J.D. Vance, Washington Washout
Is there anyone who actually likes J.D. Vance? If that’s the case, it would be news to me. I know the part about a heartbeat away, but you get the feeling that it’s all for show. From the very beginning Trump has telegraphed ambivalence. He spent months asking loudly if Vance was right for the job. The general consensus was that he was not, and that he added nothing to the Republican ticket. But by that time the ticket had already been punched.
What happened next was pure humiliation. Instead of asking Vance to clean house, Trump turned cost-cutting and efficiency over to Musk, his number one fanboy and fellow ignoramus. The result for the country was irreparable damage, but for Vance the effect was even worse: a failure to launch that continues to this day. I can only imagine what it is like every morning to check your portfolio and find it empty. Hegseth and Kennedy are doing pull ups in airports, while Witkoff and Kushner playact at peacemaking. But at least they seem to have Trump’s attention. There’s nothing left over for J.D. Vance.
Which seems to be making our Vice President crazy. I have dealt with the question of conversion for years. It’s a delicate subject and I don’t claim to be an expert, but my advice to Vance is informed by experience. If you desperately want your spouse to covert, it might be better to never say so publicly and giver her space to sort her options in private. What Vance did instead was an unpardonable offense, as evidenced by the set of Usha’s jaw. Our Vice-President’s wife will never smile again.
Meantime, Vance continues to rage. Hoping to become Charlie Kirk’s legacy, he commandeered the Turning Point convention this month to score a point for Christian nationalism. His gambit was a clumsy swipe at liberals, who typically represent the cause of religious liberty. No, he said, it’s a Christian contribution, rooted in the essentials of Christian theology.
Whatever’s at the base of religious liberty, Vance seems to have muddled his politics. His base is arguably less interested in liberty than erasing the influence of minority faiths. As soon as he realized his tactical error, he spun to the right to reverse the damage. Even if faith must be free and uncoerced. America is still a Christian nation.
If you’re hopelessly confused, that makes two of us, and when you count J.D. Vance, that makes three. We cannot be a Chrisitan nation if we are also, simultaneously, a multicultural civilization in which all of us are free to practice as we choose. That second vision the American Way, even if Vance is blind to its power.
But J.D. Vance has always been quick on his feet. He betrayed his family, his community, and his heritage to serve the cause of a sleazebag oligarch. I don’t think there’s a way to square his ideas about faith, but then I never imagined he would be elected Vice-President.