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After former President Donald Trump announced that Ohio Senator JD Vance would be his running mate, journalists and media outlets immediately tried to brand the 39-year-old senator as an isolationist. But the charge of isolationism against Vance is a canard; it fails to capture the nuances of Vance’s foreign policy and the deeply rooted convictions. Far from being an isolationist, Vance is an advocate of a pragmatic prioritization of American interests, starting at home and spreading across the world, that reflect the concerns of the average American — concerns he knows all too well.
Vance chronicled his upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, a once-thriving industrial town that has faced economic decline, in his 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy. Where Vance grew up, poverty was “the family tradition” and alcoholism and drug abuse were rampant, both in his family and across the broader community.
Growing up in the Rustbelt, Vance came to see, firsthand, how the spread of globalization and shifting economic landscapes left many working-class communities behind. For residents of these areas, there is a strong disconnect between their daily struggles and, say, the federal government’s international expenditures. Billions of dollars in foreign aid and military interventions abroad are difficult to reconcile with local job losses, decaying infrastructure and the opioid crisis. Resentment starts to build.
Take, for example, a recent tragedy in his own state of Ohio. Early last year, a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, releasing toxic chemicals into the community. The derailment ravaged the town, and its residents are still reeling from the noxious effects of the chemicals released by the derailment.
Yet despite such a terrible, devastating disaster, President Biden did not visit the Ohio town until nearly a year after the derailment. While Americans were suffering in Ohio, the President was sending billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine in support of their war effort against Russia. Many Americans are frustrated with this disconnect; they want a government that looks inwards before it looks outwards. In JD Vance, they have found their greatest advocate.
Continued below.
www.christianpost.com
Vance chronicled his upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, a once-thriving industrial town that has faced economic decline, in his 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy. Where Vance grew up, poverty was “the family tradition” and alcoholism and drug abuse were rampant, both in his family and across the broader community.
Growing up in the Rustbelt, Vance came to see, firsthand, how the spread of globalization and shifting economic landscapes left many working-class communities behind. For residents of these areas, there is a strong disconnect between their daily struggles and, say, the federal government’s international expenditures. Billions of dollars in foreign aid and military interventions abroad are difficult to reconcile with local job losses, decaying infrastructure and the opioid crisis. Resentment starts to build.
Take, for example, a recent tragedy in his own state of Ohio. Early last year, a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, releasing toxic chemicals into the community. The derailment ravaged the town, and its residents are still reeling from the noxious effects of the chemicals released by the derailment.
Yet despite such a terrible, devastating disaster, President Biden did not visit the Ohio town until nearly a year after the derailment. While Americans were suffering in Ohio, the President was sending billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine in support of their war effort against Russia. Many Americans are frustrated with this disconnect; they want a government that looks inwards before it looks outwards. In JD Vance, they have found their greatest advocate.
Continued below.
JD Vance: Isolationist or rustbelt advocate?
As we near one of the most consequential elections of modern US history, JD Vance reminds us that true greatness begins at home
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