When J.D. Vance addressed the Republican National Convention Wednesday night, he wasn’t just introducing himself to the nation. He was selling a political ideology. To that end, Vance chronicled his hardscrabble upbringing to champion the core tenets of Trumpism.
In a 35-minute speech, Vance recounted his childhood in Appalachia, surrounded by societal and economic decay. In Middleton, Ohio, he was raised by his grandmother “Mamaw” as his mother struggled with addiction. It was a place, he said, that had been “cast aside and forgotten by America’s ruling class in Washington.” After providing his own narrative biography, Vance offered a vision for rescuing the U.S from inexorable decline: protectionist trade agreements, restrictionist immigration policies, and a withdrawal from overseas entanglements.
By tying his life story to an ideological creed, Vance, 39, was making a generational pitch to preserve Donald Trump’s brand of right-wing populist nationalism. “If this movement of ours is going to succeed, and if this country is going to thrive, our leaders have to remember that America is a nation,” he said. “Its citizens deserve leaders who put its interests first.”
Days after Trump survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, Vance extolled the man who chose him as his running mate, recalling the dramatic moment when Secret Service agents rushed Trump off the stage but Trump stopped to pump his fist in the air and chant “Fight” to the crowd. “Consider the lies they told you about Donald Trump and then look at that photo of him defiant—fist in the air,” he said. “Even in his most perilous moment we were on his mind.”
Vance called for national unity in the wake of the shooting, echoing a consistent message from Republican officials throughout the convention. “We have a big tent on this party, on everything from national security to economic policy,” Vance said. “But my message to you, my fellow Republicans, is we love…
