Trump is More Dangerous Because of JD Vance
When the 2024 Republican Primary began there was a common refrain amongst those who don’t like Donald Trump that one potential upside is at least he isn’t as competent as someone like say then assumed front runner Ron DeSantis.
The problem with that point of view, other than Ron DeSantis’s supreme unlikability, is that Ron DeSantis is not a true MAGA Republican. He was a Johnny Come Lately looking to cash in on the movement for his own political gain. JD Vance and some others of national prominence on the other hand are. Not that JD Vance isn’t self righteously trying to cash in for his own gain, he is, but somewhere along the way he became a genuine convert. If “MAGA but more competent” is ever to become a reality it will be on the back of the likes of JD Vance, the vice president elect.
There is a reason the only candidate who really gained any steam in the Republican primary also happened to be angling for a cabinet post more so than trying to actually unseat Donald Trump atop the ticket. None other than Vivek Ramaswamy. Republican voters know when somebody is selling them Republican Party pre-Trump with Trump characteristics versus the actual MAGA movement politics they so desperately crave. Picking JD Vance to begin with was an effort to double down on that craving.
Whether that leads to electoral success remains to be seen but it is more than just an effort to secure the 2024 election, choosing JD Vance was a move to secure the future of MAGA within the Republican Party. The story goes that Donald Trump Jr. convinced his dad to choose JD Vance as a sort of handpicked successor to the movement. Don Jr. was backed in this effort by the likes of Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and others.
The conventional wisdom has been that MAGA is a special by-product of Donald Trump and cannot be recreated. Maybe that is true, but JD Vance’s candidacy is an attempt to build beyond Donald Trump and create a genuine MAGA bench to continue the hostile takeover if Donald Trump is ever unable for some reason.
JD Vance was angling to fill just that role on the debate stage. More than anything that debate was JD Vance’s attempt, and successful at that, to save his career after flailing after being branded as weird and leaning into it at every opportunity. JD Vance came out cool, calm, and collected, he was cordial, and he sold the ticket in a way that Donald Trump could never. Win or lose, unless Donald Trump ends American elections for a while, JD Vance is likely here to stay and that debate was his first step on the road to 2028.
Now that JD Vance has been elected Vice President he will have at least 4 years of opportunities to plant himself as the post-Trump figurehead. Whatever Trump handing the baton looks like, if he hands it off at all, JD Vance has made himself the obvious choice. Trump picking him signaled Trump feels the same way. If there is someone depraved enough to weld billionaire friendly fiscal policy with the nationalist project of the America First crowd it is JD Vance.
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