Althouse: "These people are kinda crazy" — JD Vance adds a "kinda" to Trump's "These people are crazy."

February 27, 2026

"These people are kinda crazy" — JD Vance adds a "kinda" to Trump's "These people are crazy."

Trump:

JD:

Assess the difference "kinda" made:

49 comments:

Enigma said...: It kinda makes no difference to me. It kinda expresses the same thought. If I'm kinda concise, I'd have stopped writing already.; 2/27/26, 9:18 AM
deepelemblues said...: There should be an option for it's a more humorous way to say it. "They're kinda crazy (read: they're nuckin futs)." That's how I took it.; 2/27/26, 9:20 AM
Wince said...: To paraphrase George Bush Sr: a kinda, gentler crazy?; 2/27/26, 9:23 AM
Peachy said...: Kinda... totally... sellouts.

Crazy not to take that sweet sweet chi com Soros backdoor money.; 2/27/26, 9:24 AM
Leland said...: Going with Vance’s other comments about watching Democrats attempt to applaud then stop, I think he’s suggesting a nuance. Obviously there are Dems playing to a constituent like Gadfly that really think they don’t represent American’s first. Are they crazy if they think that? But for sure, if you know better and are too afraid to stand up for Americans, then you are crazy to believe you will stay in office.; 2/27/26, 9:24 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: Vance is to "kinda" as AOC is to "uh/um/like". Vance is a gentler, sweeter man, AOC puts lipstick on her forehead so she can make up her mind.; 2/27/26, 9:26 AM
Paddy O said...: Kinda is well-used among younger than Gen-X folks with its own expressed impact. It's not quite a filler and it's not really less decisive. It is a softening word that is also an emphatic. A kind of response to the hyperbolic overuse of words like crazy, while emphasizing a real intent of the word. He thinks they are actually crazy in some real ways, even while not implying they are clinically insane. In a way it's a harsher use because it implies they are being crazy but should know better, tipping into areas of concern.; 2/27/26, 9:28 AM
Joe Bar said...: It's a funnier, more acceptable way to say it. Vance is smoother, and less direct than Trump.; 2/27/26, 9:29 AM
rehajm said...: Ah, language debate. I think the kinda in this context highlights the crazy. these people are crazy is a bland cliche. With the additional language the crazy is highlighted, as if it's a new discovery. Advantage Vance...; 2/27/26, 9:30 AM
Peachy said...: The ICE watch people are paid. Dems use our tax payer funds to pay people to be crazy. Rage fueled - Maddow lie buyers.
Those progressives are unreachable. the chi com dems know they must cater to the purity of their own insanity.; 2/27/26, 9:31 AM
Peachy said...: when ya have some time - this video about the toilet swirl-down of Portland explains where the word "crazy" comes from to identify the modern left.

Radical leftists firebomb democrat party cars - when these politicos do not behave far-leftist progressive enough.; 2/27/26, 9:38 AM
Lazarus said...: It could be a generational difference. It seems like the most common line in a Woody Allen movie is "You're crazy." Younger generations are less inclined to play the amateur psychanalyst. Maybe they are smarter (unlikely) or maybe they have more arrows in their quiver (racist, sexist, misogynist, homophobe, transphobe ...). We have a less homogeneous society, and deviance from the norm isn't automatically worth of condemnation any more.; 2/27/26, 9:38 AM
tim maguire said...: Remember when Tim Walz called Republicans weird and for the next month the left took every opportunity to call Republicans weird? Then it fizzled out because they weren't fooling anybody.

Unlike that episode, I think calling Dems crazy will have legs.; 2/27/26, 9:40 AM
reader said...: The way that I hear Vance’s use of the word “kinda”, is that it’s an acknowledgment of the fact that Trump’s statement may sound harsh but that it is unfortunately accurate.; 2/27/26, 9:49 AM
Lazarus said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/27/26, 9:50 AM
Lazarus said...: Vice presidents are usually more restrained and buttoned-down Establishment types than presidents, or at least they are perceived in that way. VPs are chosen because they don't upstage the top of the ticket or upstage the president. That relative colorlessness hurts the VPs when they run for president themselves. Think Reagan and Bush, Clinton and Gore, Trump and Pence, Carter and Mondale, Johnson and Humphrey.

