I fucking love that they are reminding everyone how weird the Republican Party is. Had to think about it a little to understand, and my take is that it is the uncanny valley of morality.
What I mean by that: Morality is basically defined by what is good for people. Moral things are good for people. Immoral things are bad for people. Some things have multiple good or bad effects and can be gray with mixed morality.
The uncanny valley is usually about our recognition of other human faces and bodies. When something appears only slightly, or completely human we accept it. But if something is close to human but perceivably off it disgusts us.
When the Republican Party—especially Trump, Vance, and the rest of the MAGAites—tell us that immoral things are actually moral it feels WIERD! We believe in democracy and the right to vote, hearing that people without children shouldn’t vote is weird and Vance’s explanation is weird!
Also with republicans’ constant need to create legitimacy pointing out weirdness cuts where it hurts. Things that are this kind of icky weird do not feel legitimate.
And if you’re just a regular conservative or Republican person reading this far I do not want to rub your face in this. Not all of their moral talk has been this weird. I recognize that the groups we associate with can be internalized into a piece of our identity, and when those internalized things are attacked it feels like an attack on you personally. That sucks, but we’ve still got to be honest about what’s going on here. I want you to be ok too.
