Advance to the Rear

Yesterday, someone on social message posted a message that began --"'JD Vance' said..."
 
I replied that the words "'JD Vance' said..." has become the catchphrase which means -- "Okay, you can stop thinking that anything truthful is coming next."

Because that's what happens when you keep showing you have zero moral center.

I wasn’t being facetious.  Nor was I even being hyperbolic either.  To be clear, I wasn’t saying that “JD Vance” lies about everything – he doesn’t.  Just that when “JD Vance” speaks, your starting point should no longer be to assume you will hear the truth. 
 
It’s not because he lies a lot.  Trump lies much more.  (And I also believe that the starting point with Trump has long stopped being that you should assume you’ll hear the truth.  He might tell the truth every once in a while when it’s convenient for him or because he lucked onto it, but you have to dig deep in his delusional word salad to find it.)  But it’s different with Trump.  He’s a pathological liar who has dementia.  He doesn’t have a concept of telling the truth.  But with Trump, it’s not a question of will he tell the truth, it’s a question of does he even know what the truth is, or even sometimes if he even knows what he’s saying, period.  He almost can’t help himself.  He rambles, goes off on tangents, speaks in word salad and has more “tells” that he’s about to lie, than most people have fingers.  (“They said to me, Sir,” “actually,” “many people say,” “I am the only person who ever,” “To be totally honest,” “Barack Obama,” “Did you know…?,” using a derogatory nickname for someone, “What news service do you work for?,” “This is the first time ever,” “Joe Biden,” shifting his hands back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth repeatedly, and many more.  That’s just for starters.)  It’s who he is.  And most people understand that.
 
But this is about “JD Vance.”  And he’s very different.
 
The difference is that Trump has no morals – he doesn’t seem to have a sense of what morals are, just that if it’s good for Trump, that’s enough.  But “JD Vance” has no moral center.  He knows what morals are.  And he lives according to his morals.  It’s just that they’re always shifting.  And so, he’ll say whatever he has to, in order to fit where they are at that moment.
 
When “JD Vance” talks, it sounds rational as long as you don’t pay attention.  Because there’s a good chance it contradicts something he’s said in the past or that you know beyond all question to be true.  But it fits his need when trying to convince his listeners of something.  No matter how ludicrous it is.   No matter how much you listen to his words and sometimes can’t imagine – not that anyone would believe it, but – that anyone would actually say it and think anyone would believe it.
 
Because he has no moral center.

Just this week, “JD Vance” said that Trump actually hated Jeffrey Epstein.  This despite the video of them partying together, Epstein saying how they were best friends and Trump saying how close they were.

Or the time (sorry, times) that “JD Vance” said that immigrants in Ohio were stealing pet dogs and cats and eating them.  This despite being told by local officials that there was no evidence of it, and that it was completely untrue.

Or when “JD Vance” explained that the reason that the cost of houses had risen so much and were so expensive in America was because illegal immigrants were buying houses above the asking price, driving the market up.  This despite reality, common sense, logic and not having a moral center.

Or, as the quintessential evidence of anyone having no moral center, calling Trump “America's Hitler” (about as vicious a thing one could say about any American – or anyone) and saying that Trump was “cultural heroin” and a “cynical asshole,” and then readily agreeing to become Trump’s running mate and loyal supporter and defender.  The kind of thing one can only do if you have no moral center.

But none of this should come as a surprise.  After all, “JD Vance” isn’t even “JD Vance.”  He was born really James Donald Bowman.  Which he then changed to James David Hamel.  And then changed it to James David Vance.  And changed that to J.D. Vance, before fixing it finally (for now) by changing it to “JD Vance”).  

But then, it’s not just his name that’s a cipher, but his background of who he is, as well.

That’s because he wrote in his book Hillbilly Elegy about his Appalachian upbringing, giving the sense of his youth growing up in the backwoods of Kentucky.  In fact, “JD Vance” was not born or grow up in Appalachia at all -- his grandparents did, and then moved.  “Vance” (born Bowman) was born and grew up in a suburb of Cincinnati!  Now, yes, it was a poor and rough upbringing.  But it wasn’t the hills of Kentucky. And there are many people who grew up in poor, difficult, abusive environments, but that doesn’t make them from Appalachia.  And there are many millions of people whose grandparents were from other states and countries, and that doesn’t make their grandchild from there as their upbringing.

So, it’s no great wonder that “JD Vance” from Cincinnati has no moral center.  His whole life has been about shifting everything about himself around.
 
​There is an understandable concern that if, for any reason, Trump has to leave office early, and “JD Vance” became president.  Because he is a political entity who is a process of quite literal fascists who have been his mentors and financial supporters – most notably Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin (of whom the New York Times wrote, “He believes that government bureaucracy should be radically gutted, and perhaps most provocative, he argues that American democracy should be replaced by what he calls a “monarchy” run by what he has called a “C.E.O.” — basically his friendlier term for a dictator.”)

While the fears are very understandable, what’s missing is that “JD Vance” doesn’t come remotely close to having the devout cult-like loyalty of Trump.  It’s not certain that he has the loyalty of a fireplug.  During the 2020 campaign, he ranked at the bottom of likeability among all four candidates on the Democratic and Republican tickets.  He was famously mocked for when his campaign staff tried to make him more human (just think about that), they sent their country boy from “Appalachia” into a doughnut shop that resulted in a video so painfully awkward in his inability to make small talk with the servers or just order an apple fritter that the whole effort only worsened things.  The other day, when trying to explain his position on negotiating peace with Iran, he went into some bizarre analogy about a pact he had with his wife where he wouldn’t let her skydive out of an airplane. 
 
Add to this that if “JD Vance” ever did become the fill-in president, his own party is full of senators and governors who’d love to be the MAGOP nominee in 2028 and would be more than happy to see him fail in office.  While knowing that they could oppose him on issue without concern that his call for a primary challenge to them would have no impact.
 
How much loyalty and support does this empty bucket without a moral center have?  On Tuesday, “Vance” spoke at the Turning Point USA convention, one of the premier events for conservatives.  This was the turnout he got --

​No, that’s not an optical illusion.  For the vice president of the United States at a top conservative convention, that’s about only 25% of the arena who were there in attendance.  Though an optimist might say it’s 100% of a quarter of the arena.
 
​Or a realist would say, that's what results when you have no moral center.