This issue landed in J. D. Vance’s lap when George Lang (photo, left), an Ohio businessman and GOP state senator from Vance’s hometown, declared that “if Republicans don’t win the 2024 election it could lead to a civil war to ‘save the country'” (read story here).
It sounds like he’s saying mass violence is justified to obtain a political result the voters rejected at the ballot box. Lang is wildly extremist in other ways (see profile here), so it’s not a big surprise coming from him.
But Lang represents Vance’s hometown, was speaking on Vance’s home turf, in the high school Vance graduated from, to a Vance rally, and an audience that came to hear Vance applauded this. It’s making national news, which puts the ball in Vance’s court.
Will U.S. Senator and Vice Presidential nominee Vance ignore this, brush it off, or try to rationalize away Lang’s remarks (and the audience’s approving response) as unimportant or “just” campaign rhetoric? Does Vance have the guts to repudiate fellow Republicans who step out of line?
When Vance took the stage, he didn’t acknowledge Lang, but he didn’t condemn these remarks; he ignored them, and while silence isn’t approval, Vance’s silence about this is meaningful.
Back in 2019, Rob Drake, the MLB umpire behind home plate in Seattle Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez’s 2012 perfect game, called for “cival war” (sic) if Trump was impeached. Drake later apologized, deleted his Twitter account, and still umpires Major League Baseball games (see details here).
I don’t know if Drake was contrite or only apologized to save his job. As a financial services business owner, Lang answers to no boss, but maybe worries about possible blowback from clients and/or voters, or maybe Vance’s snub bothers him. In any case, whatever his reasons, he posted the tweet below.
