No, he failed to steal elections.
I believe the opinion expressed earlier that Vance was the worst possible choice Trump could have made was meant to indicate that it wasn’t a strategically helpful choice, but it’s also very true if interpreted in the sense that the man is a far-right extremist. Some of the comments in this thread support that view. Before I knew anything about him I started to read his book, Hillbilly Elegy, but quit early on. Let’s just say that the title is meant literally – it’s an ode in praise of hillbillies. Vance has been getting even more extreme since then.
Among many other things, Vance has explicitly stated that the US should not be giving aid to Ukraine, making him and Trump Putin’s best buddies. If Trump is re-elected, it will not only be a scourge on America but a global disaster of unmitigated proportions, and likely the end of Ukraine as a nation.
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Yeah, Vance is well known as perhaps the most anti-Ukraine figure in all of Congress. If Biden loses this election, he (Biden) needs to ram through one last big massive aid package for Ukraine before Trump takes office in Jan-2025. It will probably be the last one Ukraine ever gets from America.
Can you explain this?
Explain what?
My impression from reading just the beginning before I quit was that Vance considered the archetypal low-information voter to the backbone of the nation. Or to quote from Blazing Saddles, "These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know, morons!”
Still not following the arc of your point but it doesn’t matter.
I think he gave a great speech. It was full of lies but it will appeal to the Rust Belt voters. He can appeal to the working class as one of them. That is something that Trump lacks.
All I know is, when Saturday Night Live starts up again, they have got to get Haley Joel Osment to do a cameo as him. There are several cast members who could be made to look like Vance, but Haley could go into 8H as is and play him.
Vance is going to help Trump with younger voters.
He’s 39. I’m 38 and this is the first time in my life that someone near my own age is even part of the conversation. I saw Vance’s speech and, to be honest, I didn’t hate him. I didn’t love him either, but I certainly found him more relatable than Pence. (I’m still not voting for Trump.)
The beard is a strong generational signifier. The general implication with the choice of Vance is that the torch is being passed.
Posters above have mentioned Ukraine. I have not observed younger people to care much about Ukraine. It isn’t a topic that comes up when people are hanging out and talking about current events.
And this bearded fuckwad will be President when Orangeboy goes down. This is what people will be voting for against Biden/Harris. Bearded boy, kisses Orange ass, young—YOUNG— and not black and not female. The next President on the R ticket.
Potentially the youngest US president ever. The current record-holder is Teddy Roosevelt at age 42. Vance is only 39 and there is real potential he could be POTUS at 40 or 41.
Kind of weird, too, to think that Vance happens to be exactly half Trump’s age.
It also confirms something I’ve suspected for a while - they’re going to skip Gen X completely, going straight from Boomers to Millennials. Considering my generation, I’m not that surprised.
One thing you have to say for Vance is that he brought Appalachian writers and thinkers together like few people before or since. Probably half a dozen books and countless think pieces were written directly responding to and denouncing Hillbilly Elegy, including lists of books to read instead if you really want to understand the region.
Most of us have spent time correcting bullshit on social media in recent days, pointing out that Vance has “ties” to Appalachia but wasn’t born here and never lived here. His grandparents moved from Breathitt County, KY to Middletown, OH over 20 years before he was born. (Also, parts of Ohio are considered Appalachia, but Middletown is not one of them.)
Vance is a part of the Appalachian diaspora from the huge migration to southwestern Ohio in the mid 20th century. My own family is a big part of that story; I have way more family on both sides in Ohio than I do here in eastern KY. It’s a unique perspective on Appalachia, but a limited one in a way that Vance blows right past.
Vance is a combination of smart, evil, and shameless that we should all be worried about
While we have a reputation for being slackers, I think in this instance it’s because it’s because it’s been easier for the Boomers to keep their hands on the levers of political power. In other arenas, not so much–Gen X is well-represented in the tech industry (Musk, Larry Page, Sergei Brin, Michael Dell, others… and Jensen Huang and Jeff Bezos are Boomers just by a hair). Tech is inherently disruptive, so it’s easier to gain power from scratch. Not so much in politics.
Who is “they” in this scheme? I think you mean “we.”
I for one am fucking terrified.
JD Vance is even worse than you imagined - by Jeff Tiedrich
Until very recently, it wouldn’t even have been possible for someone near your own age to be part of the conversation. Remember, the President (and hence the Vice President as well) is Constitutionally required to be at least 35, and so last cycle was the first time Vance or someone his age even could have been on the ticket.
Though of course, in actual history, presidents have always been older than that, and usually much older.
The flaw in this ‘brilliant’ choice is the ticket’s lack of appeal to women. This is the take-off-your-shoes-and-make-me-a-sandwich team. The Democratic ticket, whatever its final composition, must improve somewhat with women, particularly white women (because of their number.) Biden did surprising well in 2020 with that demographic, even better than Hillary in 2016. Upping those numbers in the swing states is the only clear path I can see for retaining the WH.
Been a while since I read it, so my memory might be completely backwards, but it’s not. The opposite in fact. He fucking hates hillbillies, thinks they’re lazy pieces of shit. It’s about how much better he is than the people that didn’t rise about the circumstances of their birth (ignoring the help he’s had along the way.).
That may well be. Honestly, I don’t think I read more than ten pages. Definitely not my kind of book, my kind of writer, or my kind of person. Just exactly the sort of sniveling hypocrite that would appeal to Trump. Also appealing to Trump is that he was once a vocal critic. That he’s come around to being an obsequious boot-licker is a beautiful thing to Trump, because it “proves” that anyone critical of him just hasn’t seen the light yet.