J. D. Vance Is Not a Joke

The couch memes and cat-lady stumbles overshadow his opportunity to hit Democrats at their most vulnerable.

- SIMON VAN ZUYLEN-WOOD

AT THE MIDWAY point of the feverish eight-day stretch between the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race, Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, gave a speech to the Republican National Convention that in a less historically berserk period would have registered as one of the more remarkable events of the campaign. Vance began ordinarily enough, with a sycophantic preamble about Trump, before weaving the biographical story he told in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy into a broader narrative attacking corporations, foreign military entanglements, and trade deals that had undermined American manufacturing. “We need a leader who is not in the pocket of big business but answers to the working man, union and non-union alike,” he said. “We are done catering to Wall Street.”

The Fox News panelists in Milwaukee seemed at a loss. “This is a different pitch,” said Bret Baier. Dana Perino added, “There are going to be many Republicans who are like, ‘Ooh, I’m not sure if I’m okay with that.” CNBC had already been in meltdown since Trump announced Vance as his running mate, while an incredulous Wall Street Journal film critic encapsulated the agita on X, posting, “We’re done catering to Wall Street? WTF is the point of this party? We like Wall Street.”