Graduate schools in the United States often teach students to cloak their sinful pride and authoritarian sensibilities in fine-sounding jargon.
From time to time, however, those institutions accidentally produce gifted truth-tellers who can challenge the authoritarians on their own terms.
On Friday, Vice President JD Vance, a 2013 graduate of Yale Law School, told Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to “grow up” after the congressman, displaying the performative outrage typical of woke authoritarians, demanded an apology from 25-year-old Marko Elez, a staffer from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who resigned Thursday following revelations that he had anonymously posted racist comments online.
Musk later posted a poll on X asking the public whether DOGE should rehire Elez. The poll’s final results showed that 78 percent of the nearly 400,000 respondents answered in the affirmative.
Meanwhile, both Vance and President Donald Trump publicly sided with the majority. Musk, therefore, indicated that DOGE would bring Elez back into the fold.
Unfortunately, Elez made comments denigrating Indians (those whose ancestors hailed from the Indian subcontinent, not from among the North American tribes that produced Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts).
That aroused Khanna’s indignation, for the congressman’s parents emigrated to the United States from India in the 1970s.
Vance’s wife Usha, however, also has Indian parents, which makes the Vance children half-Indian.
“Are you going to tell him to apologize for saying ‘Normalize Indian hate’ before this rehire? Just asking for the sake of both of our kids,” Khanna tweeted Friday in response to Vance’s support for rehiring Elez.
Do you agree with Vice President Vance?
Yes: 100% (54 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
Are you going to tell him to apologize for saying “Normalize Indian hate” before this rehire? Just asking for the sake of both of our kids. https://t.co/7NY8m93hJa
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) February 7, 2025
Vance then delivered one of the most effective arguments against wokeness and cancel culture in the history of social media.
“For the sake of both of our kids? Grow up. Racist trolls on the internet, while offensive, don’t threaten my kids. You know what does? A culture that denies grace to people who make mistakes. A culture that encourages congressmen to act like whiny children,” Vance replied.
For the sake of both of our kids? Grow up.
Racist trolls on the internet, while offensive, don’t threaten my kids. You know what does? A culture that denies grace to people who make mistakes. A culture that encourages congressmen to act like whiny children. https://t.co/xpLjhfk6Bz
— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 7, 2025
The vice president, however, was just getting warmed up.
“I cannot overstate how much I loathe this emotional blackmail pretending to be concern,” Vance wrote.
Emotional blackmail pretending to be concern. Has any conservative voice ever more accurately characterized diabolical wokeness?
“My kids, god willing, will be risk takers. They won’t think constantly about whether a flippant comment or a wrong viewpoint will follow them around for the rest of their lives,” Vance added.
Indeed, they will not live in the culture of fear promoted by Khanna and others.
“They will tell stupid jokes. They will develop views that they later think are wrong or even gross. I made mistakes as a kid, and thank God I grew up in a culture that encouraged me to grow and learn and feel remorse when I screwed up and offer grace when others did,” the vice president added.
I cannot overstate how much I loathe this emotional blackmail pretending to be concern.
My kids, god willing, will be risk takers. They won’t think constantly about whether a flippant comment or a wrong viewpoint will follow them around for the rest of their lives.
They will…
— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 7, 2025
But Vance had not yet finished mopping the proverbial floor with the Democrat congressman.
“I don’t worry about my kids making mistakes, or developing views they later regret. I don’t even worry that much about trolls on the internet. You know what I do worry about, Ro?” the vice president wrote.
“That they’ll grow up to be a US Congressmen who engages in emotional blackmail over a kid’s social media posts. You disgust me,” he added.
I don’t worry about my kids making mistakes, or developing views they later regret. I don’t even worry that much about trolls on the internet. You know what I do worry about, Ro?
That they’ll grow up to be a US Congressmen who engages in emotional blackmail over a kid’s social…
— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 7, 2025
At this point, could any Democrat seriously relish the prospect of tussling with Vance in the 2028 presidential election?
For years, agents of cancel culture grew accustomed to silencing dissenters, calling them “bigots” and then coaxing performative apologies.
Trump, of course, fought back. But he did so in ways that appealed to his working-class base. He called Democrats’ minions in the establishment media “fake news,” mocked his enemies relentlessly, and personified toughness in every way.
Vance, on the other hand, can beat the Ivy League-educated woke authoritarians on their own terms. A powerful conservative who refers to the denial of grace as “emotional blackmail” — all while remaining true to his own working-class roots — poses the kind of challenge that Democrats have seldom seen.
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