So now we know who the future of America is, at least according to those who feverishly believe it has been preordained by the Lord Almighty. Yesterday afternoon it was announced that J.D. Vance, not yet 40, barely a year and a half into his career of public service, was anointed to become the chosen candidate for the second most powerful job in the free world, both by proclamation from the attendees at the Republican National Convention and the bloodied, bandaged deity that, naturally, informed him and the world of his selection via a social media post.
Vance checks off an awful lot of boxes for the GOP’s zealotic pursuit to reclaim Washington. Literally half the age of his now running mate. Wrote a best-selling book. Was one of the few celebrity candidates that said running mate endorsed via his central casting mindset that actually won a consequential midterm election. Has what his running mate says is “the look of a young Abraham Lincoln” and now is as unshaven as are both of Trump’s adult sons (seems that whatever aversity to beards Donald may have once had because his father had one has now been overcome.). Has an attractive spouse who can match his now opponent in both legal career and South Asian background. And, most importantly, has already displayed his undeniable ability to be swayed by the siren’s song of ambition and money enough to completely disavow the values that said best-seller documented, prostrate himself in a most appealing manner to Herr Leader and goosestep his way into winning what was effectively the most consequential episode of THE APPRENTICE ever executed.
As THE DAILY BEAST’s Mini Racker recounted:
Vance became a household name in 2016 with the publication of his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which detailed his experience growing up among the white working class in middle America in Jackson, Kentucky and Middletown, Ohio. Many urban elites took it as a textbook explainer of Trump’s shocking rise. (J.D. stands for James David.)
But Vance, who served as an enlisted man in the Marine Corps and graduated from Yale Law School, was no fan of his party’s leader. He told Charlie Rose in a 2016 interview, “I think Donald Trump is not the right candidate for this group of voters,” calling himself a “Never Trump guy.”
Turns out, he should have never said never. Recently, Vance has repeatedly disavowed his previous position and hugged Trump. “I was wrong about him,” Vance said on CNN in May. “I didn’t think he was going to be a good president, Dana, and I was very, very proud to be proven wrong. It’s one of the reasons why I’m working so hard to get him elected.”
I was fascinated enough with the story behind Vance’s book to read it when it was published, if only because I had been enraptured by a book I was assigned to read as part of a seminar I enrolled in during college. The assignment was the 1929 cultural anthropology classic MIDDLETOWN: A STUDY IN AMERICAN CULTURE, authored by the husband and wife team of Robert Staughton Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd. I connected with it because it was focused on Muncie, Indiana, the home of Ball State University, a school I had seriously considered attending, and because it chronicled values I had come to experience first-hand in the college town I did wind up in, Oswego, New York. As Wikipedia describes:
Following anthropologist W. H. R. Rivers‘ classic Social Organization, the Lynds write that the study proceeded “under the assumption that all the things people do in this American city may be viewed as falling under one or another of the following six main-trunk activities:”[5]
- “Getting a living”[5]
- “Making a home”[5]
- “Training the young”[5]
- “Using leisure in various forms of play, art, and so on”[5]
- “Engaging in religious practices”[5]
- “Engaging in community activities”[5]
And, ironically, Vance came from an actual city called Middletown, this one in the rust belt of Ohio, not all that far from the city of Warren that was the home of Roger Ailes. So yes, I was captivated by the story that Vance told, especially the parts about the overwhelming frustration his generation felt that the American Dream was impossible to achieve as legacy industries left these cities in tatters of unemployment and opium addiction. The kind of generational angst that would lead them to consider the radical alternative that a Trump candidacy offered, especially when honed by the degree of pandering his message proferred when offered through the funnel and filter that Ailes’ network allowed it. But, to me, it was far more redundant that it was illuminating.
And the movie that Vance’s story produced somehow took an incredible amount of talent both in front of and behind the camera, including Ron Howard, Glenn Close and Amy Adams, and produced by Dexerto’s Jasmine Valentine described thusly:
Based on Vance’s upbringing, the movie follows a young Yale Law student who reflects on his family’s history and his future after returning to his Appalachian hometown… and, according to fans, that’s all you need to know.
Hillbilly Elegy has a score of 25% on Rotten Tomatoes – a score that hasn’t changed much since its release in 2020.
