This week’s Republican convention could not have started off on a stronger point. First, Donald Trump survives an assassination attempt that causes the country to rally around him; then he picks Senator J.D. Vance as his candidate for vice president.
At 40, James David Vance is young for being a vice presidential candidate. He has a background that makes him almost an archetypal Republican politician: he served in the Marine Corps, graduated college, and went on to get a law degree from Yale (an Ivy League elite school). But if that was all there was to Sen. Vance, he would not be Trump’s running mate.
Vance had a very humble start in life. He talked about his background in the book Hillbilly Elegy, which Ron Howard turned into a compelling movie. The childhood that J.D. Vance describes is one that millions of Americans can relate to: hard labor for little money, family members who struggle with addiction, relationships that come and go—and yet, through it all, a sense of community and an unending love for America.
Another of Trump’s short-listed vice-presidential candidates, Senator Tim Scott, has a background that in many ways is similar to Vance’s. The fact that Trump considered them both is more than a coincidence: throughout his life, Trump has shown an affection—even a love—for people of humble beginnings.
His ambition to serve his country is in good part driven by the desire to make lives better for the ‘little guy.’ His respect for people who don’t have much to offer other than physical labor emanates from his decades as a real estate developer. He earned a reputation for coming down to construction sites to get to know the people who were pouring concrete, mounting windows, putting up sheetrock, and operating the construction cranes.
With his choice of Sen. Vance as his vice presidential candidate, Trump once again shows that he has not forgotten the ‘little guy’—on the contrary, he knows who is in his audience whenever he speaks. He knows that there are people of J.D. Vance’s and Tim Scott’s background who drive for hours, sometimes across state lines, to come and listen to him. He knows that those families in their pickup trucks and beat-up Camrys are the ones who carry not only his campaign—but America as a country—forward.
By choosing J.D. Vance as his running mate, Donald J Trump manifests his pledge to the American people: ‘I know how hard you work, I’m here to protect you, and I will make your lives better.’
Trump’s Choice of Vice President Shows His Love for America
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance
Photo: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This week’s Republican convention could not have started off on a stronger point. First, Donald Trump survives an assassination attempt that causes the country to rally around him; then he picks Senator J.D. Vance as his candidate for vice president.
At 40, James David Vance is young for being a vice presidential candidate. He has a background that makes him almost an archetypal Republican politician: he served in the Marine Corps, graduated college, and went on to get a law degree from Yale (an Ivy League elite school). But if that was all there was to Sen. Vance, he would not be Trump’s running mate.
Vance had a very humble start in life. He talked about his background in the book Hillbilly Elegy, which Ron Howard turned into a compelling movie. The childhood that J.D. Vance describes is one that millions of Americans can relate to: hard labor for little money, family members who struggle with addiction, relationships that come and go—and yet, through it all, a sense of community and an unending love for America.
Another of Trump’s short-listed vice-presidential candidates, Senator Tim Scott, has a background that in many ways is similar to Vance’s. The fact that Trump considered them both is more than a coincidence: throughout his life, Trump has shown an affection—even a love—for people of humble beginnings.
His ambition to serve his country is in good part driven by the desire to make lives better for the ‘little guy.’ His respect for people who don’t have much to offer other than physical labor emanates from his decades as a real estate developer. He earned a reputation for coming down to construction sites to get to know the people who were pouring concrete, mounting windows, putting up sheetrock, and operating the construction cranes.
With his choice of Sen. Vance as his vice presidential candidate, Trump once again shows that he has not forgotten the ‘little guy’—on the contrary, he knows who is in his audience whenever he speaks. He knows that there are people of J.D. Vance’s and Tim Scott’s background who drive for hours, sometimes across state lines, to come and listen to him. He knows that those families in their pickup trucks and beat-up Camrys are the ones who carry not only his campaign—but America as a country—forward.
By choosing J.D. Vance as his running mate, Donald J Trump manifests his pledge to the American people: ‘I know how hard you work, I’m here to protect you, and I will make your lives better.’
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