Truth Matters: J.D. Vance
Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance has an extremely interesting background.
He is certainly more interesting than the average U. S. senator. He served four years in the Marines as a journalist, and spent six months in Iraq. That, however, is not the most interesting part of his experiences. To find out more, you need to read his autobiography “Hillbilly Elegy” (which, as the saying goes, can be found in most bookstores). Vance's mother, up until 10 years ago, was a heroin addict. At one point, she sat with him in her car and declared she was going to drive at top speed and intentionally ram into something to kill them both. The police arrested her and left him in the custody of his grandmother. The grandmother was a very unconventional Christian who swore like a sailor and believed in extremely harsh discipline. His grandfather (her husband) was a drunk. She finally had enough and promised him that if he ever came home drunk again, she would kill him. Shortly after that he staggered through the front door and collapsed onto the sofa where he lost consciousness. She poured lighter fluid on him and set him on fire. Fortunately, another family member doused the flames and saved his life.
When Vance was a teenager, he started hanging out with a friend who was a drug pusher. His grandmother (Mamaw) told J.D. that if he didn't immediately stop seeing that young man she would get in her car and run the pusher over. J.D. believed her, and he dropped that friend. She thus kept him from going in the wrong direction.
His family had very little money. Some days during the dead of winter, she bundled everyone up and declared that they would forego heat that day in order to pay monthly bills.
J.D. sprinkles these and other stories into his talks as he travels across the country campaigning on behalf of Trump and himself. He is the ideal person to speak with the poor and impoverished in these days of high inflation and low salaries. He is also an extremely good listener, and takes questions wherever he speaks from voters, local journalists, and (after that) national reporters. When he does so, if he doesn't know the answer (which happens infrequently) he tells the questioner that he isn't sure of his answer. (When was the last time you ever saw a politician do that?)
One event I saw him attend was a conference of black pastors. He spoke with the pastor who was moderating about such topics as school choice, ways to improve the public school system, and the unfortunate letter from the Administration warning schools that if they didn't support men being able to participate in women's sports, their breakfast and lunch programs would be cut. He spoke to that last point after apologizing in advance for going partisan in his comments (since it was only days before the election and he wanted to be elected). The moderator was a bit displeased with that answer since he was bent on not offending any church members from any party.
Vance also pointed out that there was a federal block grant aimed at promoting education which offered money to various entities. Unfortunately, it did not provide funds to churches to support creation of religious schools or children's day care centers. He pointed out that that law needed to be changed to support churches' efforts to help their communities. When asked whether vouchers given to parents (so they could choose what school their children attended) would deprive already underfunded public schools of operating cash, he responded that much of the under funding was actually a result of spending too much on administrators and not enough on teachers. He believed that states could succeed in shifting some monies from rich to poor school districts. He also thought the competition that vouchers would create would improve not only the private but also the public schools.
Yes, Vance does have a standard stump speech and digresses from it far less often than Trump does from his standard speeches, but Vance still comes across as a polished (if folksy) orator. He communicates extremely well and comes across as someone who might well be your next door neighbor (if your neighbor's grandmother occasionally lights people on fire). He answers questions thoughtfully, and his Indian wife Usha gives an extremely good interview. His children are kept in the background, but they often accompany Vance on his campaign trips.
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Haughey is Senior Advisor of the Texas Republican County Chairman’s Association.