investigation is also underway with reliable evidence that Trump, his family and allies have tried to overturn the election).
A number of people responded to Vance’s tweet about the French election.
“So you are in favor of abandoning the electoral board and moving to a similar system in which winners are determined only by popular vote?” historian Kevin Cruz asked Vance?
“So … No Electoral College, no TV time for candidates and no day off for voters, are you a fan? Do you also like guaranteed medical care, smart gun laws and 5 weeks of guaranteed rest? Yes, the very first world. And all, what was needed was not the Republican Party, ” said Cliff Shectera writer about Biden’s 2020 campaign.
“I know, right? and more importantly, whoever loses the election in France will actually accept the result, ”he added. political scientist Jan Bremer.
Like many Republicans vying for a seat in the Ohio Senate, Vance supported Trump’s lie about election fraudas well as Trump’s far-right positions on immigration, abortion, anti-vaccine sentiment, white nationalism and more. During the candidates’ debate on March 28, Vance refused to verify the facts of the moderator and put forward conspiracy theories that Facebook king Mark Zuckerberg “buys” ballot boxes. He also denied “guilt over the association” for questioning his support for Marjorie Taylor Green, arguing that she should not be criticized for appearing at a rally of white nationalists because he found nothing guilty in her remarks.
During the heated debate on March 18, during which Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons nearly got into a fightVance suggested that he did not care what happened in the current Russian-Ukrainian war.
“The only thing that will save Joe Biden’s presidency is if a bunch of stupid, weak-willed Republicans allow this guy to get us involved in a war we have nothing to do,” he said.
And again on November 18thwhen the debate moderator inquired about Republican candidates HR1 – A bill passed by the US House of Representatives that provides for automatic voter registration, provides more methods for registered voters and provides information on elections and processes – Vance described the bill as “another” way to lose to Republicans, as he said .
“Look, I think HR1 is an attempt to legalize election campaigning and election fraud across the country. Because what we’ve seen in 2020 – and it’s important to have the courage to say it – is the technology industry that works with Democratic operatives in several large states on the battlefield rigged the 2020 election. ” Vance falsely claimed, repeating the debunked QAnon theory.
“Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has put in $ 420 million by buying votes in states fighting across our country. It was a margin in the 2020 election, people. That’s why we have the catastrophe we have instead of Donald Trump’s second term.” , – added Vance, not paying attention to studies that have proven it Facebook has largely won Republican candidates and right-wing views.
But Vance hasn’t always so openly asked for Trump’s support. In fact, in tweets from 2016 – discovered and archived by CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski – Vance said he would vote against the former president. “@Evan_McMulln is the one I am voting for this November,” Vance tweeted on October 23, 2016. “Trump makes me afraid of the people I care about. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of that, I consider him doomed, ”he said. said Oct. 9 of that year.
Vance also had problems with Trump is a misogynist Access to Hollywood conversation (“I moved towards her like a bitch,” “Grab them by the pussy” and “If you’re a star, you’re allowed to do that”). “Christian brothers, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this person. Lord, help us, ”Vance wrote on October 7, 2016.
Vance also wrote this: “I hope that in 4 years people will remember that those of us who sympathized with Trump’s voters fought against him the most.”
But since then, Vance has deleted his tweets and other articles that criticized Trump. Instead of resisting Trump’s policies and persona, Vance accepts both.
And so onDuring another forum of Republican candidates, Vance and others made two-minute introductory statements before the moderator began asking questions. Most of Vance’s words echo the conspiracy theories of Trump, QAnon and others that Christian values of whites are under attack.
“I am worried that we are becoming the type of country where children like me look to the future and see a place where the values of ourselves and the people in this room are attacked or, more often than not, sent to countries that hate us and where our right to speak, to express our opinion in public square is silenced by everyone, from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to technology companies that are increasingly controlling our entire economy and the public discourse that accompanies it, ”Vance said, ignoring the fact that he spoke uncensored at a public forum.
Vance continued to amplify right-wing rhetoric, even assuming it people without children are not eligible for elected office.
“Childless leftists have no physical commitment to the future of this country. Why is it just a normal fact … of the lives of our country’s leaders to be people who have no personal and direct relationship to it through their descendants? ”Vance asked during a conference on The Future of American Political Economy in July.
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