You’ve doubtless heard that J.D. (or JD) Vance is this, that, the other.
Many have placed him in a box of sorts, where opinions of the man can remain safely unaltered. All the more reason for those who’ve simplified this complex gent to read his “Hillbilly Elegy.” Forget sticking just with the Netflix film or internet feedback, now biased (when earlier, reviewers at the New Yorker, Boston Globe et al.
were fulsome about the book when it came out in 2016). Try to avoid being put off by odd statements Vance has made in the current campaign re women and family. Growing up in chaotic fashion, this is a man who longed for a normal family atmosphere, so cut him a break for being a bit “square” on that score.
By reading his remarkable book, you should emerge with a more nuanced view of a highly unusual person. Who unfortunately isn’t made for sound bite answers to complex policy questions (his opposite number, Mr. Walz, much moreso).
Those who read Vance’s tome will surely find that he’s anything but proverbial. From this marvelous memoir he turns out to be strong yet soft, bitter at times (from his difficult past), yet sensitive and caring, confidently successful, but vulnerable, too. His book delivers the real person on a plate, one with refreshingly ambivalent views on the welfare state (buoyed up by his Appalachian past), and much else.
A dogmatist, as some might have thought? No way...
By contrast, smooth Kamala and smooth Tim, despite hiding it, are more rigi.
