Who is JD Vance, you might ask?
Well, which JD? He keeps flipping his bio, politics, and persona, trying to advance his fortunes. A decade ago, he was posing as a Kentucky hillbilly spokesman – only, he’s not from Kentucky and expresses disdain for actual hillbillies.
Still, he did go from a hardscrabble childhood to an Ivy League law school, later boasting that he’s a self-made success, with no rich daddy pulling strings for him. Well unless you count his Sugar Daddy. From those Ivy League days forward, “just plain JD” has been a protégé of a Silicon Valley multibillionaire right-winger, Peter Thiel, who put Vance in cushy, high-tech jobs, then arranged $120 million in funding to make him a rich vulture capitalist.
Suddenly, the “hillbilly” was a “Hillwilliam” – a full-fledged, rich man’s Republican. But he was not yet a right-wing nut, even denouncing Donald Trump in 2016 as “America’s Hitler.” Then, JD decided he should be a US Senator, and Daddy Thiel promptly put up $10 million to buy the seat. But oops – Trump owned the Ohio GOP, so Vance grew a MAGA-macho beard, and squirmed down to Mar-a-Lago to beg The Donald’s forgiveness for that Hitler faux pas, obsequiously pledging to be a Forever Trumper.
So now, Vance is Trump’s VP nominee… but with a wandering eye, looking to establish himself as the anti-democracy, Christian nationalist champion of the authoritarian Project 2025. Kookier yet, Vance embraces a new McCarthyism cult supporting a violent purge of progressives from our society, saying that such Americans are “Unhumans,” who must be treated as prey.
Absurd? Yes! But there he stands, the new public face of extremist, right-wing nuttiness that surpasses even Trump’s monarchial fantasies.
Having a hard time keeping up with Vance’s chameleon forms? We are, too! Thank goodness Ohio activist Rachel Coyle is keeping track. Check out her work at shillbilly.info.
J.D. Vance: Silicon Valley’s Fake Hillbilly