{"id":272978,"date":"2021-06-12T17:58:47","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T14:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-liberals-turned-on-jd-vance-working-class-author-of-hillbilly-elegy\/"},"modified":"2021-06-12T17:58:47","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T14:58:47","slug":"how-liberals-turned-on-jd-vance-working-class-author-of-hillbilly-elegy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-liberals-turned-on-jd-vance-working-class-author-of-hillbilly-elegy\/","title":{"rendered":"#How liberals turned on JD Vance, working-class author of ‘Hillbilly Elegy’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#How liberals turned on JD Vance, working-class author of ‘Hillbilly Elegy’<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio \u2014 When J.D. Vance\u2019s blockbuster memoir, \u201cHillbilly Elegy<\/a>,\u201d first came out in the spring of 2016, it was celebrated as a coup d\u2019oeil of an American group long abandoned by the national conversation: the white working class of the industrial Midwest and App<\/a>alachia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Vance grew up here in this decaying Rust Belt town, he was also equally connected to the hills of Eastern Kentucky where he summered with his extended family. In his book, he detailed with brutal honesty how social<\/a> isolation, poverty and despair impacted his family and others in the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vance miraculously made it out, joined the Marines, and went on to graduate from Ohio State University and then Yale Law School.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When his book was released, Donald Trump was about to secure the Republican nomination for president, and Vance was celebrated as the one person who could decode the white working class attachment to the brash candidate promising to \u201cMake America Great Again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a glowing 2016 review<\/a> for The New York Times, Jennifer Senior wrote that Vance\u2019s combination of thoughtful inquiry and firsthand experience \u201cprovided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he\u2019s done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vance, who was occasionally critical of Trump, became a sought-after guest on the talk show circuit. Before Vance joined his show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes told his audience that \u201cHillbilly Elegy\u201d is \u201ca really fantastic read, it\u2019s really eye-opening, it\u2019s a great piece of work. You should check it out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For months the blue-check Twitterati could not get enough of him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, fast-forward five years and they want nothing to do with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It started after Joe Biden was elected in November and Vance began offering his candid thoughts on social media<\/a> about what he calls \u201cwoke capitalism\u201d and \u201cthe border crisis\u201d as well as Big Tech\u2019s collision with the First Amendment, economic nationalism and China\u2019s role in the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Suddenly, nearly everything he said was construed as some form of racism by blue-check elites, and anyone taking a sympathetic look at the white working class was considered taboo. When the film version of \u201cHillbilly Elegy\u201d came out on Netflix in November, critics slammed<\/a> it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"J.D.
J.D. Vance became a working class hero when his book \u201cHillbilly Elegy\u201d was first published in 2016.<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then talk started to circulate that Vance might run for US Senate in 2022, to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Ohio Sen. Rob Portman. So far, Silicon Valley tycoon Peter Thiel has pumped $10 million into a super PAC backing Vance\u2019s theoretical run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Post, Vance would not yet confirm whether he is running. But, one thing\u2019s for sure, if he runs, it will be as a Republican. And that has stirred the ire of his former progressive fans. Greg Sargent in The Washington Post dismissed<\/a> his positions as \u201cperformance populism.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce it became clear that I was more on the side of Trump and the conservatives than I was on the side of the left, it went pretty hard,\u201d Vance told me. \u201cBefore Trump was elected, people were trying to understand the forgotten man, the white working class, however you want to put it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After Trump won, \u201cit quickly became one of two things: Either these voters are all racists or Russia hacked the election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole culture of the media has shifted from, \u2018Let\u2019s try to understand the other half of the country,\u2019 to \u2018Let\u2019s just beat up on the other half of the country.\u2019\u2009\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vance recalls doing an interview with Don Lemon on CNN before the election and the host expressing \u201ccompassion and curiosity .\u2009.\u2009. he was trying to think through all of the problems that my family have gone through over the last couple of decades.\u201d After the election, Lemon invited Vance back onto his show and \u201cevery question was, \u2018How could these people still be behind Trump?\u2019\u2009\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Steve McMahon, a legendary DC-based Democrat strategist who worked on several presidential campaigns, says Vance\u2019s rise and fall among members of the elite is regrettable \u2014 but unsurprising.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The
The media credited Vance with decoding the white working class Trump voter \u2014 until Trump won \u2014 and then the backlash started.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cVance demonstrated something in his uniquely American success story. [He] showed it\u2019s still possible in America to pull yourself up from adversity and be successful,\u201d McMahon said. \u201cBut once you go from being an apolitical American success story to a politician, you immediately inherit all of the enemies of your enemies. It\u2019s the partisan environment we\u2019ve created.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

McMahon wishes Vance\u2019s story ended with him being a Democrat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHis story is the story of many Democrats I know,\u201d he said. \u201cFrankly, it\u2019s the story of too few Republicans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, many progressives believe that Democrat candidates can win without white working-class voters, said Paul Sracic, political science<\/a> professor at Youngstown State University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey think, \u2018Well, we don\u2019t really need the great unwashed anymore,\u2019\u2009\u201d Sracic said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Long
Long a sought-after guest on the talk show circuit, Vance is now rumored to be running for Senate as a Republican, and the media\u2019s enthusiasm for him has cooled.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Biden did need white working-class voters to secure his narrow win over Trump last year. Exit polls in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania showed that the percentage of white working-class men voting Democratic increased from 23 percent in 2016<\/a> to 28 percent in 2020<\/a>, while among white working-class women, support for Democrats increased from 34 percent to 36 percent. Biden did that by constantly visiting those places, reminding them of his blue-collar roots. Without those voters, he would have lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What the media failed to notice from the beginning is that Vance is as much a conservative populist as the people he grew up with, Sracic added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll you had to do was really read the book, it is between every line, but I think elites thought because he would occasionally criticize Trump\u2019s behavior he was one of them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sracic believes that Vance and candidates like him secretly scare the heck out of strategic Democrats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2022 midterm election is \u201cgoing to be a cultural war election,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be an economy election, it\u2019s not going to be a pandemic election.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, this time, the media are back on the path of dismissing the conservative populist message and its messengers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd people like Vance are well positioned to just deliver that sort of cultural war message authentically.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Salena Zito is the author of \u201cThe Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics<\/a>.\u201d<\/em>\n <\/div>\n