J.D. Vance’s Populist Pitch

When J.D. Vance addressed the Republican National Convention Wednesday night, he wasn’t just introducing himself to the nation. He was selling a political ideology. To that end, Vance chronicled his hardscrabble upbringing to champion the core tenets of Trumpism.

In a 35-minute speech, Vance recounted his childhood in Appalachia, surrounded by societal and economic decay. In Middleton, Ohio, he was raised by his grandmother “Mamaw” as his mother struggled with addiction. It was a place, he said, that had been “cast aside and forgotten by America’s ruling class in Washington.” After providing his own narrative biography, Vance offered a vision for rescuing the U.S from inexorable decline: protectionist trade agreements, restrictionist immigration policies, and a withdrawal from overseas entanglements.