J.D. Vance–All the Right Enemies
J. D. Vance has been nominated as the Republican candidate for Vice President. I wrote about Vance, and his book Hillbilly Elegy, about 3.5 years ago. The end of the piece talks about the venom directed at Vance and those he wrote about when the movie version of the book came out:
In sum, Hillbilly Elegy is a Rorschach Test. Show it to me, and it evokes the attributes and deep flaws and great struggles of my family–struggles that made it possible for me to have an unbelievable blessed life that has been able to grab the boundless opportunities America offers. Show it to the coastal “elite” and it triggers all they hate about America, and many who live in it.
Streetwiseprofessor.com
That disdain and vituperation has been turned up to 11 since Trump announced him as his VP choice. It’s fair to say that VDS–Vance Derangement Syndrome–has spread faster than the Spanish Flu on the left.
It’s hard to choose the most insane of the criticisms, but I think this gem from some MSNBC lunatic (but I repeat myself) is a heavy favorite:
MSNBC’s Alex Wagner accused Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance of dropping an “easter egg of white nationalism” by mentioning that he hoped to be buried in his family’s plot in Kentucky during his speech at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night:
MSN
It’s easy to understand why Trump chose Vance. Trump wants to be an impactful president. He wants to leave a lasting legacy. A MAGA legacy. Of all national political figures, Vance is most closely aligned with Trump ideologically. He is young. There is no one more fit to make MAGA a historical era, rather than a transient phase tied to a particular personality.
And perhaps it is this that is driving the left even more insane than usual about a decision (choice of a vice president) that is seldom of great and lasting importance.
Trump wisely rejected all of the traditional criteria for choosing a VP, specifically ideological, geographical, and identity balancing. Picking a say Nicky Haley as VP would have ensured that Trump’s impact would be evanescent (except on the mental health of the left). Historically such decision making has worked out badly–G. H. W. Bush being perhaps the best example.
As for Vance, he truly does tick all of the Jacksonian boxes identified by Walter Russell Mead in his famous article of decades ago. Most notable is his belief in the primacy of what Mead called the American “folk community” (something that was a big part of his acceptance speech) as opposed to newcomers and foreigners. This is precisely the thing that the progressive left considers a barbarous atavism, especially considering those whom Vance considers to be the bedrock of the folk community. Hint: they don’t live in Brooklyn, NY. (Some in Brooklyn, MI maybe).
Relatedly, no globalist he. With that comes a foreign policy vision starkly at odds with the Uniparty consensus that harkens back to Republicans of an earlier era, like Henry Cabot Lodge and (fellow Ohioan) Robert Taft, and indeed to George Washington with his aversion to foreign entanglements. He is an anti-Wilsonian–and hence an anti-Bushian and anti-neocon, which is why people likely Lindsey Graham looked so glum when Vance spoke in Milwaukee. And keep Vladamir Zelensky away from sharp objects.
This mission to protect the folk community also leads him to favor trade protectionism, also something of a throwback to historical Republican policy–the Republicans were the protectionist party, and the Democrats the free traders, through the 19th and early 20th centuries. He is also well-disposed to various forms of industrial policy and minimum wages and has said nice things about antitrust loon Lina Khan.
Another Jacksonian trait is his intense hostility to the political establishment, the economic elite (corporations now, the Bank of the US in Jackson’s day), and the federal bureaucracy.
I share many of Vance’s views, and so I heartily support his candidacy–especially when considering the alternatives. Where I part ways is on economic policy (which is true of Jacksonianism generally). Protectionism for the purpose of supporting domestic industry is highly inefficient: one could have a debate about the merits of substituting tariffs for other forms of taxation that also have distortionary effects (e.g., capital taxation) but the flaws of protecting dying industries are beyond dispute. Minimum wages are another disaster. If the current experience in California’s fast food industry isn’t convincing enough, he’s not capable of being convinced on this.
Various forms of industrial policy, which in the end come down to picking winners and losers, propping up the winners with subsidies and protection and entry barriers, are also disasters in waiting that have no chance of achieving their stated objectives and which inevitably wreak huge collateral damage.
The best way to rejuvenate American industries is to lift the appalling regulatory burden that has been heaped on them for decades–a process that has reached a frenzied level under Biden. Here Vance’s antipathy to the bureaucracy could be the spur to meaningful action.
In brief–slash away at existing policies and regulations: don’t add new ones. That would help the American folk community immensely.
Of course, all policy views are aspirational. Given that Jacksonians are hardly a major presence in Congress, the media, or the bureaucracy, the ability of Trump and Vance to realize their aspirations is doubtful, at best. But at least it will help to have the executive pushing in the right direction and against the DC consensus, rather than pushing it forward with all its might (as with the current administration).
I had been hoping that Trump would choose Vance, and did so fully aware of my areas of disagreement. On the biggest issues–the overawing power of the federal government and its abuse thereof, immigration, and a more restrained, non-globalist, non-Wilsonian foreign policy–Vance is on the right side. Where he’s not, I can live with.
But precisely because of where he stands on those big issues, he has achieved Derangement Syndrome Status faster than perhaps faster than anyone in history. Considering those he has deranged, that’s the biggest endorsement of all. He has all the right enemies. May he destroy them–he has already driven them mad.