by Eric Lendrum
There is no doubt that events of Saturday, July 13, 2024were monumental because of how close we came to changing the course of our history for the worse. No one understands this better than President Trump, who is now determined to shape our destiny for the better, and on his terms.
The selection of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as vice president shows that while President Trump is undoubtedly shaken by the recent past, he is already looking to the future.
Another typical American story
Vance’s meteoric rise from a small-town kid raised in poverty to potentially becoming the next vice president of the United States is the American dream in its purest and most magnificent form. As detailed in his gripping memoir, Elegy for the PeasantsYoung Vance did not grow up in privilege or luxury. As a child, he witnessed firsthand the decay and rot of a once-vibrant American working class, hollowed out by the outsourcing economy and poisoned by the spread of drugs.
But through strenuous work and raw determination, there were many opportunities to reach the top of the mountain. After serving in the Marines, he climbed the ranks, attending Yale Law School before making his own fortune as a venture capitalist. It was not an uncomplicated life to adjust to, as one particularly familiar anecdote at which a newborn Vance had no idea of the etiquette of a white-tie dinner.
For many of these success stories, the memoir and its subsequent film adaptation would be the pinnacle of their careers. But for Vance, it was just the beginning. Like a certain billionaire, Vance ran for office for the first time with no political experience. Despite being initially rejected as a candidate with little chance, he won the nomination in a landslide, before winning the general election in a state once considered the quintessential swing state.
And now, just two years after his first political victory, Vance stands on the threshold of the second most powerful job in the world.
Some have criticized Vance for his relative newness on the national stage and his lack of political experience. But his rapid rise despite these factors is precisely what the American dream is all about: that in America, anything is possible. Greatness from humble beginnings. America is luxurious with stories of incredibly rapid political success, not the least of which is a certain Republican from California who was elected vice president after just two years in the Senate and later achieved even greater success.
But Vance’s story is not just about his own life—from a childhood of poverty to fame and political success in less than four decades. His family name is representative of America’s rise, fall and rise again, and his family ties reach back to some of the most significant moments in the nation’s history. As the book notes, one of his distant ancestors was Jim Vance, a key figure in the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feud that spanned three decades during and after the Civil War.
In less than two centuries, a family whose lineage stretches from a bloody clan feud to nationwide political power is nothing brief of a miracle, as it would be impossible in any other country outside the United States.
The face of the novel right
The selection of J.D. Vance is evidence that President Trump knows exactly which voters make up the core of his base. Other vice presidential finalists, such as moderate Marco Rubio or the elder Doug Burgum, would have likely been vice presidential candidates in previous election cycles when George W. Bush and Mitt Romney were the party’s flagships.
But Vance is not a member of the GOP senior guard that once tried to veer left on immigration or relied on empty platitudes about being from a “small town.” Vance is simply a symbol of the white, working-class voters who were a large reason Trump won his first term in 2016. He hails from the heart of the Rust Belt that gave Trump the presidency; his home state of Ohio, once considered a swing state that voted for Barack Obama twice, is now a solid red stronghold thanks to President Trump’s working-class populism.
On the one hand, Vance is in perfect agreement with Trump on fundamental issues. such as immigration. But Vance’s support for unions and protection of workers’ rights, while not traditionally “conservative,” has had the effect of further expanding MAGA’s base, earning him praise from figures like Teamsters President Sean O’Brien.
This is where Vance’s previous opposition to Trump proves to be his strength, not his weakness. Yes, Vance did not originally support Trump in 2016. But how many people in Trump’s camp today did not support him then? If the only criterion for selecting a vice presidential candidate were pure loyalty from the start, the list would be much shorter, and Trump would have to choose someone like Ben Carson Or Michael Flynn.
Likewise, Trump’s base would be fairly petite if narrow to those who have been with him from the start. But there are many voters who share Vance’s political journey from anti-Trump to fiercely pro-Trump, and they are just as crucial to a victory in November as longtime loyalists.
