“America’s ruling class wrote the checks. Communities like mine paid the price,” Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio) said. “For decades, that divide between the few with their power and comfort in Washington and the rest of us only widened. From Iraq to Afghanistan. From the financial crisis to the Great Recession. From open borders to stagnating wages. The people who govern this country have failed and failed again.”
Notable in the VIP box where Donald Trump was seated was Vance’s mother, Beverly Vance, whose addiction to drugs scarred his childhood, and who is just short of celebrating a decade of sobriety. But just as present was his late grandmother, his mamaw, Bonnie Vance, who he described as his tough “guardian angel,” who rescued him and made sure he did not stray.
“Mamaw was in so many ways, a woman of contradiction. She loved the Lord, ladies and gentlemen. She was a woman of deep Christian faith,” he said. “But she also loved the f-word. I’m not kidding. She could make a sailor blush.”
Vance’s personal history is familiar to anyone who read his best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” or saw the movie that it inspired. Having signed up for the Marines in the aftermath of 9/11, he made it to Yale Law School with help from the GI Bill.
But what made his account on Wednesday night so remarkable was the context: the stage of the Republican National Convention. As Dana Bash on CNN pointed out, much of what he said could have been delivered by his socialist fellow senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Also striking were points of MAGA dogma that he didn’t mention: No mass deportations of undocumented people. Or culture war issues such as allowing transgender women into female sports. Or ending support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion. Or denying the results of the 2020 election.
Given how often he cited three states — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, all places where President Biden must win if he is to have any hope of reelection — it is clear where Vance will be spending the months between now and November. And it is just as clear why Trump chose Vance to share the ticket.
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