The mind reels with lurid possibilities. What are Vance’s “weird views on gender”? Does he think that men can magically turn into champion female swimmers and women of the year? Does he think drag queens should be sent into primary schools to teach children the glories of the latest LGBTQWTF fantasies? Does he think parents should lose custody of their children if they don’t affirm their delusions that they belong to the opposite sex?

Nah. Politico would think all that was as normal as pink hair and nose rings. What Politico finds “weird” is that Vance is “staunchly opposed to abortion” and has even compared the left’s sacramental child sacrifice to slavery, another moral evil that once enjoyed the protection of a Supreme Court ruling. Even worse, as far as Politico is concerned, is the fact that Vance has “promoted Viktor Orban’s pro-natalist policies in Hungary, which offer paybacks to married couples that scale up along with the number of children.” Good heavens! He wants people to have more children? But what about their carbon footprint?

Vance also “opposes same-sex marriage.” He had the audacity in 2022 to suggest that “the sexual revolution had made divorce too easy (people nowadays ‘shift spouses like they change their underwear’), arguing that people in unhappy marriages, and maybe even those in violent ones, should stay together for their children.” This is a canard Vance has heard before, and Politico was minimally gracious enough to include his response: “His campaign said such an insinuation was ‘preposterous,’ but you can watch the video yourself and be the judge.”