J.D. Vance, a Born-Again Trumpist, Offers a Political Jackpot for Democrats
Trump’s running mate has a history of embracing rancid positions to rise to the top.
In his rapid ascent to national politics, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, named as Donald Trump’s running mate on Monday, has managed to combine two seemingly opposite traits: opportunism and fanaticism. He’s quickly climbed the greasy pole of the Republican Party by saying whatever will get him the attention and patronage he craved. As the GOP has radicalized under the Trumpian ascendency, Vance has followed suit, not just abandoning his former anti-Trump position but becoming even more zealous in promoting MAGA ideology than Trump himself. Tonight, Vance will make his debut on the national stage as he addresses the Republican National Convention.
Under the tutelage of his billionaire patron Peter Thiel, and the philosophic teachings of René Girard, Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019—just a few years before he converted to Trumpism. Conversion seems to be an integral element of his personality, mirrored by the social mobility that formed the background to his memoir Hillbilly Elegy (2016), where he recorded his journey from the white working class to the heights of the educated elite at Yale. The convert, as philosopher William James long ago taught in The Varieties of Religious Experience (1917), is a special personality type: the twice-born, the “sick soul” who seeks solace in a perfectionism of doctrine and ritual, often with a zeal that shocks those born to the faith. Vance himself is twice twice-born, making him more Catholic than the pope and more MAGA than Trump.
As a born-again Trumpist, Vance has much to repent. In his fallen days as a sinner, he was, as John Nichols recently noted in The Nation, harder on Trump than Joe Biden has ever been. In 2016, Vance famously told a friend, “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.” As recently as 2021, Vance described Trump as a “total fraud.”
These are hard words to take back, but such is the power of faith that Vance is now Trump’s biggest cheerleader. In fact, in terms of misogyny and xenophobia, Vance has often been much more vitriolic than the cult leader himself. This is a great opportunity for Democrats, since Vance offers an usually rich harvest of opposition research that can be used against the Republican ticket.
Consider a few facts:
ITEM: The Lever reports that Vance “pressured federal regulators last June to kill a privacy rule that prevents police from accessing the medical records of people seeking reproductive services…. The rule was designed to prevent state and local police in anti-abortion states from using private records to hunt down and prosecute people who cross state lines in search of abortion services.”
ITEM: In his memoir, Vance suggested that women caught in violent marriages should stay married for the sake of their kids. In one passage, Vance wrote, “This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is the idea that like, ‘Well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy. And so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that’s going to make people happier in the long term.’”
ITEM: In 2021, during an appearance on Fox News, Vance said, “We are effectively run in the country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
ITEM: In 2021, Vance made this comment on rape and incest exemptions for abortion laws: “My view on this has been very clear and I think the question betrays a certain presumption that is wrong. It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term, it’s whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society. The question really, to me, is about the baby.”
ITEM: ProPublica reports that at a 2021 meeting of the Teneo Network, an influential group of young conservatives, Vance said that the worldview of notorious extremist Alex Jones is “actually a hell of a lot more true than Rachel Maddow’s view of society.”
ITEM: Earlier this month, in a speech at the right-wing Edmund Burke Foundation, Vance asked, “What is the first truly Islamist country to get a nuke? And we were like, maybe it’s Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts. And then we finally decided maybe it’s actually the UK since Labour took over.”
ITEM: According to the liberal Zionist group J-Street, “Vance has said it is ‘right’ for American Jews to be ‘ashamed’ of voting for President Biden, defended Trump after dining with antisemitic white supremacist Nick Fuentes, and has repeatedly echoed the racist, antisemitic ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory, which has led to lethal attacks on Jews and immigrants.”
In keeping with his opportunism, Vance is now trying to soften his stance on many of these issues, notably abortion. But his chameleon act can be refuted by direct quotations. Unlike Trump, Vance has no gift for creating a media persona that allows for being polyvalent—many things to many people. Vance thus presents a rich target for Democrats to make clear the true radicalism of the Republican argument.
Popular
“swipe left below to view more authors”Swipe →Unfortunately, to pursue this critique, the Democrats need a candidate who is a forceful communicator. Joe Biden has demonstrated time and again this year that this is no longer a skill he has. Vance’s MAGA fanaticism is yet another reason why the best option for the Democrats is for Biden to step aside and be replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris. As a woman and person of color, she can denounce Vance’s misogyny and xenophobia with conviction and clarity.
Support independent journalism that does not fall in line
Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets.
Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.
As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war.
In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth.
The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more.
But this journalism is possible only with your support.
This March, The Nation needs to raise $50,000 to ensure that we have the resources for reporting and analysis that sets the record straight and empowers people of conscience to organize. Will you donate today?
More from The Nation
An Argument Against Voting for the “Electable” Guy An Argument Against Voting for the “Electable” Guy
In this week’s Elie v. US, The Nation’s justice correspondent shares his thoughts on the Texas primaries. Plus, a terrible Supreme Court decision and a bad play by Major League Ba...
A Conflict Without Reason Has Become a Dangerous Holy War A Conflict Without Reason Has Become a Dangerous Holy War
Lacking a clear rationale for the attack on Iran, Trumpists are increasingly talking like crusaders.
RFK Jr.: America’s Snake Oil Salesman RFK Jr.: America’s Snake Oil Salesman
Raw truth: MAHA is NUTS.
The Unfathomable Toll of the Syrian Civil War The Unfathomable Toll of the Syrian Civil War
How to make sense of the 13-year conflict?
Celebrate Kristi Noem’s Firing. But Keep Protesting ICE. Celebrate Kristi Noem’s Firing. But Keep Protesting ICE.
Finally, someone in the administration is paying for their cruelty and incompetence.
