Guys, If You Think Pence Was Rude To Kamala, I Have Bad News

In the rush of news since the vice presidential debate—which, to my unrelenting horror, I realized happened last week, and not in fact back in July—it’s easy to lose track of things that matter, especially when they’re so small. So much galls us, mocks us, challenges us in these crazy days that perhaps it feels like straining at gnats to focus on Pence’s behavior there on the debate stage. After all, the election is less than a month away, and there’s so much to worry about. 

But I am still thinking about it, not because it was remarkable (in the same way so much of the administration’s actions are), but because it wasn’t. It may have been brazen, but nothing about it was surprising. And I suspect most women watching on television would have recognized themselves in Kamala Harris’s quiet, respectful refrain: “Sir, I’m speaking.”