The exceptions would be Eisenhower and Nixon, Obama and Biden, and possibly Kennedy and Johnson. Those presidents needed loyal party men to balance the ticket and would have been grateful for a colorless, almost invisible Mondale or Pence but had to settle for what was available. Nixon thought he was getting a gray nonentity who would fade into the woodwork, but he got Agnew, rather than a Mondale or Pence.; 2/27/26, 9:54 AM
Wince said...: "Kinda" in these contexts implies a rhetorical expression of the null hypothesis. In other words:

I don't come to this discussion believing that the Democrats are crazy, but the evidence provided by the Democrats themselves by their actions and reactions seems to indicate that, statistically, they are significantly different than non-crazy.; 2/27/26, 9:54 AM
Not an oldster. said...: Vance is like Obama. There's no there there. Just a man playing identity politics whose ambitions are greater than his intelligence or talents. Poor Usha.; 2/27/26, 9:56 AM
Paul Zrimsek said...: * He's used to dealing with Trump, so when it comes to craziness he's harder to impress than most people.; 2/27/26, 9:58 AM
Aggie said...: Well, first of all, he's a Marine, so he can say whatever he wants to. And second of all, he hasn't walked a mile in Trump's shoes, yet - and hopefully, he'll never have to.; 2/27/26, 10:03 AM
Christopher B said...: Lazarus, good points. I would suggest Nixon was going for an East Coast/West Coast balance with Agnew. IIRC he was the first Presidential candidate born west of the Rocky Mountains. I would move Carter and Mondale to your second list since Carter needed a party stalwart just like Kennedy and Obama, plus a Northerner for geographic balance.; 2/27/26, 10:05 AM
Not an oldster. said...: They have to find scapegoats now that they are fumbling and failing. Trans people, women, dems... identify an enemy and pour it on.

Expect more once the "America First" pack has to justify overthrowing yet another middle eastern country to make the world safe for Israel. (I'm sure ann thinks neverending wars will keep her Cohen boys in America safer somehow, but I don't think she is correct in her war assumptions ever... Sweetie meady is just down to pound his chest and jack his dick. I hope he enlist tho and puts all that cold weather rucking across frozen lakes to use... let him go,ann. We need him to leave the Cohen house and defend his woman and half Jewish stepsons from the mullahs... godspeed, meade. May you earn a medal one day defending America! 🇺🇸 you were born and bred for this moment... go get you some glory, Lawrence. Make the blog proud?? Boys to men... yes you can! Forward to iran! Hoorah); 2/27/26, 10:08 AM
Mr. D said...: Distinction without a difference.; 2/27/26, 10:08 AM
Narr said...: I'm kinda sorta totally surprised at the overwhelming vote for the last option (which was my choice also).; 2/27/26, 10:12 AM
Not an oldster. said...: Divided we fall.
First they gun down Americans in open daylight on our streets... now they are declaring half the country as enemies.

God bless you in the blue cities like Madison when the drones come.... you guys are crazy to keep paying taxes and living amongst the blue Dem traitors... the Germans didn't see the jews as their own either.

Who will protect you from what you Boomers have cheered? The America you've created in your entitled-to-everything image? Put down your guns? Violence, hate and neverending wars will not heal what ills America today.

Learn faster or cede the stage, professor.
Rule of law still matters even if you're retired and trying to just be a part of the old guy group Larry has cultivated here... go get him a beer and keep your latest old man happy? Good grrrl.; 2/27/26, 10:18 AM
mindnumbrobot said...: Either way, Republicans have their midterm campaign slogan. It's not exactly "Contract with America" material, but it's succinct, easily understandable, and 100% accurate.; 2/27/26, 10:26 AM
NKP said...: It's kinda like this blog topic - a filler... "Oh, and by the way..."

I've written all my life for other people. Statements, reports, speeches, articles, negotiating points, congressional testimony and have NEVER used the word "kinda".

In conversation and informal comment (like here), I use the expression a lot. It can take the edge offor it can sharpen the edge. Or nothing.