As expected, reviews weren’t exactly glowing. Charles Bramesco at Inside Hook wrote: “Why did Amy Adams and Glenn Close choose to do such a bad movie?
Witney Seibold of Critically Acclaimed Podcast agreed: “Boasting authenticity, but bleeding phoniness, Ron Howard’s latest is one of the clumsier attempts at Oscar bait in recent memory.”
“A truly awful movie actually makes choices. Sadly, Hillbilly Elegy should be a eulogy for Howard’s career,” Eric Marchen at Rogers TV wrote.
In the wake of Biden’s victory, trapped in virtual quarantine staying with family at the height of pandemic paranoia, based upon my familarity with his book, I urged my politically astute brother-in-law to choose this film as part of their rare escapist movie nights. Neither one of us made it through to the end.
So much for his cinematic career.
But he did indeed transition to politics, albeit with more than a little help from some carefully curated friends. Per Racker:
Vance also has ties to some billionaire megadonors who approve of his isolationist views. In 2022, Silicon Valley tycoon Peter Thiel gave Vance the largest amount ever donated to a Senate candidate, about $15 million, according to Politico. Thiel also connected Vance to other wealthy donors, including venture capitalist David Sacks, who is scheduled to speak at the RNC.
So it appears that whatever connection Vance may have to his dirt-poor past is now well in the rear-view mirror.
His track record to date as a senator isn’t exactly exemplary, at a quick look at Statista points out:
— In the six months between December 2023 and May 2024, the unemployment rate has increased 17% (3.6% to 4.2%)
— Year/year change in the information sector has devolved over the same six month period by 68% (-2.2% to -3.7%) and in the financial activities sector by 383% (-0.6% to -2.9%)–and on a steady slope to boot.
OTOH, there have been recent upticks in construction and mining and logging, although there’s no clear indication of a trend line in either. So I suppose there may be some slightly happy campers out there.
Happy enough, perhaps, to forgive the transgression of the kind of social media post he delivered on a more far-reaching platform that Truth Social hours after his running mate’s brush with death, which THE INDEPENDENT’s Lilith Foster-Collins reposted:
In a post on X, Vance – who was crowned Trump’s running mate on Monday – wrote: “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
But now that he’s a candidate for national office, well, Vance has again displayed his ability to turn on a dime, especially when billions of them are at stake. Again per Racker:
When Trump called for unity, the senator toned down his language, writing, “Courageous, United, and Defiant. This is leadership.”
So that’s who most expect will wipe the floor with Kamala Harris in what most expect will be the next set of debates to emerge from this campaign.
But, hey, for as marginal as the effort his story was received by Netflix, compared to the track record of another one-time national candidate with a brief Senate history, he at least got something produced. Anyone recall any of this which OPRAH.COM’s Michelle Darrisaw and Elena Nicolaou giddily described in a February 2021 article?:
Get ready to stream a new batch of content on Netflix, courtesy of President Barack Obama and former First Lady, Michelle Obama. From the Oscar-nominated documentary American Factory to Michelle Obama’s Becoming, the Obamas have already brought multiple projects to Netflix since signing the deal. In February 2021, they announced a whole new slate—including a movie adaptation of the book Exit West.
You might be inclined to look for that movie based upon that endorsement. Keep looking. It’s not out there.
And as for one that was, ROGER EBERT.com’s Katie Rife offered this take when it was finally released this on the platform this past spring:
Watching “The Young Wife” is an immersive, often overwhelming experience, a whirlwind of well-meaning but stressful characters mobbing the camera and speaking at such an anxiety-inducing speed that you forget to breathe for a second. (It’s a lot like how I remember my own wedding, actually.) Luckily, writer-director Tayarisha Poe inserts literal meditation breaks into the film, reminding us to breathe in and out.
When we finally get to the wedding portion of this not-a-wedding, the tone shifts from nerve-shredding to blissful, as it does every time River (Leon Bridges), Celestina’s soon-to-be husband, enters the frame. River is a grounding force for Celestina, and their connection in the film is genuinely lovely. You’re rooting for these two to make it, which goes a long way toward staying invested in the minimal storyline.
A reminder that casting, both in movies and in politics, goes a long way these days.
Get ready for your close-up, Mr. Vance.
Until next time…