They sound like a kitschy comic book villain and his creepy sidekick - two authoritarian-minded trolls, who want to blow up democracy, and turn back the clocks, for women, by more than half a century.  Like the Joker, one is a clownish chaos monster, a serial criminal and pathological liar - a wanna-be dictator, motivated by vengeance and rage; a scowling nihilist who foments hatred and violence, and wants to watch the world burn. His sidekick is a shameless sycophant, who will say anything to get ahead - a Handmaid’s Tale-like misogynist, who puts down “childless cat ladies,” and thinks that people without children do not deserve an equal say in the country’s future. Alas, they are not characters in a comic book. They are the Republican Party’s nominees to be President and Vice President of the United States - in real life.