J. D. Vance and the Emerging Counter-Elite

City Journal ^ | 7/25/24 | Christopher Rufo

[CFW]

Former president Donald Trump’s selection of Ohio senator J. D. Vance as his running mate has generated much commentary. The mainstream media has tried to frame Vance as a postliberal “threat to democracy,” while Trump’s supporters have celebrated him as a bridge to a new generation.

But there is a deeper story here. The Vance selection is not a gambit to secure a particular demographic or region—white men are Trump’s base; Ohio is a safe red state—but an effort to cultivate an emerging counter-elite that could make the second Trump administration substantially more effective than the first.

This story is built into J. D. Vance’s biographical arc. He was the all-American kid who rose from humble beginnings to make his way in the world: the Marines; Yale Law; venture capital; a best-selling book. He learned the language of the prestige institutions, cultivated powerful patrons, and quickly climbed the ladder in academia, finance, and business. He had made it.

Then, his story takes a turn. Having entered the ranks of America’s elite, Vance became disillusioned and disenchanted with it, correctly identifying it as a force of hypocrisy and corruption. He defected—first, by parting ways with the respectable conservatism of the Beltway, and then by embracing Donald Trump.

Some have criticized this as a cynical move, but my sense is that it is the opposite. A cynic would have continued to build an elite résumé; Vance sacrificed his respectability within a certain stratum, assumed considerable risk by moving toward Trump, and, in my view, was genuinely convinced that the establishment, both Left and Right, had exhausted itself and had to be opposed.

Now, not only has Vance been selected as a vice-presidential nominee; more significantly, he has charted the path for an emerging new conservative counter-elite.

[Starboard]

“The GOPe has forced us to surrender our principles for too long in the name of “working across the aisle” and “spirit of compromise”.”

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Absolutely right. We need to elect fighters, not appeasers, compromisers or apologists. Its time to put Democrats permanently on the defensive.

[Starboard]

“The GOPe has forced us to surrender our principles for too long...”

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One more comment about this situation if I may...

The GOP has a uniquely self-destructive culture in which weakness is celebrated and feeds upon itself. Its really a remarkable organizational culture that operates in reverse; principle and resolve gets pushed down while compromise and appeasement get elevated. The party rewards the wrong type of behavior and therefore has no foundation of success. And nobody in the party, save for Trump, cares about it.

[CFW]

For an example as to why conservatives have lost so much ground over the past few years one only has to take a look at NRO. Even from this week, from what I’ve seen elsewhere (I haven’t actually been to the site), there are at least two articles supporting the Democrat’s replacing Biden with Harris without input from the voters.

I often check the headlines at NRO and notice that although they often have articles criticizing Biden/Harris on policy (especially when it comes to Israel), they still insist Trump would be worse for our nation.

A true conservative magazine would have apologized for their never-Trumper stance years ago, and fired all the left-wing writers. But they still insist that THEIR view of conservatism is the correct one. Much like their former staff writer David French (now the ‘conservative token’ at NYTs.)

With the GOPe in charge, we will continue to lose.