by George Mcclellan
Suppose you read Hillbilly Elegy when it came out in 2016. Were you shocked that the memory of a poor boy from Ohio’s Appalachian area, hard up against the Ohio River, about J.D’s life, would become so compelling that even Ron Howard made a movie out of it? Who could possibly care about the poverty-stricken poor whites in Appalachia’s Rust Belt? The Ohio voters did, enough to make him one of their US senators.
JD, encouraged by his grandma, escaped the grip of a dying industrial America, a rust belt of growing joblessness, poverty, and hopelessness, first by joining the US Marine Corps and getting through it unscathed, realizing his intellectual potential driven by a desire to address the situation of the people of his region to get them out of the poverty they faced. He tried college and passed, then won a slot at Vale Law School, from which he graduated (No good recommendation these days, however) and was hired by a prestigious law firm before realizing the potential in his hands to make good on his dreams. He ran for and succeeded in becoming Ohio’s junior Senator. In his campaign, he was asked about Donald Trump, and he acknowledged while he was a conservative, he didn’t like Trump and was a “Never Trumper.” During this 2021 campaign to become a senator from Ohio, he realized that Trump wanted precisely what he was campaigning for, and he changed freely, admitting he is a pro-Trump conservative. Vance took his place in the Senate chamber while Trump was battling off the slings and arrows of evil Democrat-Socialists, fearing their agenda could be in peril. He was ignored. The notoriety of his authorship of Hillbilly Elegy quickly saw him as a public face dispensing the common sense conservative economic ideas that could lift the poor to higher levels of prosperity. His political views were solicited, and his opinions, based upon what he wrote as a ‘redneck’ author who climbed out of the pit of “poor working-class Americans,” was compelling, even earth-shaking. No politician or political commentator in our modern times has ever earnestly solicited the opinion of an apparent ‘nobody’ who they thought rose above the horizon line, even for a short time, wouldn’t last, to make waves against the socialist establishment and succeed! So, here he is today, standing on the platform of the Republican National Convention, next to Donald Trump as the anointed heir apparent of the New Republican Party. How did he get here?
I suspect perseverance was the key, not intending to become a Vice President but altering the political scenery to return America to its inherent republican roots of constitutional conservatism. His elevation to be Trump’s successor was earth-shaking. The GOP has a deep and growing cadre of capable politicians, any one of whom could have been selected. Trump’s decision to choose a young JD Vance shines a warning light on the NeoCons in the GOP and the socialists on the Left; they have a fight coming. For them, get up, get with it, or get out!
Imagine the dichotomy, the two of them standing on that platform, an ultra-rich billionaire former president with a patch on his right ear and a once poor but growingly successful redneck hillbilly senator, coming together to save America. What brought them together? It was in the Ohio senatorial debate when Vance was the only candidate on stage to disagree with the proposition that NATO should enforce a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine because, he said, having US military aviators engaged in direct combat with Russians was “not in our vital national interest.” Vance’s political stature was enhanced when he became Ohio’s US senator, his public positions melding favorably with Trump’s vision to return the Republican Party to its original conservative republicanism fundamentally. It’s the “new right” of national conservatism where Trump has taken us; he expects to make America Great Again with Vance’s help. It will be young Vance’s job to continue the fight because evil never dies. This is a Cinderella story again. It’s got to have a happy ending. Perhaps it will, but in the meantime, we will face severe trials and tribulations before it’s over.
Remember, freedom is the goal; the Constitution is the way. Now, get involved.
Help save America.
Contact: gemcclellan@ellijay.com or suaus1961@gmail.com for interviews.
