The coronation of King JD of Vance

It is not inevitable

In the spring of 2016, during the presidential primary season, I remember wearing my funny looking baseball hat with a slogan uttered previously by Presidents Reagan and Clinton: “Make America Great Again”. The hat was white, with blue stitching for the letters. At the time, there were no red hats.

My conservative friends were incredulous. “Are you serious about supporting Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination? He has donated to Democrat political candidates. Look at his wedding picture, very friendly with the Clintons. What is his background as a conservative? We have so many known conservatives running in this election, people with established conservative track records. Why take a chance on Trump?”

I replied that I respected many of the people running (Carson, Cruz, Huckabee, Rubio, Santorum for starters), and I would be happy to support any of them in the general election. However, I was intrigued by Trump’s platform and energy, so I thought I would give him my primary vote and see how things worked out.

The rest is history. Many people came around, and in retrospect, they were Trump fans all along, from the beginning - or so they say. There is nothing wrong with learning new information and changing your mind. So many people who were strongly opposed to Trump at the beginning of his term, including people who were skeptical about his political orientation, gained a lot of respect for him during his first term and became his enthusiastic supporters.

I would like to think I was ahead of the curve and saw Trump’s potential. I also see the potential of JD Vance: a potential disaster for the conservative movement.

Previously I have discussed JD Vance watching happily while his mentor Tucker Carlson burns down the Heritage Foundation and Turning Point USA. Vance’s open contempt for the Israeli government will not benefit America, if you believe in Genesis 12:3.

However, just as there is an irrational Trump Derangement Syndrome afflicting the left, there is also a Trump Worship Syndrome afflicting some parts of the right. Trump deserves a huge amount of credit for his incredible work on America’s behalf. He is truly working hard to restore the greatness of America I can remember from my childhood. But he is not perfect, and he is not above disagreement, particularly when it comes to relations with Qatar.

Those suffering from TWS get hysterical at the memory that anyone dared to run against Trump in 2024 (when Trump was no longer an incumbent president), and at the thought that anyone might challenge JD Vance in 2028. Presumably Vance is to be coronated as emperor-in-waiting, less than one year into the present administration.

Decent, talented, vigorous, accomplished people are cursed by the TWS crowd because they are potential candidates for president themselves, and they are not named Vance. Since when did our constitutional, federal, classically liberal, democratic republic become a monarchy?

Among the TWS right, there is a false belief in a transparently false equation that says: “Israel-supporter = Jewish = Neoconservative = Never-Trumper = Republican-in-name-only (RINO) = Potential-Vance-opponent”. All these phenomena are distinct, as we can see with real life examples.

I have not surrendered my right to think independently. I respect Senator Cruz (although there are questions about his eligibility). I respect Secretary Rubio too. Both of these men are brilliant.

My favorite candidate, however, is the most accomplished MAGA chief executive, the unflappable Governor DeSantis. His accomplishments are not measured by threatening tweets or even executive orders, but by actual laws. His victory in urban Miami-Dade county, at the same time he drove Florida strongly in a conservative direction, are incredible. He delivers laws driving the actual policies conservatives claim to support.

Vance lacks the record of accomplishment of DeSantis, Rubio, or Cruz. He is a deputy to President Trump. Vance wears his newly found religion on his sleeve, mainly as a weapon. He has gained a reputation for foul-mouthed hostility to anyone who gets in his way. If you say he learned that from his boss, well, Vance did not develop real estate in New York City for decades. He is an actor who will alienate independents in 2026 and 2028.

Some of Vance’s fans see him as the second coming of Pat Buchanan. Do you remember how Buchanan’s campaign worked out in 1992? I do. There was no President Pat Buchanan. Intriguingly, just a few years later in 2000, Buchanan ran for president again with a socialist candidate. Hm. Nationalism and socialism. Where have you heard that concept before…? If Vance is following in Buchanan’s footsteps, Republicans would be wise to avoid following Vance.