Hello, happy Tuesday. 83 days until the election. Today we're going to talk about family. Whether it's anger, love, or just weirdly wonderful family.

Going back to the Olympic Closing Ceremony, was that the most Gen-X/City of Angels extravaganza you've ever seen? I love you, LA family.

Tom Cruise jumped hundreds of feet into a Paris stadium to retrieve the Olympic flag from Mayor Karen Bass, then, still full of Botox, rode a motorbike to a plane that landed in front of the Hollywood sign.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers reached the inevitable stage of classic rockers looking like wax museum figures, making an appearance on golden-era oldies, then handed the baton over to Billie Eilish, one of the five Gen Z musicians the older generation can recognise.

And of course, Snoop Dogg closed the night with a duet with Dr. Dre, reminding us that LA has talent as well as glamour. Snoop It is a highlight of the Olympics and sponsors the women's water polo team. Dancing with horsesa commentator for NBC (asked to return to the air in 2028). Can't Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (Snoop to you)?

Cruz, Flea, Billy, Snoop, Dre — the glamour can sometimes obscure the essence. But the essence is there, and at its heart is diversity, equity and inclusion. In the Golden State, land of dreams and spectacle, that's how we do it.

This is a direct response to the Harris-Waltz candidacy, a Republican Party that seeks to recast oppression and hatred as “normal” family values ​​and bask in conformity and obedience. Part of that response is an almost desperate attempt to paint diversity as dangerous and inclusion as stupid.

Last week we talked about the battle over masculinity between MAGA and the Democratic Party.

Naturally, to the family.Whose vision will resonate with the American electorate?

Hatred is a problem

The Trump campaign has long seemed to have operated under the rubbish of racism and misogyny, nibbling at ideas like the Great Replacement Theory, that immigrants are a “horde” that will destroy America, and operating from the belief that a spotlight would allow them to run and hide.

“Fake news!” they cry when criticized. “Liberal media!”

It's a cynical strategy to get the dog to vomit something ugly onto the carpet and then blame it on you.

It slips under the “cat girl” argument and the false “chameleon” narrative that Kamala Harris does not embrace her Indian and black heritage equally.

Both arguments seek to pin women and minorities to their position with poisonous dog whistles of resentment and hatred that ring loud and clear in the ears of a particular constituency of voters who have long constituted Trump's most loyal supporters: angry young white men.

But when the Democratic nominee is a Midwesterner with Hindu and Jewish influences, a California stepmother who raised two children through IVF, something interesting happens.

The dog whistle changed frequency so that we could all hear it clearly.

After all, the average voter (the one in the swing states that are crucial to victory and have yet to be decided) doesn't believe that “childless, cat-loving women” are part sociopath, or that being mixed race is too complicated to understand.

Hatred is much harder to hide or accept when it is directed at specific people. When the Trump administration's strategy unexpectedly pitted them against Harris and Waltz, the hatred for diversity, equity and inclusion took a turn.

The much-derided acronym “DEI” has evolved from a dog whistle into shorthand for the values ​​most of us hold dear and that many families embody every day in their complex, diverse existence.

California values. American values. Family values.

What will the Trump campaign do?

Hurry to the center

The rush, the haste, the rush back to the safe middle message, which is exactly what J.D. Vance seems to be accused of, even as Trump continues his dissatisfying tirade.

In a fantastic interview with CNN's Dana Bash (who gave us a masterclass in how to fact-check), Vance argued that Harris is “fundamentally a hypocrite.”

Not like him. He's the real deal. He claimed that his previous anti-Trump views were due to him believing “media lies” and that he was “ashamed of it.”

Vance also tried to distance himself from the furor over cat-loving women and tried to frame all of Trump's anti-everything rhetoric of the past months and years as “pro-family” policies.

“In essence, our country has become anti-family,” he argued.

But the problem for Trump and Vance is that their family values ​​have long been rooted in white Christian nationalism, subjugating women and disenfranchising the LGBTQ+ community, and distancing themselves from hate terrifies their base, especially angry men.

“Tonight I am declaring a new Groyper War on the Trump campaign.” White supremacist Nick Fuentes recently wrote:“We support Trump, but his campaign is failing, hijacked by the same consultants, lobbyists and donors that Trump defeated in 2016. Without serious reform, we are headed for a devastating defeat.”

For those with more time to think, the Groypers are a group of far-right white supremacists who view Fuentes as their leader.

Right-wing podcaster Joe Rogan also hinted at defecting from Trumpwho appeared to endorse Robert Kennedy Jr. before later backtracking, as did far-right YouTuber Tim Pool.

Trump has felt the pressure well enough to do so on Monday night when he held a social media interview with the mercurial manchild king, Elon Musk, in a call that drew more than 1 million listeners.

During the conversation (calling it an interview is an insult to anyone who has ever asked a rational question), Trump went on his usual tirade, which included a promise to shut down the U.S. Department of Education. “Not every state is going to be successful in giving kids the foundation to succeed,” he acknowledged. But to the far-right, that's all very nice. To Musk, it was serious fanboy energy.

Of course, not everyone listening was a fan (I was one of a million), but the angry men really do like Trump, and Trump seems to really like the adoration. Like Sally Field at the 1985 Academy Awards.

They like Trump, who calls immigrants murderers and rapists, and Vance, who berates women who don't have children according to his standards.

They don't want to be moderates.

So Trump Vance has a problem: by moving to the center, he may win some votes, but he may also lose his hate-based support base.

meanwhile.

The Gravity of Common Sense

Doug Boze and his wife were high school sweethearts and had Walz as a teacher when they were both seniors. They still live in Minnesota, and Boze considers himself a closet Republican.

Still, last week He published an editorial He issued a warning to the Trump campaign.

“Make this campaign about Trump's tax policies,” he wrote. “Make it about China. Make it about the border. Make it about anything other than leadership, civility, and competence. Because otherwise this will become a personality contest and you will not be able to do anything on your own.”

it hurts.

I asked Vause why he decided to write this piece, especially since he doesn't always agree with Walz's politics. He told me that he usually votes “for all Republicans except the slackers.”

But Waltz represents someone he admires: About nine years ago, he ran into Waltz at an airport in Washington. Vose hadn't seen his old teacher in years, but Waltz remembered all about him.

“He remembered my name, asked me about my brothers, my wife and so on,” Bose said.

And in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, civil unrest has led Bose to say “ash has fallen in my yard”?

“I literally sleep better at night knowing Tim Walz is going to make the decision,” he said.

“He's the adult in the room and is more interested in doing the right thing than what's best for his career.”

Whatever you think about their politics, it's hard to say the same about Trump or Vance.

It's often said that the choice of running mate doesn't make or break an election, but this time Vause is voting for Harris-Waltz only because of Waltz.

He may not be the only disillusioned Republican to make the same decision.

What else to read

Must Read: Election officials battle flood of disinformation
Wow :Harris and Trump are expected to vote against tipping. Experts point out the problem.
LA Times SpecialKamala Harris raises $13 million in San Francisco, highlights California roots

P.S.: What the heck! Tom Cruise did not bring the Olympic flag back to LA. I say it again, he did not. That was fake news! In the end, the flag was brought back on a regular plane with Mayor Bass.

Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom, along with other elected officials, U.S. Olympians, Delta Airlines executives, LA28 and U.S. Olympic leaders, posed with the Olympic flag as it returned to Los Angeles on Monday.

(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)

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