Not generational, IMO. I'm 83. People my age use it. My
Personal Assistant uses it. She's 23.; 2/27/26, 10:29 AM
Humperdink said...: No one can top Trump’s delivery. No one.; 2/27/26, 10:34 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I had a law school colleague whose standard filler was "kinda sorta." All 4 syllables.; 2/27/26, 10:37 AM
Not an oldster. said...: JD is kinda Catholic... for the cameras and when there's a free Italy trip for him and his family to bow down to Popes and exchange 🎁 gifts.; 2/27/26, 10:38 AM
Not an oldster. said...: You really do have poor judgment in men.; 2/27/26, 10:39 AM
Not an oldster. said...: @1037
Drop names or it didn't happen...; 2/27/26, 10:40 AM
Christopher B said...: I voted 'filler' though I don't think it means absolutely nothing. In keeping with his expressed observations from the podium I do think he wanted his phrasing to be consistent but not a mimicry of Trump. I think that's a good thing because Trump is largely inimitable as we've seen from all the Democrats trying to do it.; 2/27/26, 11:09 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: All the poll options are kinda sorta right.; 2/27/26, 11:11 AM
john mosby said...: Maybe 'kinda' is an euphemism for 'fuckin.'

So what JD really means is "they're fuckin crazy!" CC, JSM; 2/27/26, 11:16 AM
john mosby said...: Hopefully it joins the other euphemisms:

"What's happenin, my muthakinda notorious epithet!?"

"You know how it is, you kinda adulterous Falangist!" CC, JSM; 2/27/26, 11:18 AM
mccullough said...: JD’s a Millennial. They talk fuzzy; 2/27/26, 11:26 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: That'll be vance's 2028 slogan: "A kinda gentler America">; 2/27/26, 11:28 AM
mccullough said...: Ask not what your country can sorta do for you, ask what you can kinda do for your country; 2/27/26, 11:35 AM
boatbuilder said...: None of the above. "Kinda" is an understated, "hip" way of saying--you cannot deny their craziness. It's emphasis.

As in--"Those people dressing in frog costumes are kinda bizarre."
"Yup."; 2/27/26, 11:39 AM
Old and slow said...: A running joke in my family revolves around me telling my son that he was welcome to wear my sweatshirt (we were lifting weights outside and it was cold), but warning him that it was "kinda dirty". He put it on and discovered that I had used it to wipe up motor oil some months previous. He considered that description to be a gross understatement. I thought it was reasonable.; 2/27/26, 2:43 PM
john mosby said...: Prof, you should know: It's kind of a drag....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq1fpN1qWv8&t=1s

CC, JSM; 2/27/26, 2:50 PM
Little Excursion™️ said...: Trump says this is not happening. Which is why he spent his State of the Union speech honoring sports teams and awarding military medals.

Core wholesale prices rose 0.8% in January, much more than expected ~ CNBC
"For the full year, core wholesale prices accelerated 3.6%, while the headline index posted a 2.9% gain. Both figures are well ahead of the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation goal and suggest that rising prices are still a factor for the U.S. economy."; 2/27/26, 3:06 PM
Little Excursion™️ said...: Wasn't JD Vance recently crowned Fraud Czar?

When is someone going to investigate the real fraud in our government? The big fraud?

A @taxpayers database shows $34 billion appropriated above requested amounts for literally 1,000 defense programs this year alone, most of which the military didn’t seek, inserted anonymously by politicians, sometimes to help campaign contributors. Does the Pentagon get anything for this annual splurge? Somehow, no one in Congress has asked auditors to find out. https://t.co/4NHtpmmbLu
https://x.com/taxpayers; 2/27/26, 3:17 PM
boatbuilder said...: I agree with Kak.
Pigs fly once more.
USAID was yuge but is peanuts compared with the defense graft. Audit it all! Stop the steal!; 2/27/26, 3:47 PM
n.n said...: The defense graft is second only to medical, academic, and welfare redistributive change schemes.; 2/27/26, 4:05 PM
n.n said...: A definitive statement of relativity.; 2/27/26, 4:08 PM
Little Excursion™️ said...: The real fraud isn’t food stamps or student relief, it’s billions quietly padded into defense bills no one asked for, routed to contractors with friends in Congress. When waste wears a flag pin, oversight disappears. That’s not security. That’s legalized looting.; 2/27/26, 4:10 PM
Craig Mc said...: "kinda" is a generational tic.; 2/27/26, 4:30 PM