A few years ago J. D. Vance rose to fame on the basis of a book he wrote describing how he overcame poverty and culture in the Rust Belt. I read a number of reviews and thought he sounded like a self-important jerk. Talk about prescient. Vance is now running in Ohio as a Trumpist, attacking immigrants and any aid to Ukraine and parroting the MAGA line.
Bret Stephens, a moderate, summed up Vance in an opinion piece in the New York Times (May 10, p. A22). It is such a good description of Vance that I will quote it all. I wish I could write like Stephens.
As for Vance, he’s just another example of an increasing common type: the opportunistic, self-abasing, intellectually dishonest, morally situational former NeverTrumper who saw Trump for exactly what he was until he won and then traded principles and clarity for a shot at gaining power. After Jan. 6, 2021, there was even less of an excuse to seek Trump’s favor, and still less after Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Democracy: You’re either for it or against it, In Kyiv or Columbus, Vance is on the wrong side.
I saw the execrable "Hillbilly Elegy" on Netflix. It was so bad, it altered my opinion of two actors involved, Glenn Close and Amy Adams, whom I had previously liked and respected. My issue with Vance is that he's an example of what's wrong with the "bootstrap" belief--"I pulled myself up by my bootstraps, so WHY CAN'T YOU?" He's basically ignoring that he does have certain advantages, that he did have some lucky breaks, that not everyone is privy to. I remember after Trump was elected, when certain pundits pointed to Vance and "Hillbilly Elegy" as a way to explain why Trump was elected. Thank goodness we've gotten past that.
ReplyDeleteYou put your finger on a common and irritating problem with "bootstrap" people. I did it, why can't you? They never remember the breaks they got along the way.
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