By Wayne Allensworth
Yes, it was just a speech, and Vance is a politician, but he went to the core of the problem we face in the political realm in his remarks at the Republican National Convention: Vance was heartfelt and, I believe, sincere in what he said last night. America is not an abstraction, we shouldn’t be asked to fight and strive and die for abstractions, but instead for a place and a people. A people with a shared history. America isn’t an idea but our home.
Vance is everything Trump isn’t. He’s articulate, polished, a Marine veteran, and a representative of the people he appears to deeply care about, people who aren’t “privileged,” people whose loyalty is to their homeland and whose roots are deeply in American soil, people who have been forgotten. Vance’s speech was a retooled version of his recent speech at a conference on “National Conservatism,” and in that speech he was even more forthright: He slammed the Wall Street Journal types who wanted to ship Americans’ jobs overseas while asking them to send their children to fight the globalists’ wars. The elites, he said, didn’t care about the people and didn’t like them much.
In both speeches, Vance spoke eloquently about his roots in a way American politicians seldom do and in language that seemed to have been lost. He and his family would one day be buried, he said, in the same Kentucky soil as his ancestors, seven generations who had fought and worked for and built this country. Vance said the right things about immigration, and about bringing jobs back to our embattled heartland. True, like every other major political figure, he bows toward Tel Aviv. But I think Vance’s real loyalties are to his home. And that might make a difference in how a Trump-Vance administration handles the Middle East and American involvement there, assuming, as I sincerely hope, that Vance plays a major role.
Vance is respectably presentable in the way politicians are supposed to be, like a product on a store shelf, but I don’t think that’s all there is to him. When he looked directly into the camera and promised he would not forget where he came from, I believed him. The Beltway body snatchers have not yet replaced JD with a pod-person look alike.
What’s more, for once, the GOP is appealing directly to its base, a new, populist base, with Trump’s choice of Vance as a running mate. There’s no talk of “balancing the ticket” or appeasing the country-club crowd. Trump picked someone who could help advance a populist agenda. And Vance has moved within elite circles. He and Trump will need the cooperation of a portion of that elite to get anywhere. Vance’s persona and background as a venture capitalist may make it easier for them to sign up. Talk about immigration restriction and a more restrained foreign policy will seem more respectable coming from Vance.
As noted earlier, our crisis is not primarily political, but spiritual, cultural, and demographic. But securing any breathing space for the American Remnant would be a victory. If Trump-Vance wins big in November, they might have the opportunity to act, but they will have to move quickly.
Which JD Vance will show up most prominently in a Trump Administration? The ambitious poor boy who played the game and advanced in the system, or the man who remembers his roots? We will see. I’m not counting on anything but am hoping for the best.
A final note: In his convention speech, Vance echoed what our friend and contributor Darrell Dow had written earlier: America is not an Idea. I’m glad someone is catching up to us.
Chronicles contributor Wayne Allensworth is the author of The Russian Question: Nationalism, Modernization, and Post-Communist Russia, and a novel, Field of Blood. For thirty-two years, he worked as an analyst and Russia area expert in the US intelligence community.
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Years ago I read Vance’s book and found most of it good but also partly an attempt to appeal to the elite New York literati. It seems his flirtation with those types is in the past and he’s back to his roots and being himself, although, I suppose, there’s always the danger–in the words of Wayne Allensworth–that the “Beltway body snatchers” will get him. That’s a great metaphor for how so many well meaning politicians are soon corrupted by the Washington Establishment. (I highly recommend the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
Perhaps, best of all Vance slammed not only Wall Street but also the Bush Republican Party with his repudiation of sending Americans to die on foreign soils for causes that have nothing to do with defending the American nation and our traditions, culture, and people–fighting for every cause but our own.
I like Vance and he is indeed flawed but realistically he is by a wide margin the best possible selection by Trump. It is not like he was going to pick Pat Buchanan as his running mate and better Vance than the other people being mentioned.