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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Moral Collapse of J.D. Vance
An excellent read. From The Atlantic magazine
What do we call a man who turns on everything he once claimed to believe? For a practitioner of petty and self-serving duplicity, we use sellout or backstabber. (Sometimes we impugn the animal kingdom and call him a rat, a skunk, or a weasel.) For grand betrayals of weightier loyaltiescountry and faithwe invoke the more solemn terms of traitor or apostate.
But what should we call J. D. Vance, the self-described hillbilly turned Marine turned Ivy League law-school graduate turned venture capitalist turned Senate candidate? Words fail. His perfidy to his own people in Ohio is too big to allow him to escape with the label of opportunist, and yet the shabbiness and absurdity of his Senate campaign is too small to brand him a defector or a heretic.
My friend Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, tried to describe Vance recently and came up with pathetic loser poser fake jerk, but that is a lot of words. To distill the essence of Vance as a public figure, the word that enters my mind is an anatomical reference beginning with the letter a.
(snip)
Instead of a truth-teller in his own community, Vance as a candidate has become a contemptible and cringe-inducing clown. His attempts at authenticity are so grating because they are so blatantly artificial. His recent tweets, for example, attempting to ingratiate himself with rural Ohioans by slagging New York City were embarrassingly amateurish; we can only wonder which social-media consultant thought them up. Serious question, Vance tweeted. I have to go to New York soon and Im trying to figure out where to stay. I have heard its disgusting and violent there. But is it like Walking Dead Season 1 or Season 4?
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https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/moral-collapse-jd-vance/619428/
paleotn
(17,911 posts)J.D. Vance. Everyone and everything else can go to hell as far as he's concerned. He fits in rather well with the GQP. He's finally found his niche.
appalachiablue
(41,118 posts)11 Bravo
(23,926 posts)Diamond_Dog
(31,963 posts)spooky3
(34,428 posts)Mz Pip
(27,434 posts)I heard an interview with him in 2016. He seemed sane, made decent observations and was no fan of Trump declaring he would not support him.
Now he praises Trump like the opportunistic douche he has become.
Skittles
(153,138 posts)both vile, disgusting people
BlueNProud
(1,048 posts)FrankBooth
(1,600 posts)But he was always a xenophobic whitewasher playing the 'salt of the earth' long game.