Something Inside Vance is Broken -- And Yet, He Can't Stop Talking
SAN DIEGO -- Never mind Kansas. What's the matter with JD Vance?
That's a question that I suspect many Americans are wrestling with right now. Just about every time the vice president opens his mouth, he can't help but stick both feet in.
Vance has no filter, empathy or tact. He spits out whatever pops into his head, and it usually lands with a thud. Every time he clumsily grabs hold of a sensitive issue, he makes enemies, creates storms, and becomes unlikable -- even to fellow Republicans.
The boss is the same way. But there's a difference. Trump -- a master performer who knows that politics is mostly about performance -- has world-class social skills. Vance has none.
The 41-year-old is not a guy you want to have a beer with. He's the guy in whose face you want to throw a beer, after he says something insulting, condescending or offensive.
There was the time, in 2016, before Vance entered politics, when he described Trump as "reprehensible" with the potential to become "America's Hitler." And when, as a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2021, he said that "childless cat ladies" were driving the Democratic Party's agenda. And when he said liberals thought drinking "diet Mountain Dew" was racist. And when he argued that a Texas anti-abortion law need not include exceptions for rape and incest, which he called "circumstances" that were "inconvenient." And when, in 2024, as Trump's running mate, he brushed off a white comedian's racist joke about Puerto Rico by saying, "We have to stop getting so offended at every little thing." And when, in 2025, as vice president, he told the attendees of a convention for Turning Point USA that "you don't have to apologize for being white anymore." And when he insisted that it's "totally reasonable and acceptable" for Americans to not want to live next to people who come from "a totally different culture." And when he downplayed as "pearl clutching" the outrage over a group chat by young Republicans that included racist language, jokes about rape and flippant remarks about gas chambers.
I'm not going to list all the times that Vance has said the wrong thing. That's not my job. Besides, it's probably easier to count the relatively few times that he has managed to say the right thing.
Recently, in an egregious example of Vance-speak, the vice president scolded America's best ally in the Middle East as if he were a parent chastising a petulant child.
He went after Israeli critics of the U.S.-Iran agreement intended to temporarily pause the fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Vance told them to "wake up and smell the reality of the situation." He also told them that they "can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have. If the Israelis don't like the current deal, he said, they ought to propose something else.
Finally, Vance said that, if he were in the Israeli government, he "might not be attacking the only powerful ally" the country has left. He also described Trump as "the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time."
Where to begin? Vance's comments were condescending, presumptuous and wildly inappropriate. Israel is on the frontlines of what should be a global effort to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, while Vance is safe in Washington. Besides, how is Israel supposed to come up with something better when it was excluded from the talks, and now is expected to adhere to an agreement it never signed? Finally, Israel doesn't need sympathy. It needs a partner that treats it with respect.
Because the Yale Law School graduate and bestselling author seemed to understand white people who struggle, Vance was marketed to voters as a kind of idiot savant. He delivered on the first part.
Politics isn't a spelling bee where the prize goes to the smartest kid in the class, even if all the other kids hate him. Politics is about being able to communicate effectively and connect with everyday folks.
In order to do that, it's essential that a candidate for office actually likes people. I'm not convinced that Vance likes all that many people. Instead, I think he still seethes with rage and class envy because he grew up poor and was abandoned by a mother who was an addict. Due to his childhood trauma, there is something broken in him.
We'll see if he can get it fixed by 2028.
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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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