All the right enemies
If there is still any doubt about Vance’s newfound loyalty to President Trump and the America First agenda, just look at those most irate about his election. The mainstream media has long tried to portray Vance as someone who is somehow even “more radical than MAGA”, and CNN’s Van Jones broke down in response to the news and called the Ohio senator “much more dangerous”than President Trump.
As telling as the left’s opposition to Vance is the equally venomous reaction from the RINO class. In response to the announcement, the most spineless Republican in Congress, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), he said the following: “I don’t know if I can be more disrespectful to anyone than JD Vance.” It’s just when Romney commented that the only Republican candidate he won’t vote for in 2024 is Vivek Ramaswamy, that’s a more effective endorsement than anything most conservative politicians could offer.
Tucker Carlson noticed this trend when he noted that “every bad person I’ve ever met in Washington has been aligned against JD Vance.” When the left and the fraudulent Republicans are against Vance, it’s a clear sign that President Trump has made the right choice.
The Next Generation of Nationalism
Above all, the clearest reason Vance is the best possible choice can be found in Trump’s motivation for choosing him in the first place. Rather than prioritizing loyalty or experience or checking off any identity politics box, Trump chose Vance with an eye toward the future.
He appointed J.D. Vance as his successor in the America First movement.
Someone like Carson or Burgum would be a good candidate to be interim vice president, but they would not have the energy or charisma to present themselves as a stand-alone leader and successor.
Vance is the ideal successor for two main reasons. First, he understands the America First agenda on a deep, philosophical level. From his memoirs to his numerous speeches and interviews Since rising to political fame, Vance has been better at articulating the ideology of national populism than most of the other talking heads and empty suits in Congress.
Donald Trump understood nationalism from the perspective of a pragmatic businessman who realizes that it is the best solution to all our problems. JD Vance, on the other hand, is a thinking man’s nationalist who can clearly articulate the history of these ideas and why they are the only ones that work for the flagship of Western civilization.
Another large reason Vance is the perfect choice is his youth. And it’s not just his own youth, because Vance, 39, is the first millennial to ever make it onto a major party presidential ticket and could be third youngest vice president in American history, November is coming. It is also because the youth of this country love JD Vance.
It was noticed that for the first time in current history in the whole of Europe the youngest generations of voters are now moving toward so-called “far-right” parties. Similar observations have been made about Generation Z, or “Zoomers,” here in the United States, and at one of the last gatherings of newborn conservatives in the United States, they spoke out on the then-unsettled issue of Trump’s vice presidential nomination.
A month ago, at a immense Turning Point USA conference in Detroit, a survey was conducted among attendees asking who their preferred vice presidential candidate would be. It wasn’t even close:Vance came in first with a stunning 43 percent, while the next candidate, Sen. Tim Scott (R-C.), came in at just 15.4 percent. A novel generation of the right has spoken, and Trump has heard them deafening and clear.
Trumpism beyond Trump
There has long been talk of “Trumpism without Trump,” most often from moderate Republicans who want nothing more than to move on from the Trump era and pretend that this revolutionary movement was just a phase. These people pay homage to his America First agenda only in the dullest speeches or the most focus-tested campaign ads, but in the face of other incarnations of TrumpismThey react with the same anger they would react to Trump himself.
But while the RINO class has undoubtedly been humiliated and defeated by Trump yet again, the reality is that one day we will have to rely on a form of Trump’s ideas that transcends the man who brought them into being. Now more than ever, no one is more aware of his own mortality than Trump himself; therefore, it is imperative that the ideas survive with a worthy successor, recognizing Donald Trump’s irreplaceable influence while building on the work he started.
Many other vice presidential candidates would be the face of “Trumpism without Trump.” Vice President Vance will be the face of “Trumpism without Trump.”
– – –
Eric Lendrum is a reporter for American Greatness.
Photo “Donald Trump and JD Vance” by Daniel Scavino Jr.
