J.D. Vance in Podcasts
personAmerican politician and author, known for Hillbilly Elegy.
Mentions in Podcasts
As you mentioned, J.D. Vance went to Ohio State University. He went on to Yale Law School. That time at Yale was a transformative time. He arrived there and made friends very quickly, was very popular, as you stated, He also met his wife, who is now the second lady, whom he called his life coach. Can you remind us of her background and how she helped him navigate that world?
Well, one thing I heard from several friends of his from Yale was that they were surprised by the degree of trauma and deprivation he described in Hillbilly Elegy. They weren't the poorest of the poor, but they were poor people who few of whom had regular jobs. And his mother had a series of partners who cycled through and none of them seemed to be particularly interested in her young son, J.D.,
I think from there, Vance's view of America's role in the world was almost fixed, which was to say a cynical view of any pretense to being a force for democracy around the world. And instead, maybe a skepticism that said we should just mind our own affairs and take care of our own people.
You make the point to say the problem with Vance is a question about his character. I'm just wondering what makes the way Vance has moved over the last two decades maybe different than your average politician who kind of moves through different worlds and is different depending on the environment and the circumstance.
Or is he like Mr. Ripley, someone who becomes what other people want him to be to serve his own interests? And I don't think there's a simple answer to that. I don't think he is simply a con man. He's not. I think he's the most interesting figure in the Trump administration. He's more interesting than Trump. Vance has reflection, and that's evident on every page of Hillbilly Elegy.
To some degree, it is, yeah. He's gone through some dramatic transformations, even in the way he looks and the way he talks and the way he writes, as if there's no solid core to hold him to who he really is. So Vance immediately, for me, raises a question of who authentically is he? What does he believe? Have his changes been owing to some deep inner rethinking of... his values and his politics?
Well, George, the name of this article, The Talented Mr. Vance, is this clear play on the talented Mr. Ripley. And that is a story about a man who is brilliant and charming, but deceitful in his quest to become someone entirely different from who he once was. And he's willing to betray nearly anyone to preserve that new identity. Is that how you see Vance?
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