JD Vance wrestles with the semi-permanence of social media statements

lizkat

Watching March roll out real winter
Posts
7,341
Reaction score
15,163
Location
Catskill Mountains
It's one thing to write a book... and another to tweet about politics before deciding to try to cash in a writer's fame for a Senate seat.


J.D. Vance, the bestselling author and a Republican Senate hopeful, said on Monday that he regretted his since-deleted Twitter posts that criticized Donald Trump, amid accusations of flip-flopping as he vies for a seat in Ohio.

Vance, the author of the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” launched his campaign last week. He has come under fire for deleting tweets from 2016 that were unearthed by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski — including one in which he said he was voting for Evan McMullin, and another calling Trump “reprehensible” because of his views toward “Immigrants, Muslims, etc.”

A recent Daily Beast column ran with the headline “Hypocrite's Elegy: J.D. Vance Is an Avatar of GOP Corruption,“ and Democrat Tim Ryan, who is vying for the Ohio Senate seat, tweeted: “.@JDVance1 and I have exactly one thing in common — neither of us voted for Donald Trump.“

Now, as he runs for office, Vance has shifted toward a pro-Trump position, recently visiting the former president in Florida in hopes of earning his endorsement. He told Fox News on Monday that he hoped people wouldn’t judge him for his past remarks, which he then walked back.


Yeah, well. The thing is, Mr. Vance, walking stuff back from social media is a sometime sorta thing. Even Trump is stuck with his Twitter archive, and anyway just deleting tweets never deals with those confounded rascals who have mastered the art of screen captures, eh?

 social media pancakes.jpg

 

SuperMatt

Site Master
Posts
7,862
Reaction score
15,004
It's one thing to write a book... and another to tweet about politics before deciding to try to cash in a writer's fame for a Senate seat.







Yeah, well. The thing is, Mr. Vance, walking stuff back from social media is a sometime sorta thing. Even Trump is stuck with his Twitter archive, and anyway just deleting tweets never deals with those confounded rascals who have mastered the art of screen captures, eh?


How messed up is the right-wing? Having a conscience and standing against racism is basically an automatic disqualification if you want to run as a Republican.
 

lizkat

Watching March roll out real winter
Posts
7,341
Reaction score
15,163
Location
Catskill Mountains
Vance even admits he flip flopped on Trump, and why not, since there's no way to erase the interwebz' memory of Vance's prior anti-Trump tweets, but what I don't get is why he (and a lot of earlier come-to-Trump-as-GOP-Jesus voters and now candidates as well) actually think the Trump-headed GOP has any serious policy on offer. All they seem to want to do is tear down the federal government's capabilities to serve the people, even while averting eyes from that government'sw ongoing tendency to serve those with already deep pockets in industry and at the top of our wealth and income tiers.

Anyway the 36-yo Vance is all over the map on policy in a Time mag interview. And c'mon, it's hard to claim populist cred when your former boss (venture capitalist Peter Thiel) has seeded a $10M PAC for your Senate campaign VC dudes are a lot of things but their goal is always a bottom line that their investors will like.

So Ohio voters of ordinary means should ask themselves "Uh... what's in this guy's path forward for me?"


Vance has long since exited the hillbilly class, sampled more rarified strata of the USA population including the Marines and Yale University, and a day job in venture capitalism and getting published onto best seller lists... and like Trump himself, Vance has a dubious grip on the nuts and bolts and the feasibility (political will to implement) policies that would serve the real needs of people who don't currently see a path forward for themselves or their kids in the results of USA policy.

He sounds far more vested in converting down-the-bar Friday night venting sessions about immigration and trade into stump speeches during his primary race. After his climb out of poverty into the clouds, trying to pitch himself as still a guy from the hills and hollers might be a tough act to pull off. And the good ol' boy pitch is not going to fly well with suburban women anyway. He could even end up being a drag on the Rs' ticket if he wins the primary

Trump had claimed he alone could "fix it", and left plenty messes behind, along with some stuff checked off the establishment Republicans' laundry lists that benefit only the top crust in the USA. One wonders how sensible it can still be or remain, and for how long, for other pols to keep dropping Trump's name and seeking his support (even reluctantly and if having to flip-flip to do it the way J.D. Vance is doing). Pols should keep in mind that Trump is only ever into anything anyway if he sees something in it for himself... that hasn't changed just because The Don now sees himself as a president in exile.
 
Top Bottom
1 2