Critics and history buffs quickly learned that Donald Trump had chosen Sen. J. D. Vance as his 2024 running mate after learning on Monday that the acquired alternative breaks the long-standing “beard challenge” on American political tickets.
According to Forbes, Vance would be the first sin president to do so since 1933 when Charles Curtis, President Herbert Hoover’s running mate, donned the beard. According to some observers, Vance would be the first person to run for president with a complete hair since Benjamin Harrison did so in 1892, despite Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican nominee for president in 1916, whose facial hair might fall into the “full hair” category. Either way, that’s more than 100 times of clean-shaven politicians, and people everywhere are rejoicing that the dryness of dapperness is over.
While you may often hear women demurring about the physical hair of their major others, it’s honestly correct that a great and well-kept — not uneven, adolescent, or overgrown — beard can transform and elevate a man’s attractiveness, and yet his political prospects.
Consider the baby-faced Sen. Ted Cruz in 2016, who was a near-perfect GOP nominee on paper, but not in the mirror ( he was often compared to a “blobfish” by internet goblins ). After his primary loss to Trump, and his narrow victory over Beto O’Rourke in 2018, Cruz came back from a Thanksgiving recess with” a filled-out salt-and-pepper beard, giving his face a defined jawline and its first-ever hints of ruggedness and affability”, and the senator has n’t looked back since. Without the beard, I ca n’t help but wonder how that 2016 primary would have turned out for him.
Vance’s facial hair tells us he understands, much like Trump, that images are often more crucial than policy jobs and that without a hair, the 39-year-old may look like a very large girl, much too inexperienced to lead. Indeed, if elected, Vance would be the third-youngest vice president to serve.
That’s why when even the clean-shaven Trump ( who once told his own son he needed to shave his Covid beard ) was pressed recently on whether Vance’s beard would be an obstacle in his VP selection, the former president admitted,” He looks good. Looks like a young Abraham Lincoln”.
Breaking the “beard barrier” is a significant step forward for women everywhere who experience routine disappointment when their husbands decide to shave once more. It also represents a significant step forward for the GOP ticket up and down this fall. Point him to the story of a plump baby-faced memoirist who grew a beard and became the next vice president of the United States the next time he complains about the itchiness or annoyance of the upkeep.
