JD Vance was the main speaker July 17, 2024, at the Republican National Convention. As Donald Trump’s choice to be his vice-presidential running mate, Vance had much to share. But as some commentators noted, he opted for biography rather than policy.
Perhaps his best lines highlighted the age difference between Vance, 39, and President Joe Biden, 81. “When I was in fourth grade, Joe Biden was supporting NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). When I was a sophomore in high school, Joe Biden supported a sweetheart trade deal with China. And when I was a senior in high school, Joe Biden supported the War in Iraq.”
Biden and his ilk “sent our jobs overseas and our children to war,” Vance said.
So, who is JD Vance?
KnoxTNToday archives turn up two articles about Vance, both by Betty Bean and both plays on the name of his memoir: Hillbilly Elegy.”
Eulogy for an elegy
Bean attempted a book review on December 17, 2020: “Eulogy for an elegy, but questions remain.” This column compares Vance’s book with the movie (directed by Ron Howard). Note the date: one month after Joe Biden won the presidential election but before the shenanigans of January 6, 2021.
Bean’s conclusion: “I predict that J.D. Vance won’t be as willing an advocate for Trumpism in the days ahead, and that I wasted $27.99.”
Most of us were not predicting the second coming of DJT in December 2020. And Bean was right on that part about wasting $27.99.
Nutbush city limits
Bean returned on July 22, 2022, with “Eulogy for an elegy of an elegy.”
She noted Donald Trump carried every Tennessee county except Shelby, Davidson and Haywood. Two big, diverse metropolitan counties going Democratic is no surprise, she wrote, but what about little bitty rural Haywood? She looked it up – it’s just west of Jackson and boasts three small towns, the only one of which she had ever heard is Nutbush, hometown of Tina Turner, memorialized in an early Tina Turner song:
A church house, gin house
A school house, outhouse
On Highway Number Nineteen
The people keep the city clean
They call it Nutbush
Oh, Nutbush
Call it Nutbush city limits
The latest census pegged Haywood County at 50.6% Black.
Say what?
- Audible gasp at the convention when JD Vance’s wife, Usha, said she’s vegetarian.
- Peter Navarro came straight from prison to speak.
- Steve Bannon remains in prison for refusing a congressional subpoena
- Rudy Giuliani fell off a platform into a bunch of chairs.
- And delegates are showing solidarity with Trump by wearing a square white bandage on their right ear.
I can hardly wait until tonight’s finale.
Sandra Clark, recovering Republican, is founder of Knox TN Today.