On the list of potential running mates for Donald Trump, I’ll readily admit Senator JD Vance of Ohio was not anywhere near my top pick. Foundationally, there are several things he and I agree on. However, we are a lot different on issues like the role of government and U.S. foreign policy.
I’ve also said that I think the choice of Vance as Trump’s running mate is a sign Trump feels confident that he is going to win and is instead looking at his legacy rather than building bridges.
READ MORE: The Concern With Trump’s Choice of JD Vance Isn’t Really About JD Vance
The differences between us, though, aren’t enough to keep me from respecting who he is and where he comes from. That cannot be said of Democrats and even some on the right who are dismissing his quick to dismiss and even show an amazing sense of hostility to someone who has, quite literally, achieved the American Dream.
This past week, the Republican Party’s national convention showed us that the party now has three wings, each vying for power. The first wing is the old guard – the Establishment wing, or what remains of it – and it is losing ground at an unprecedented rate. This wing of the party is being marginalized by the other two wings. There’s a reason you don’t see Bushes and Romneys and Cheneys at GOP events nowadays.
The second wing is the Reaganite wing, which is filled with conservatives who believe in small government, reduced spending, and a belief in the free market. These conservatives have been getting louder and louder and have been gaining more and more power within the party since the days of Barack Obama. They believe in those ideals that were championed by Ronald Reagan and they fight for them.
The third wing is the Populist wing. This is the wing that has been on the rise since Donald Trump first descended that escalator. These are people who have taken some of the core tenets of Reaganist conservatism and have adjusted them to accelerate what they believe the government must do. They believe that getting the government out of the way so Americans can thrive is far too slow. Instead, the government must be wielded in a way to help those who have been kept down by the elite and powerful of America.
For the most part, politicians see the plight of populist voters and use their energy to rise to power. They adopt populism. But what makes JD Vance unique is that he didn’t just adopt populism, but he was actually born into the conditions that create populists.
Trump tapped into populism, but he’s a privileged, urban rich man. He was born into wealth and, yes, turned it into more wealth. But he had a leg up. His running mate, JD Vance, was born into a community devastated by poverty and addiction. He was born into a community that had first-hand seen the results of what elitism and power in America could do to communities when used improperly.
This makes Vance far more dangerous to both the Democrats and the folks in the GOP who have dismissed him. They don’t see the authenticity that voters in Ohio, Michigan, and around the country will see. The story about his mom being 10 years sober and the conditions of his hometown will be far more powerful to voters than what the Democrats call his “extremism” or what Noah Rothman at National Review calls Vance’s “Hillbilly Hokum.“
Heath Mayo, part of the “Principles First” crowd of the GOP, also misses the entire point.
“Despite a house wracked by poverty and addiction, America gave him immense opportunity and he was able to seize it,” Mayo wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “From his grade school teachers in Ohio to the ‘elite’ Ivy League professors and mentors he now paints as the enemy—he is the product of a uniquely American ladder that required the support and engagement of many.”
Vance’s point is that there are forces out there actively working against that ladder – the American Dream – and that it is the role of leadership to use the government to make that ladder more accessible, not less. Vance was able to escape the poverty and addiction that tore his community apart, but not everyone could. For people like Vance, that is the injustice, and the power of the government can be used as a force for change, to make the American Dream more achievable.
Again, it’s not my brand of conservatism. I want as little government involved in my life as possible, and I don’t think a behemoth like the federal government can be used in any way that isn’t restrictive to some. But the idea that it could be used just like the progressives use it, but in ways that undo what the progressives have done by keeping people in the middle and lower class is enticing. It has an appeal that you can’t just dismiss.
If you think that you can dismiss Vance as an extremist or as “hillbilly hokum,” I believe you are greatly underestimating the appeal Vance will have to voters. Especially right now, when so many are struggling in the middle and lower class because of Biden’s policies. The usual Republican Party solution is to undo what Biden has done. But for politicians like Vance and others of a populist bent, the idea of undoing isn’t enough, and their ideas and rhetoric will have a greater impact than some might think.
