Better Trump and Vance Team for America

bybJoyce Vance - Jun 11

The Wall Street Journal called it “Bruce Springsteen’s Lecture Tour,” writing that the Boss would “rather talk politics than play the hits.” That wasn’t my experience when I saw him in Washington, D.C. He played plenty of hits while also speaking passionately about his love for our country and his concerns about where we’re headed.

The concert brought people together. One of my favorite parts of the night was sharing it with friends, including Mary L Trump, whom many of you know as the author of The Good in Us here on Substack.

We occasionally reflect on the fact that we are “the better Trump and Vance”, Mary Trump and Joyce Vance, and that the country would be a lot better off (or at least a lot more fun) under our leadership than the current Trump and Vance. That was definitely how we handled seeing the sign in the video at the top of this post as we were heading into the concert.

After that, it seemed only right for us to get together for a Substack Live as part of my anniversary Autocracy, Democracy, and Kleptocracy series to discuss what the good Trump and Vance would be doing right now if we were the ones in office. (Hint: We would not be ignoring climate change or banning books instead of educating kids).

In a world where we spend so much time focused on the latest outrage, it’s easy to lose sight of what we could accomplish if the $1.776 billion slush fund the president wants to pay out to January 6 offenders were instead invested in mental health and addiction treatment, food security, or the expansion of solar and other alternative energy sources to reduce our dependence on oil.

The possibilities are endless, and so many important issues barely get a nod these days as Americans fight to preserve democracy—with the president of the United States as the opponent.

Mary and I will discuss this and more with you tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. ET. Mark your calendar now so you can bring your coffee along and join us in the morning. Let us know in the comments below if there’s anything you want us to discuss.

We’re in this together,

Joyce