J.D. Vance Rewrites History
July 18, 2024 | 473 words | Politics
The speech J.D. Vance delivered at last night’s Republican National Convention demonstrated an ability to master a big moment. He was obviously at ease; he took his time and made his points while engaging his audience with a requisite amount of charm. Though it would have been a more effective presentation if he could have managed to tighten things up a bit.
Since the June 13 interview Mr. Vance did with Ross Douthat of The New York Times, I find myself wondering why so many well-known commentators are labeling Vance “a hollow person of little conviction” who is willing to say anything to get ahead. I find him to be the exact opposite of that.
In fact, as others have noted, it seems to me that where Donald Trump has barely-articulated instincts, Vance has actual ideas. Mr. Vance is able, unlike Trump, to put some meat on the bone, so to speak, when it comes to policy.
But I did get a kick out of the way J.D. Vance re-wrote history at times last night, such as when he blamed “Biden-back policies” for sending our jobs overseas and our children to war.
If memory serves NAFTA was a long-advanced initiative favored by Republicans in their ‘global trade’ mode, while finally receiving bi-partisan support in 1992 from President Bill Clinton and other Democrats like Senator Biden, who has always prided himself on “working across the aisle.’
Ditto the 1979 bi-lateral trade agreement with China, and most especially ditto the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. We must surely all remember that particular ‘military intervention’ was the special project of a Republican administration that talked the country into the existence of a fathom cache of “weapons of mass destruction,” after which the voices resisting the subsequent invasion were few and far between.
Beyond that though, the economic populism Mr. Vance is attempting to promote has great appeal to me, even if it is clearly at odds with what Republicans have always taken to be gospel truth on economic policy.
To suggest as Vance did last night that the next Trump administration would not “cater to Wall Street” and would instead “commit to the working man” strains credibility. Or that the last Trump administration “created the greatest economy in history for workers.” Maybe I missed something, but I thought all Trump did last time was pass the largest tax cut in history for the wealthiest Americans, one that made certain members of that club, like Warren Buffet, blush at the largesse.
But I do agree with J. D. Vance’s assertion from the podium that “Wall Street barons crashed the economy” in 2008. To repeat, I am a big fan of the ‘economic populism’ he is trying to introduce into the discussion. I just think he will have an uphill battle doing so within the confines of the Republican Party.
Robert J. Cavanaugh, Jr.
bobcavjr@gmail.com