JD Vance Was Never Meant To Be Just VP
Political pundits and voters alike were puzzled by former president Donald Trump’s choice of running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance. A congressional newcomer as a first-term senator starting in 2023, choosing Vance as the vice presidential nominee left many puzzled. By all accounts, Vance is relatively unpopular in his home state and has not had the time to garner political capital to help in the nearby Midwest swing states.
So, why is an unknown junior senator being put forth as the second-in-command of the United States?
The answer is that Vance was never meant to be just the vice president by the people behind his sudden rise.
Tech Bro Gospel
The most famous of those people has been eccentric billionaire Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, who contributed $15 million to Vance’s Senate run. The two met during Vance’s time in the venture capitalist world.
Vance and Thiel found common ground in their staunch religious beliefs, which has become the focal point of much of the criticism lobbed at the vice presidential nominee.
While being devoutly religious is certainly not something out of the ordinary in America, the lens through which it is applied by Vance can be seen as abnormal by many. Like Thiel, Vance is a follower of the philosophies put forth by software developer Curtis Yarvin.
Yarvin has become a popular figure in the tech pseudo-intellectual world, espousing disturbing views regarding those deemed unproductive. In the simplest terms, Yarvin essentially calls for the enslavement or elimination of those seen as inferior in a post-constitutional America.
Best described as a technocracy, Yarvin’s vision would leave the highly intellectual minds of the tech industry to run a quasi-monarchical society devoid of democracy.
Vance has been a vocal supporter of Yarvin’s ideologies and has been closely tied to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank responsible for one of the most disturbing political initiatives put forth in America’s history.
Neo-Fascism Instruction Manual
The now-infamous Project 2025 is essentially a 920-page handbook on how to overthrow a government from within.
The gist of the publication is that power over the executive branch of the government would be consolidated entirely under the direct control of the president. This would be accomplished by removing thousands of civil service workers and replacing them with politically appointed followers of the president. Dissenting voices would be all but purged from the government.
The end goal would be to take control of every department and agency in the executive branch to promote right-wing Christian ideologies and roll back any “liberal” policies such as basic birth control and religious freedom.
Envision The Handmaid’s Tale and you’re on the right track.
Vance has parroted many of the key points within the initiative and has been seen as many as the unofficial poster boy for the Project 2025 movement. He even wrote the foreword in an upcoming book by Project 2025’s architect, Kevin Roberts.
Vance’s disturbing view of how the country should be modeled moving forward is all the more harrowing when we take into account that he would be leading the far-right Christian nationalist charge behind the famously obtuse Donald Trump.
I Was Elected to Lead, Not to Read
According to countless former staffers and business associates, Trump is not a fan of reading. His aversion to words on paper is so severe that many pundits have half-joked that the former president may be functionally illiterate.
While I will be among the first to criticize Trump and his many, many shortcomings, I believe his disdain for reading can be attributed to something much simpler: he just doesn’t care.
Like many disappointed Americans in the post-2016 election world, I hoped that Trump would feel the true weight of the presidency once he entered the Oval Office and act accordingly.
In true Trump fashion, he quickly dashed those hopes and changed absolutely nothing about his attitude or demeanor. He drove the people from the National Archives insane as anything someone got him to read was promptly torn in half and thrown on the floor. He hissed at reporters in a cabinet meeting. He had every TV blaring Fox News at all hours and refused to do any meaningful work most days.
The presidency was little more than an ego-stroking, money-grabbing endeavor for Trump and the effects of his indifference and outright laziness are being felt even to this day, perhaps most notably in the judicial branch.
Kangaroo Courts Abound
In his never-ending quest to be worshipped by his supporters, Trump gave Senate Majority Leader Mitchell McConnell free rein to pack the federal court system with young, conservative Christian judges who will be ruling on matters of national importance for decades to come.
This was no more evident than the appointments of Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court during Trump’s presidency. The extreme rebalancing of the court directly led to the overturning of Roe v Wade, stripping federal protection to abortion access across the country.
The appointments of these Supreme Court justices and countless other judges were championed by the MAGA base as a victory for America and gave Trump the attention he so craves.
In truth, Trump probably couldn’t pick his Supreme Court justice choices out of a crowd if his life depended on it. The long-term effects be damned, he got the endorphin rush he needs to get through the day.
This is the man that JD Vance would be right behind in the line of succession for what would become a near-authoritarian position of power should the right-wing policies he supports come to reality.
The Useful Idiot
We know that should Trump regain the presidency, he intends to bring the full weight of his power down upon his enemies. By following the plans laid out in Project 2025, he would rid himself of anyone willing to stand in his way. The unchecked power that he longingly gushes about that Kim Jong Un and Viktor Orbán possess would finally be his.
Trump may be the one out front whipping up support from his base to get the GOP ticket elected, but he is not the intended leader once the movement is set in motion.
And that is the real political con game that is at play here.
While Vance bides his time in the vice presidency, he will help the Heritage Foundation and the new administration engorged with their sycophants implement the tenets of Project 2025. Trump, in his quest for more adoration from his fans, will happily pencil-whip any piece of legislation or executive order set before him. He would be rubber-stamping the end of American democracy.
Vance will then take over the reins and push the country deeper into a Christian, nationalist oligarchy where the self-appointed elites will rule with nearly absolute power.
This presidential race may have started with Trump and his attempts to stay out of prison, but it has morphed into something all the more insidious with the potential to significantly alter the course of the country.
The sudden departure of President Joe Biden from the presidential race has thrown these plans into disarray, with Vice President Kamala Harris putting many states back into play. Trump was cruising to an easy victory before the change in candidates with many voters simply not wanting a deteriorating Biden to continue.
The election is a toss-up at this point based on recent polling, with Trump’s cult of personality holding strong. Should Trump win, though, it may be a different cult in charge for the foreseeable future.
