The Party of the Working “Man”

Evening, Meteor readers,

I missed you! Thank you for asking, I did indeed have a great six-week sabbatical launching my new book, The Myth of Making It. I’m grateful to the inimitable and absurdly brilliant Julianne Escobedo Shepherd for holding down the fort with Shannon Melero for all of you.

But now, I’m back! And what a week to return to: the aftermath of political violence, the continuing pressure for now-COVID-positive President Joe Biden to step aside as the nominee, and the Republican National Convention in full swing. Maybe I need to take another break.

Today, we decode what’s happening at the RNC (we don’t include an investigation into Matt Gaetz’s dermatology routine; we’re better than that), cheer for some historic Emmy nominations, and learn what Black women really think about this year’s upcoming election.

Save me,

Samhita Mukhopadhyay

WHAT’S GOING ON

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Ah, the Republican National Convention—where the conservative leaders of our time, dedicated to rolling back as many of our rights as possible, come together to discuss how exactly they will get that done (and try to convince us that the youth is for it). As we anticipate former President Donald Trump’s speech tonight, here are a few takeaways from the RNC thus far:

They want to convince us they are the party of the working “man.”

J.D. Vance took the stage on night three of the RNC to deliver a bold message to Americans: “We need a leader who is not in the pocket of big business but answers to the working man, union and nonunion alike.” (The word “man” is no accident, since the VP candidate apparently doesn’t believe women should be encouraged to work outside the home.) But for the hard-working men of America, the RNC has spent the last few days making pro-union and pro-labor overtures—which is usually something reserved for the DNC, but here we are.

But was Vance talking about paid family leave, a minimum wage, or universal healthcare? No—for the most part, the RNC’s discussion of jobs focused on how immigrants are allegedly taking them. On the first night of the convention, Sen. John James (R-Michigan) told the audience, “Black people were sold on hope; now our streets are rife with crime. Our kids can’t read. And illegals are getting better help from Democrats in four days than we’ve gotten in 400 years.” If you’re wondering what 400 years refers to: Well, we’re pretty sure they’re referring to 1619 when the first slave ship arrived in America, but since the GOP discourages the teaching of that, it’s hard to say for sure.

THIS HARDWORKING AMERICAN MAN IS A FORMER VENTURE CAPITALIST WHOSE FIRST BID FOR OFFICE WAS FUNDED BY PETER THIEL. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

They’ve got the Senate in their sights.

As far as the RNC is concerned, the White House is theirs come November. But they want more. They want to flip the Senate and, this week, trotted out seven candidates currently running for Senate. (They were Kari Lake of Arizona, Eric Hovde of Wisconsin, Bernie Moreno of Ohio, Sam Brown of Nevada, Hung Cao of Virginia, Nella Domenici of New Mexico, and Mike Roger of Michigan.) If you’re in those states, we highly recommend this link.

Trump haters for Trump!

Almost every politician who’s taken the stage over the last three days has, at some point before the convention, either vocally spoken out against Trump or been a subject of the former president’s incredibly public ridicule. And yet there they are, smiling and ignoring their quibbles in order to present a united front to voters. But much like The North, I, too, remember. I remember J.D. Vance calling Trump unfit to be president. I remember Senator Ted Cruz calling Trump a “pathological liar” and warning the entire country that “nominating Donald Trump would be a train wreck.” I also clearly recall Nikki Haley calling Trump unqualified to lead.

And considering that a number of conservative politicians (Trump included) are trying to distance themselves from Project 2025, the latest GOP bible, that unity is coming off faker than Marco Rubio’s tan.

Donald Trump, convicted criminal? Nah‚ he’s just like us.

And one final RNC theme: Trump is a regular ol’ person. Not just any kind of person, but a considerate friend (according to Sarah Huckabee Sanders) and a loving grandpa (according to his teenage grandchild, Kai, who said “A lot of people have put my grandpa through hell and he is still standing”. Girl…be for real.) And who doesn’t want to vote for grandpa?

We don’t. We don’t want this grandpa. We’ll take the cat ladies.

AND:

• Just a few hours after President Biden told BET that he’d consider dropping out of the 2024 race if he had a “health condition,” it was announced that he is mildly sick with COVID. And today The New York Times reports that some of the president’s loyal allies—including Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and Jamie Raskin—have communicated that he should bow out for the sake of winning not just the presidency, but the House and Senate too, and that Nancy Pelosi has told the President she feels “pessimistic” about his chances of beating Trump. Now, Axios predicts that the President could heed the calls to exit the race as early as this weekend. Buckle up!

• And speaking of President Biden, survey results from The Cut are in, and we now have an idea of how Black women feel about Biden’s performance. According to the findings, older Black women (those 35 to 55) view the president more positively than younger women (18-34). But approval ratings aside, 64 percent of all Black women polled said they will be voting for Biden in November.

• Award shows often seem to be doing the least when it comes to honoring women of color, but the Emmy nominations yesterday heralded a few nice surprises: the excellent Lily Gladstone and Kali Reis became the first-ever Indigenous women nominated for acting Emmys (for Under the Bridge and True Detective: Night Country, respectively), while Nava Mau became the first-ever transgender Latina nominated for a Supporting Actress Emmy (for Baby Reindeer). As a television obsessive who has seen all three of these series, I can confirm they deserve these accolades and each and every win.

EMMY HOEPFUL, NAVA MAU. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

• A new Commonwealth Fund study ranking healthcare for women by state has found that the states at the bottom of the list—Mississippi, Texas, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Arkansas—are, for the most part, united by one simple thing. Can you guess what it is? Nevada, the one state on that list which doesn’t have a near-total ban on abortion, ranks low in part because of the lack of Medicare coverage for undocumented immigrants. (Nevada also imposes greater obstacles to affordable healthcare than other states.) But wait—there’s good news! The top five best-performing states for women’s healthcare are Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, all of which have abortion protections.

• Here’s a fun reading list of feminist caper novels as chosen by Tess Amy, author of The Confidence Games.

• ICYMI: Julianne’s take on Alice Munro’s daughter, Canadian writer Andrea Robin Skinner’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather and society’s failure to believe children is a must-read.

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