J. D. Vance (bio here), a rich guy who got famous by writing a book about poor people, wants to be a U.S. senator. Badly.
So badly he’s sold out his credibility and dignity in pursuit of a raw ambition that requires him to pander to crazy people.
Vance, in his relatively more lucid days, grasped that Trump is, shall we say, flawed. As Wikipedia explains (link above), “During the 2016 election, Vance was critical of … Trump. In a column in USA Today in February 2016, Vance wrote ‘Trump’s actual policy proposals, such as they are, range from immoral to absurd.'”
This was actually true, and worsened over time; for example, as reported here, Trump wanted the military to shoot Black Lives Matter protesters.
But that’s not how you get elected as a Republican these days, and ambition trumped sincerity, so Vance apologized for criticizing Trump and embraced him whole-hog. Trump rewarded him by endorsing him (although Trump can’t remember his name, see story here).
That’s not the only thing Vance flip-flopped on. After saying he didn’t care about Ukraine, and called it a distraction, after Russia invaded and that no longer played well back home, he walked back those remarks and called the war “a tragedy.”
One way you do get elected, or at least nominated, on the GOP side these days is to engage in ridiculous, baseless trashing of Biden. After all, Republican voters are still hopped up on Trump’s lies about a “stolen election.” So how is Vance, the malleable candidate, going after Biden?
Here’s how: He’s “suggesting that the president is trying to kill MAGA voters with fentanyl sold by drug traffickers.”
That’s right, Vance asserted Biden wants Trump supporters dead, and with the complicity of the corner dope dealer, he’s going to kill them with illegal drugs.
“If you wanted to kill a bunch of MAGA voters in the middle of the heartland, how better than to target them and their kids with this deadly fentanyl?” Vance said. Really, he actually said that! I’m not making this up! It’s in a Huffington Post story here.
While it’s at least passably plausible that many Republicans actually want Democrats dead, based on the fact they keep saying so, and brandish guns in public to emphasize the point, it’s not credible that Biden has plans to enlist drug dealers to assist him in carrying out a genocide against Trumpers by poisoning them with black-market pills.
But these are people who will believe anything, and there’s political capital to be harvested by looking like an idiot in front of this group (it makes him look like one of them), so he’s going for it.
Vance currently leads GOP primary polls, and might make it to the Senate. If he does, he’ll be no worse than some people already there. (I’m thinking of Ron Johnson, who called Capitol rioters “tourists,” and Ted Cruz, whose offenses against civilized sensibilities are too numerous to list here.) Democracy is messy, and if we wish to live in a free country where people can elect anyone they like (as long as they’re not Democrat, black, or female), we have to put up with a certain amount of this.
But let’s be clear about what Vance is selling. Not thoughtful governance, nor leadership in any meaningful sense of the term. He’s a spineless jellyfish pandering to a mob in hopes of scoring what will be little more than an honorarium. This campaign has forever defined him as someone who is not to be taken seriously about anything.
One more thing: That being the case, I have no plans to read his book.
Photo: Did Vance grow a beard to look more like Ted Cruz?