Vance Is a Solid Choice

Those of us who desire the MAGA movement to endure after Trump can breathe easy with his choice of J.D. Vance for vice president. Most presidential campaigns try to keep the VP pick under wraps until the convention, though it was increasingly clear in the last couple of weeks that Trump was going to choose Vance. The fact that Secret Service agents secured Vance's residency after the assassination attempt on Trump sorta gave the secret away — though I wouldn't have put it past them to have gone to the wrong senator's house. And did they secure the shed in his backyard? Or was that outside their perimeter of responsibility?

I'll comment briefly about the other top contenders for whom some of my fellow conservatives were gung-ho:

DOUG BURGUM: Yes, a good, dependable conservative. But to those alleging that Vance doesn't bring a single new vote to the table, I ask: how many new votes would Burgum have brought? Is there an untapped group of fence-sitting octogenarians in a state that chose Trump last election by a 34-point margin that Trump needs to nudge a little further into his column? In an election where enough voices on both sides are saying the presidential candidates are too old, optics unfortunately do matter more than they should, and a Burgum VP pick would do nothing but cement this bias.

MARCO RUBIO: Nope. He originally ran for Senate as a Tea Party Republican … and then almost immediately threw his weight behind "comprehensive immigration reform," which everyone rightly understood as "mass amnesty now, window-dressing border enforcement later." There are stances Vance has taken that I disagree with, but they're largely peripheral and I'll get over it. But Rubio's support of an immigration policy that is indistinguishable from that of the Squad is politically unforgivable.

TIM SCOTT: Scott was my first choice. He wasn't chosen. Again, I'll get over it.

Over at Powerline, John Hinderaker calls Vance a "disappointing choice." He draws attention to Vance's "less than two years" experience in Washington, D.C., as if that's a bad thing. That's actually the point, John. Joe Biden has almost 50 years of this vaunted Washington experience. On Inauguration Day 2016, Trump had none. Who has proven to be the better president? Vance is attractive because he has the same outsider aura that Trump does. How many votes would another swamp careerist in the McCain/Cheney mold bring to a movement that instinctively distrusts such creatures?

Hinderaker also laments that Vance is "still evolving" on issues. Again, why is this a problem? Do we want a leader humble enough to learn from and change with the experiences of life that, ideally, evolve us all? Or do we want another Obama, someone who is always right about everything, everywhere, all the time? Someone who treated any honest disagreement with sneering contempt or barely concealed accusations of bigotry? Someone who once said he was a better speechwriter than his speechwriters, that he knew more about policy than his policy directors, and that he was a better political director than his political director?

Obama clearly felt he didn't need any more "evolving." This was a problem, considering that, before his election, he had precisely zero accomplishments other than skating through a privileged life bereft of any personal sacrifice, and he was propelled into the presidency on the sole factor of the color of his skin.

Vance was born into a mess of drug addiction, domestic abuse, and Appalachian squalor. By all odds, he should have long ago overdosed on meth in a two-lane bowling alley parking lot with a Mountain Dew in one hand and a losing lotto ticket in the other. Instead, he fought in Iraq, graduated from Yale, became a venture capitalist, and got elected to the Senate. If anyone figured it out on his own, it's Vance. That he has enough humility to "still evolve" is not a sign of weakness. It's a reflection of admirable character. When the Minnesota-based Hinderaker has "evolved" enough to turn his state red by backing a Jeb/Kinzinger ticket, I'll give his airs a little more credibility.

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I'm not so "evolved" as to think my stamp of approval is necessary, but in the event that it is ever sought, Vance has it. Should the Philly vote counters not stumble across a few million untallied Biden votes at 4:27 a.m. on Nov. 6, Vance will be our next vice president. And that will make him the de facto Republican nominee in 2028. He'll have four years of on-the-job training in which to "evolve."

Trump didn't choose him as a token nod to the country club types. Trump didn't choose him because he's a meek, anxiously nodding yes-man. Trump chose him because he's a young, bold outsider who has the opportunity to permanently cement the MAGA movement atop the ashes of a decrepit political party that, aside from President Reagan, Speaker Gingrich, and a few others, has done absolutely nothing in nearly a century other than to obstinately surrender to the Left.

Bravo, President Trump. Congrats, Senator Vance. Make us proud.