by Whoever Donald Trump chooses as his running mate, let her not be a woman.
You may think there is no point in worrying about this.
But before you dismiss the vice presidency as a distraction, remember that three years ago your vice president was caught between democracy and autocracy, after noticed at the last minute There was a Constitution standing in the way of Trump overturning the 2020 election.
There is also the very real possibility that if Trump, 78, is re-elected, he may not complete his term.
And there is the reality that the contest has already begun.
“It’s very clear that he’s holding these open auditions like he’s ‘The Apprentice,'” said Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist. Trump said to The Guardian. “He will flirt with everyone. She will make them dance. “Everyone will lower themselves and humiliate themselves and compete for that spot.”
Among those already in the lineup is Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who quickly renounced his non-start of the campaign and followed Trump to New Hampshire. But most of the other top contenders are women.
If you’re about to say, “Well, at least it could be a woman,” my answer is that it better not be.
The most obvious problem is the particular women in question. there is a representative Elise Stefanik from upstate New York (“she is a murderer”Trump commented), who also accompanied Trump to New Hampshire. She was remarkably one of the first Republicans will back Trump’s second re-election bid and have said she would be “honored” serve. There is his steadfast former press secretary and current Arkansas governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who has carefully not denied that she wants the job. Kristi Noem, her second-term governor of South Dakota who campaigned for Trump in Iowa, even said: say that she would consider he.
Less likely, but what’s predictable when it comes to Trump? – they are crazy devotees kari lake of Arizona and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Finally, at Mitt Romney”make them humiliate“Mould, her main competitor Nikki Haley, who has flatly said that she is”off the table.”
All of them MAGA in their politics or MAGA-adjacent, and by that I mean Haley, a former Trump official and such a shaky politician she still hasn’t had the guts to unequivocally denounce Triumph.
They’re all the kind of women Trump apparently likes, largely because they play into the degrading gender stereotypes Trump relishes, whether it’s the steely, stiletto-wearing bitch or the no-nonsense woman.
Of the first kind, Noem and Lake look the part that has always been a priority for Trump, who told his employees to “dress like women.” They are impeccably groomed in the TV-ready mold of Ivanka Trump and Kellyanne Conway.
Of the second type, there’s bad girl Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon fantasist whose relationship with the truth rivals that of election lawyer-turned-criminal Sidney Powell, and the forceful but non-threatening Mrs. Sanders.
Yes, these are all unpleasant stereotypes, but they’re the ones these women seem more than willing to embrace in the name of their Dark Lord.
It almost doesn’t matter which Trump chooses. None would significantly help or harm the man whose campaign is based on the cult of only one. Probably neither would be given any significant power.
If Trump chooses a woman, the most certain impact will be on the insidious implicit message: If Trump runs with a woman, then Trump has no problem with women, and women should have no problem with him. The fact that there are apparently not enough women interested should not allow Trump the corduroy cover that a running mate would give him.
This is – never forget – a man whose campaign should have stopped in Round 1 in 2016 after he was caught bragging about sexually abusing women. Even if his pre-presidential record had not fully revealed Trump’s thuggish sexism, the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against him, as well as a judge finding that when a jury found Trump responsible for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll, He basically said that he raped her, I have cemented it.
Trump has said he likes “the concept” from a vice president, perhaps a more revealing phrase than I intended. Of course, she sees women more as a concept than as a reality, an accessory or a servant to take care of her needs. At a time when women’s rights have been substantially stripped away and threatened, this is the last vision of womanhood America needs.
Trump has also said he will choose “the best person.” Most likely, he is someone who will do his bidding and not stand in his way. He will choose someone who subverts the very essence of what a vice presidential candidate should be, someone fit to assume the highest office in the land. If he chooses a woman, it will be to cover up one of the most sexist presidencies in modern history.
If Trump shares the candidacy with a woman in 2024, one thing they can be sure of: it will be the furthest thing from a step forward for women.
