Reason # 73: VEEP
Why do we need to defeat Donald Trump and ensure that a Democrat occupies the White House?
The TV show “VEEP”, hilariously illustrated the limitations of the job description of the Vice-President of the United States. The VP really has only two important functions. She gets to cast a tie-breaking vote as president of the Senate and, in the case of the demise of the President, immediately assumes the world’s most important job.
Let’s look first at tie breaking votes.
“Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the U.S. Constitution, the vice president of the United States also serves as the president of the Senate. In this capacity, he or she may cast the deciding vote when there is a tie in the Senate.”
This sounds pretty exciting; like hitting a walk-off home run in extra innings. But the scenario is pretty improbable, right? You might think so, but VP Kamala Harris has cast the deciding U.S. Senate vote on 33 occasions during her term of office, to date! The votes included historic victories on the American Rescue Act of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Do you recall that financial assist you got during COVID? Think back on the source before you vote. Hint: all Republicans voted no.
https://ballotpedia.org/Tie-breaking_votes_cast_by_Kamala_Harris_in_the_U.S._Senate#:~:text=Kamala%20Harris%20(D)%20(2021-present)%20has%20cast%20the%20most%20tie-breaking%20votes
The second V-POTUS job function is considerably more critical. Fifteen vice presidents, that is 33% of VPs, have later served as President; nine, that is 20%, immediately following the death of the incumbent President. Sounds like you had better choose your candidate carefully, the VEEP is only a heartbeat away.
Given the wide disparity in age between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the odds are that J.D. Vance would more likely move up to the Oval office under this contingency. Donald is now 78, the oldest presidential candidate ever and a walking advertisement for an atherosclerotic time-bomb. A recent assassination attempt, one that very narrowly failed, should serves as a memento mori.
With that introduction in mind, which V-POTUS candidate is better qualified to become POTUS? Tim Walz or J.D. Vance? Last night’s debate offers a convenient place to start.
Let’s begin with the popular Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz. As Tim admits, he has been a knucklehead on a few occasions. He had a DUI back in the 1980s, cheated on his beautiful wife on one occasion and fibbed that he had been in China during the Tiananmen square crisis. These offenses against veracity all took place more than thirty years ago. That’s all of the dirt Republicans have been able to dig up.
On the plus side, he is a small-town kid, down-home guy’s guy, high school football coach, pheasant hunter, Master Sargeant in the U.S. Army Reserve for 24 years and father of two children. He is also a very skilled debater.
Walz’ avuncular demeanor quickly forced Vance out of his Doberman Pinscher mode and compelled him to play nice in front of the grown-ups. In the absence of fireworks, a civil discussion erupted. In this atmosphere, Vance was defanged. He had to forego his Trump audience fabrications about Haitians eating puppies and kitties. Although, he did still get in a couple of whoppers about Walz killing 9-month-old fetuses, 320,000 supposedly missing children and his explanation of Donald Trump’s “peaceful turnover of power on January 20, 2020”. But even kind and tolerant Tim has his limits and he got serious at the end of the debate and asked J.D. Vance whether Donald Trump had lost the 2020 election. When Vance deflected, Walz interrupted, noting that his failure to answer the question was “damning by omission”. What was he referring to?
He was reminding us of yet another, typically ritual, function of the vice president. Remember when I told you there were only two important vice-presidential functions. Well, I misspoke. There are actually three.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 of the Constitution of the United States mandates that the vice-president acting in her role as
“President of the Senate, shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the most number of votes shall be the president, of such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed;”
It is precisely this vote counting and certification function of the Vice President that Walz was asking Vance about. Vice President Mike Pence, on January 6, 2020, fulfilled his constitutional responsibility, despite the extreme duress he was under, following invasion of the Capitol by a violent, self-styled lynch mob, who came equipped with a noose they explained was to hang the Vice President with.
It is precisely the public display of J.D. Vance’s inability to fulfill this solemn vice-presidential function, that makes him totally unsuited for the job. By refusing, even now, to personally certify the election of Joe Biden in 2020, he shows that he does not have the integrity or courage to fill the vice presidency,
Aside from that telling moment, Vance proved that, unlike his boss, he is a slick debater, able to control his crazy in front of a national audience. But that just makes it worse. It signifies that he is a phony, tailoring his toxic message and who he really is, to please his audience. If he is talking to the radical, right wing, nationalist base, he plays the racist cards and dog whistles blacks and immigrants with crazy fabricated accusations of pet cannibalism.
Plus, as Tim Walz and others have observed, J.D. is just weird, socially awkward and creepy. This was obvious during the debate. The eye-liner accentuation did not help.
No reasonable person would elect a man who will not admit that Donald Trump lost the election as vice-president. Vance signally failed the Pence manhood test.
Still don’t get it? Tomorrow we will start to look at the role of the vice-president in the Trump/Republican Party conspiracy to suborn electors, steal the election and prevent the lawful Constitutional transfer of presidential power.
Have a heart; use your mind, search your conscience, and vote for Democratic candidates – across the ballot – on November. 5th.
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Fred Grannis
October 2, 2024