You Don't Get The Ladder
All prominent conservatives. All given opportunities.
All more than happy to deny those opportunities to others.
This is the modern Republican Party. It is a party built on the idea of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps but then not giving a shit about the next guy. It's a whole lot of how rugged individualism works for me but not for thee.
It has to be this way. Because if Republicans admit that more than one person needs help, then that is acknowledging that the system is somehow unfair. And if the system is unfair then there needs to be a way to fix it. But if folks like Trump, Thomas, and Vance get theirs and then refuse to help others like them, they get to smile and say, "It's not my fault other people can't be where I am."
What truly marks the modern conservative movement is an utter lack of empathy for those born outside the majority. Project 2025 makes this painfully clear. Today's GOP sees women, people of color, immigrants, non-Christians, and transgender individuals as somehow less than their White, Christian, cis-gender male counterparts. They refuse to recognize that White privilege is a thing and that White men have had a four centuries' head start on the field. Call them out on this, and they get defensive. They revert back to their false belief that it was their work ethic alone that led to their station in life. Ask them to help the next guy and they'll laugh in your face.
In this regard, JD Vance is a perfect vice-presidential selection.
Because like Trump and Thomas, Vance doesn't care about those who follow in his footsteps. For those who read or saw Hillbilly Elegy, we know his story. Growing up in Middletown, Ohio but with extended family in rural Kentucky, Vance saw mom struggle with addiction and eventually had to move in with his grandparents. Like many coming from his socioeconomic class, Vance joined the military. To his credit, he did work hard. He earned his way to Ohio State and later Yale Law School. Vance even went so far as to start a nonprofit called Our Ohio Renewal which aimed to address the critical issues that he felt impacted the region. But the nonprofit shut its doors in less than two years. Rather than try again, Vance turned to the investment world where he would work at a firm started by AOL's founder Steve Case and later on by one led by billionaire conservative Peter Thiel. Vance and his wife moved to San Francisco and willingly became what they were told they should hate: coastal elitists. After raising tens of millions of dollars for Thiel, Vance wanted something more: he wanted the power and prestige that comes with being a United States Senator.
Money talks. Trump knows this. So does Clarence Thomas with his sugar daddy Harlan Crow. And so does J.D. Vance, who willingly sold his soul to become the new Republican vice-presidential nominee. Three men who were presented with undeniable opportunities to do some good in the world. Trump with hundreds of millions of dollars of his father's money. Thomas with a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court to enact laws that will impact future generations. Vance as a bestselling author and CNN contributor who was drawing attention to a region steeped in rural poverty and drug addiction. The world was their oyster. They could have done so much good in the world.
But they didn't. Because modern conservatism isn't built that way. It's built to help maintain rather than challenge the status quo. In this way, JD Vance is the perfect vice-presidential pick. He is a true hypocrite in every way. He hates immigrants but is married to the daughter of immigrants. He hates coastal elites but was one himself. He talks about family values but abandoned his mom with his sister while he trodded off to an Ivy League law school. Vance overcame a troubled upbringing for sure. But when he had a chance to give back, truly give back to help others who had grown up like him, Vance threw in the towel and ran to the nearest billionaire he could find. In that way, he is very much an ideal vice-presidential candidate.
And in that way, he represents everything despicable about the modern conservative movement.
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