Conservatives believe the ‘American Dream’ of prosperity and social ascension is available to any American born into poverty. But the statistics show that American society has less inter-economic class mobility than most supposedly class-bound European societies. Americans born poor are more likely to die broke than poor Swedes or Germans. How do we know? The World Economic Forum ranked social mobility in 82 countries on its Global Social Mobility Index. The United States was 27th. Behind most first-world countries.
But despite the odds against living a Horatio Alger, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” life, there are some from the wrong side of the tracks who grasp the brass ring. One such striver is J.D. Vance, who described his journey in the best-selling memoir, ‘Hillbilly Elegy’. After high school in Middletown OH, he enlisted in the Marines and served in Iraq. He then attended Ohio State University, graduating summa cum laude. And he finished his academic career with a JD from Yale Law. At Yale, Amy Chua, a law professor and famed as the ‘Tiger Mom,' convinced Vance to write Hillbilly Elegy.
After law school, Vance made money by making money for Peter Thiel’s venture capital concern, Mithril Capital. He returned to Ohio, where he continued to make money. He also set out to address the drug scourge gutting rural Appalachia. And he decided to run for the US Senate to replace the retiring Rob Portman. And that is when it started to go wrong.
In 2016, when he was still his own man with an appreciation for the truth, he made some observations about Trump during that shvantz’s presidential campaign. He said, "I'm a Never Trump guy," and "I never liked him." He also tweeted, “My god what an idiot”. And called Trump “reprehensible.” And said, “I can’t vote for Trump, I can’t stomach the guy, I think he is noxious”. He then dropped the hammer, “as someone who doesn’t like Trump I might have to hold my nose and vote for Hillary Clinton”.
But change soon came when Vance decided to run for the Senate - and looked to secure the endorsement of the noxious, reprehensible idiot. He walked back his Trump criticisms and crawled down to Mar a Lago begging for absolution. To no avail. Trump withheld his imprimatur. And Vance is currently polling in third place behind the Steven Miller impersonator, Josh Mandel, and Ohio businessman Mike Gibbons.
When it comes to politics, Vance seems to have a death wish - or the worst political radar in the business. In response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, he told the armchair warrior Steve Bannon, on his podcast ‘War Room’, that “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.” He was trying to focus attention on the Southern border and stopping the tide of fentanyl shipments. But in his clumsy attempt, he sounded like a heartless bastard. As too many religious folks do.
Raised as an evangelical Protestant, Vance switched his allegiance to Catholicism. However, no matter how many versions of Christianity he has wrapped himself in, he will not grasp Christianity's core message of concern and charity. In his reckoning, the poor, the down-trodden, the bombed-out, and the displaced, can fend for themselves.
After desultory attempts to walk back his dismissive remarks, he readopted his callousness on Tucker Carlson’s show. He told the host that he was tired of Democrats and ‘garbage Republicans' obsessing with Ukraine. And in doing so affirmed he is a man devoid of decency.
He thought demanding $3 to finish “President Trump’s wall” for every $1 in aid sent to Ukraine was a winning strategy - and a glorious opportunity to suck up. But he misread the room. A Pew poll shows that support for aiding Ukraine is high, even among conservatives. Only seven percent of respondents say the US is doing “too much” to help the ill-fated nation and its desperate people.
Vance does not have much going for him politically, so when Minnesota's GOP selected him as the keynote speaker for their annual Lincoln Reagan dinner, he must have been gratified. His pleasure will not have lasted long as, with almost universal Midwestern, Republican opprobrium, the MN GOP rescinded the honor and chose Matt Schlapp instead.
Vance hasn’t just pissed off the establishment GOP, he has also rubbed his own people the wrong way. They see him as a cynical sell-out, lacking in empathy. And a man who has criticized the hillbillies he was raised with for being the agents of their own misfortune. Even his celebrated misogyny and homophobia have not won him the support of ‘the base’.
In athletics, we celebrate the injured athlete left in the dust, powering through their pain, to finish the race long after the winner has broken the tape. In politics, we wonder why the hopeless candidate keeps going in the face of universal mockery. We should not be surprised. To think that you can do a job for which you have no ability or training requires an ego that does not allow for reflection and self-criticism. In Vance's lizard brain, he clings to the belief that his ship is not sinking and the rats still have a haven.