With less than five weeks until the election, today we're talking about what's wrong and what we're doing wrong.

On Tuesday night, at least two of you probably watched the vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and J.D. Vance. Honestly, it was very boring missed the fly It landed on Mike Pence's head in 2020.

I expected Mr. Vance to go on an angry rant, especially about immigration, but I was wrong. Instead, Vance was calm, sophisticated, and rational. He even complimented Waltz several times.

She said she and President Donald Trump do not support a national ban on abortion. He withdrew from the deportation of millions of illegal aliens. He moved like a chameleon, changing colors to suit the nationally televised environment.

In short, he lied, lied, and lied some more, easily and subtly. Sometimes it's outright fabrication, and other times it's a knife-edge balance between fact and fiction. While his boss, Mr. Trump, cried out his own deceit in between tales of gun emplacements and sinking ships, Vance delivered stories wrapped in sugar and calm.

I don't think anyone outside of MAGA die-hard fans would dispute that Vance won this debate by a landslide, but his clever delivery definitely gave him an edge, and his past statements didn't bother him at all. It gave us an insight into him that he doesn't seem to have.

But I'm old-fashioned and still think lying, even in politics, is voter fraud.

So let's unpack some of Vance's evasions and misdirections using his own words, past and present.

Abortion avoidance

“I have never supported a national ban,” Vance said during the debate. “When I was running for Senate in 2022, I talked about setting minimum national standards.”

Abortion is to Mr. Trump what a decapitated whale's head was to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It's a stink bomb of trouble. President Trump has sought to distance himself from the policy after polls showed voters were concerned about access to reproductive health care. One of the most insidious ways Trump and Vance are doing this is by toying with the word “ban.”

It is true that neither man is likely to support a national law that would make all abortions illegal at any stage of pregnancy, for any reason. And that's how they interpret the ban.

But Vance has repeatedly said that not only does he want abortion to be outlawed, but he has no problem restricting access nationwide.

In 2022, Vance said on the Very Fine People podcast, “I certainly would like to see abortion become illegal nationally.”

In a 2022 debate with Sen. Tim Ryan, Vance said: “I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that you can't abort a baby after 15 weeks of pregnancy, especially for elective reasons. … No civilized country would allow that, and the United States is no exception. I don’t want it to be.”

“Thanks to President Trump, we've turned the page,” Vance said at a Georgia Faith and Freedom event on Sept. 17. [on abortion]And our country has a chance for a new start. And today, we all say together, without fear, that we are proud to be the pro-life party of the United States of America. ”

And it's not just about abortion. In reality, it is pushing everyone back into a box of outdated and dangerous identities.

In a 2021 interview with conservative media outlet The Federalist, Vance cited Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán as a model and said he wanted to eliminate universities that teach about the history of racism and feminism.

“I think there are some things we can do, and that is we can tie federal funding to not teaching critical race theory and gender theory,” Vance said. “Orbán in Hungary has effectively made it impossible to teach radical gender theory in Hungarian universities, and you don't get paid for it. You can easily do that in the United States.”

immigration backtracking

During the debate, Vance said: “My biggest concern in Springfield, Ohio, is the American people whose lives have been destroyed by Kamala Harris' open borders. It's a disgrace.”

Mr. Vance also stated during the debate: “I think the first thing we need to do is start with criminal immigrants, about 1 million of whom have crossed the border illegally and committed some kind of crime. We need to start deporting those people. I think we should start by doing that.”

As many of you may know, Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance have made demonizing immigrants a central part of their campaign, distinguishing between those who came here legally and those who crossed the border illegally. There was very little. Trump, like Vance, has repeatedly said he would deport all illegal immigrants in the United States, a move that would not only destroy thousands of mixed-status families but also destroy the economy. It turns out.

Mr. Vance backed away from all of this during the debate, saying he would only deport violent criminals, a position few would disagree with.

But on Wednesday, Michigan returned to its original plan to threaten mass deportation.

“Pack your bags because you'll be going home in six months,” he warned.

Christian nationalist core

Mr. Vance is rooted in a Christian nationalism that appears to embrace Mr. Trump as a means to an end. What really concerns me about Vance is not that he doesn't believe in anything, but that he believes in a country run on Christianity above the law.

At a Faith and Freedom event in Georgia in September, Vance said:

“We must love God and be motivated by Him in how we enact public policy, how we practice our faith, and how we govern our nation.”

Pair this with this great quote from the 2021 Heritage Foundation interview. “We must be prepared to use our power ruthlessly.”

So I thought back to the last few minutes of the debate. Walz made his toughest point when he asked Vance if Trump had admitted he lost the 2020 election.

Vance declined, saying only that he was “focused on the future.”

“That's a total non-answer,” Waltz replied.

But that was just one of many.

What else should I read?

Must read: How two billionaire preachers changed Texas politics
Are you serious?: Republicans outraged by debate moderator J.D. Vance's fact-checking
LA Times special feature: Vice-presidential debate: Walz whiffs on immigration, Vance dodges questions and misleads

stay golden,
Anita Chhabria

PS Today a Republican congressman posted this weirdly edited photo of JD Vance and that's all. If I have to see it, so do you.

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