JD Vance Is Working Hard to Be Hated

A seasoned opportunist who rose from genuine poverty to the brink of the White House through pure ambition, J.D. Vance has spent his life ingratiating himself with those in power. He ranged from professors at elite educational institutions to military commanders, Wall Street employers, anti-Trump centrists, Hollywood moguls, Silicon Valley plutocrats, and finally Donald Trump and MAGA. It has had remarkable success in pleasing centers of influence from all walks of life. The movement itself. Cynics might say that Vance is the ultimate apple polisher, always having something to say that he thinks others want to hear, even if it contradicts his previous statements. No.

as me nation My colleague Chris Lehman astutely observed that Vance first promoted himself with his best-selling book. hilly billy elegy (2016), he served liberal media elites as a local informant of the reality of the white working class, a refugee from Appalachia who could explain all the depraved people who voted for Trump. In this incarnation, Vance combines self-help (other hillbillies were content with studying hard, avoiding drugs, and perhaps attending an Ivy League school) with warnings against Trump’s dangerous demagoguery. I suggested. It was a message aimed at pleasing centrist and liberal elites who want to keep President Trump out of power but don’t want to drastically change the economic order.

But once it became clear that Trump had remade the Republican Party in his image, Vance wisely realized he had to embrace the man he had once compared to Hitler. As before, Vance applied his fine technique to insincere flattery. He began repeating far-right claims such as: Expressing doubts about compulsory vaccination. This attracted the attention of Trump, who endorsed him as a Republican candidate for the Senate in Ohio in 2022, and ultimately promoted Vance to his running mate.

Since becoming Trump’s sidekick, Vance has relished the role of MAGA enforcer and has been as inflammatory as Trump. It was Vance who pushed it The racist lie that Haitian immigrants eat dogs and cats has become nationally famous. Recently, Vance accepted Christian nationalists It’s an event like Lance Wallnau’s, which Vance attended on Saturday. Mr. Wallnow, an avowed theocracy, described Ms. Harris as a “Jezebel” with demonic support.

But Vance realized that even though his skill at pleasing the targets of his ambitions was supreme, remaining obsessed was also a good way to become more widely unpopular. After all, no one likes someone who polishes apples. Reinventing yourself to please others is a good way to gain distrust.

In an era of negative polarization, it’s easy to hate politicians, but Vance is good at it. Of the four major candidates vying for this year’s national ticket, Vance is the most unpopular, even more so than his running mate. According to FiveThirtyEight’s vote tally, Vance be viewed favorably 34.7% of voters supported it, and 45.7% had an unfavorable rating, resulting in a negative rating of 11%. In contrast, President Trump numbers 42.9% are favorable and 52.6% are unfavorable (net minus 9.6). kamala harris’ numbers The favorable rate is 45.4 percent and the unfavorable rate is 47.1 percent (net minus 1.7). Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, is the only national figure receiving positive support. his numbers The favorable percentage is 40.1%, while the unfavorable percentage is 36.4% (net positive 3.7%).

Vance’s numbers get even worse when you look at the specific demographic he seems to appeal to the most. The 40-year-old would be a youthful opponent to Trump, with the ability to attract younger MAGA supporters. But among most young people, Vance has the opposite effect. Among voters ages 18 to 30, Vance was rated favorably by 18% and unfavorably by 46%, according to the Harvard Youth Poll released Tuesday (-28%). The poll found Trump slightly more unpopular (net minus 30), while Harris had a net plus of 2 and Walz had a net plus of 14.

Saturday, new york times reported: