Know Your Enemy - What's Wrong with J.D. Vance?

Matt and Sam revisit Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance's 2016 memoir, to try to understand the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee.

Duration: 1h 28m
Broadcast on: 10 Aug 2024
Audio Format: other

In this episode, your co-hosts take a harrowing journey into the life, mind, and times of J.D. Vance, the Republican senator from Ohio and current vice-presidential pick of Donald Trump. You probably were introduced to Vance as the author of Hillbilly Elegy, his 2016 memoir that attempts to explain the plight of the "white working class" in places like Kentucky and Ohio, and now know him as the deranged post-liberal purveyor of insults to single women, lies about Joe Biden targeting MAGA voters with fentanyl to thin their ranks, and deranged comments about the 2020 election and Jan. 6. In short, how did Vance become so weird—and menacing? We try to answer that question by starting with a close reading of Hillbilly Elegy, and then take listeners from the end of that book through the transformations that made Vance Trump's toadie-in-chief.

Sources:

J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (2016)

— "How I Joined the Resistance: On Mamaw and Becoming Catholic," The Lamp, April 1, 2020

Glenn Kessler, "J.D. Vance’s Claim That Biden is Targeting ‘MAGA voters’ with Fentanyl," Washington Post, May 11, 2022

Colby Itkowitz, Beth Reinhard and Clara Ence Morse, "In Vance, Trump Finds a Kindred Spirit on Election Denial and Jan. 6," Washington Post, July 17, 2024

Ian Ward, "The Seven Thinkers and Groups That Have Shaped JD Vance’s Unusual Worldview," Politico, July 18, 2024

Simon Van Zuylan-Wood, “The Radicalization of J.D. Vance,” Washington Post, Jan 4, 2022

John Ganz, "The Meaning of JD Vance," Unpopular Front, Jul 16, 2024

Dorothy Thompson, “Who Goes Nazi?” Harper’s, Aug 1941.

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All right, welcome listeners to this very special episode of Know Your Enemy. I'm Matt Sitman, your podcast co-host, and I'm here as always with my great friend Sam other Bell. Hey, Sam. Hello, Matt. This is going to be a quick introduction. Our subject, our patient, I believe Sam, as you described early in the episode, is none other than the Republican vice presidential nominee and senator from Ohio, JD Vance. He needs no introduction. That's true. This is of this episode, I read Hillbilly Elegy for the first time, Matt read it for the second time, and we really tried to figure out what makes this guy tick. And I think that we did a good job in classic Know Your Enemy fashion, took him seriously and tried to understand how his biography and his psychology informs his political views. And I think you won't hear a conversation about JD Vance like this anywhere else. And ultimately, you're going to get to hear Matt tell you exactly why and how much he hates JD Vance. Yes, you might say in classic Know Your Enemy fashion, we gave the devil his due, but I'm not calling JD Vance the devil, but we gave a very bad man his due. All right, well, should we get some housekeeping items? Yes. As always, we're grateful to our partners at Descent. One thing they do for us is stand by our side when we're being sued. As we are being sued again now. Yes, but of course, beyond being sued with us for a second time now by the Young America's Foundation, one other thing Descent does for us is if you subscribe to Know Your Enemy on our Patreon page, patreon.com/ Know Your Enemy. For $10 a month, you get access to all of our bonus episodes and a free digital subscription to Descent. And of course, for $5 a month, you get access to all of our bonus episodes, which we've been doing a lot of and we'll be doing more of our patented rank punditry group therapy session, whoever you want to put it. We've been cranking out episodes and our paid supporters have been really excited about it, seemingly. Again, we're going to get through this election season together. So join us. Join us over in our little community on the Patreon page. I mean, there's not that much to say about it, but it is the case that we are being sued again by YAF and listeners, we appreciate your support at all times and we especially appreciate your support now when a massive right-wing organization is trying to shut us up. But we're going to keep talking. We are going to keep talking. That said, we also want to thank our intrepid producer, Jesse Brennan, now a father, back with a vengeance and as good as ever and we want to thank Will Epstein, who does the music for the podcast. All right. Shall we get to it? Yes. Let's do it.

Transcription truncated.

Matt and Sam revisit Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance's 2016 memoir, to try to understand the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee.