Between the Lines, Trump Is Racist/Sexist and Vance Hates Children

Donald Trump’s ruminations about dying by electrocution versus shark bites was anchored in the claim that it’s a serious issue because Trump is a very smart person. This is old news, made newly relevant by the entrance of Kamala Harris into the race.

Trump explained that his story about how to die when his electric boat sinks was “sort of a smart story,” not a “crazy story,” partly because Trump had a smart uncle. He said:

“You know, I have an, I had an uncle who was a great professor at MIT for many years, long, I think the longest tenure ever. Very smart, had three different degrees and, you know, so I have an aptitude for things. You know, there is such a thing as an aptitude.”

Here’s the video:

I am a definitely here for Trump’s assumption that the longer you have tenure the smarter you are, but of course it’s not true his uncle John was the longest serving professor at MIT. More importantly, he is claiming that having a smart uncle makes him smart, which be proudly exhibits by using the fancy word aptitude. But his genetic theory of intelligence was immediately confounded by his sexism/racism, which compels him repeatedly to claim that Kamala Harris is not smart. Kamala Harris has more direct genetic ancestors with advanced degrees and smart-person careers than Trump does, as both her biological father (Donald Harris) and mother (Shyamala Gopalan) had PhDs from Berkeley, and her father was a tenured professor at Stanford for several decades before retiring as emeritus.

And yet, Trump can’t see it. He said: “Well, I don’t think she’s a very bright person. I do feel that. I mean, I think that’s right. I think I am a very bright person, and a lot of people say that. “I don’t think she’s a very bright person. And you know what? Our country needs a very smart person, and I don’t think she’s a very smart person.” Here’s that video:

So much for the aptitude theory! Another casualty of racism/sexism.

Hey misogynist, leave those kids alone

Meanwhile, Trump’s running Mate, JD Vance, is again sweating an unearthed recording of him denigrating women whom he thinks don’t have children. Three years ago, at a Christian event, Vance said:

“So many of the leaders of the left, and I hate to be so personal about this, but they’re people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children. And that really disorients me, and it really disturbs me. Randi Weingarten, who’s the head of the most powerful teachers’ union in the country, she doesn’t have a single child. If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.”

Never mind that Weingarten, like Kamala Harris, is a mother by marriage, and the very weird and not-very-Catholic implication that women without children shouldn’t be teachers (hello, nuns). And that for much of US history women were kicked out of the teaching profession for having children. The weird thing I noticed about this quote was at the end: “If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own.” Is that the way we treat the mistreatment of children in modern society: If you want to abuse children, abuse your own? I don’t want to let this slip behind his misogyny and attacks on women without children, because we also have to worry about the conservatives who think the government should mind its own business and not protect children from abusive (Christian, traditional) parents. It sounds like Vance leans in that direction, which is yet another red flag about this man.

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Previously Published on familyinequality with Creative Commons License

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