- My friend Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, tried to describe Vance recently and came up with “pathetic loser poser fake jerk,” but that is a lot of words. To distill the essence of Vance as a public figure, the word that enters my mind is an anatomical reference beginning with the letter a.
I like Tom Nichols but this statement is uninformed. Vance starts his own book with an "aw shucks" disclaimer that both his sister and "mee maw" disagree about every single event he recounts. The dude is a Million Little Pieces-grade liar and has been since he appeared on the scene. I suspect he was groomed by Peter Thiel. Thiel laid the groundwork for the 2016 Hulk Hogan lawsuit in 2007; JD Vance was a mid-level flack at Mithril Capitol when somebody told him to write Hillbilly Elegy in 2015. The Left has forgotten that "populists" need to be popular. JD Vance makes Ron DeSantis look like a game show host. "Oops, wrong clip," he said insincerely I think this is because everyone is so shell-shocked that Trump won and is still backed that they're incapable of any forensic analysis on the problem but fundamentally? Trump is a game show host. That's why they hired him. He's a bombastic asshole who entertains the rubes. JD Vance narrated his own audiobook and lemme tell ya - the dude can't even muster enthusiasm for his own life story, let alone yours. On a related note? That book is called "What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia" and at galen's recommendation, I read it. It's pretty good but not without its faults.But what makes Vance so awful is that he knows better. His intentional distancing from his earlier views shows that he is fully cognizant of what a gigantic fraud he’s become.
I suspect that Vance is also reading his own press, which would explain why a young man who attained early fame is convinced that he can jump right to national office.
Instead of a candidate who’s willing to speak hard truths to his people, Ohioans now have a native son who has returned to weaponize their resentment and cultural dysfunctions. His ambition is fueled by the money of others who would never deign to live in the Midwest. And like other populist charlatans, he has convinced himself that he should be anointed to lead the rubes out of their misery.
Some people back in Vance’s home region of Appalachia thought his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, was hollow and inaccurate, but for a time, other people—including me—were intrigued by his writing and public speaking.