If I saw JD Vance on the street, I wouldn’t cower. I wouldn’t avert my eyes, and I certainly wouldn’t step out of his way. But rest assured, I am afraid of Vance.
Like it or not, this is the truth: Donald Trump’s mental state is declining, as evidenced by his increasingly incoherent rally speeches and strange behavioral patterns—such as his impromptu 30-minute “dance” break in Philadelphia. He has been teetering on the edge of coherency for years, but his mental state in the past couple of months has proven especially dire.
I never liked Trump, but I also never doubted his ability to serve a term as president. That’s what made Trump scary; during his 2016 campaign, it really seemed as though he would make good on his promises to make detrimental changes to the United States—just as he went on to do.
This year, for the first time, I am doubting Trump’s cognitive and physical ability to serve another four years as president. He would be our oldest-ever sitting president, and if Joe Biden is anything to go by, that’s not a record we want to break. This is where Vance comes in. Trump is a Trojan horse, and when he becomes too senile and incoherent to form an argument, who is next to step in? Vance.
Vance is waiting in the wings, eagerly anticipating a chance to demonstrate his leadership prowess. When Trump finally steps out of the political limelight, MAGA will flounder without direction, clamoring to find a sufficient replacement to rally behind. From those ruins, Vance hopes to emerge glorious, rising like a phoenix from the ashes through the ranks of the MAGA party to inherit the role as their fearless leader.
Vance does not care if Trump wins the election. Sure, he’d love a chance to try his hand as vice president, but his ultimate goal in sharing the ballot with Trump is his own prospective presidential campaign. When Vance stepped up to the podium at the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate against Tim Walz, he was not stating his case as a political sidekick: he was kicking off his own campaign.
And he did a good job. He didn’t come out swinging like other conservative candidates of the past—he came to the stage prepared for a civil debate, well-spoken, well-argued, and far more reasonable than he is at his own rallies. At least, that’s what he wants you to think. And if the public reaction to the debate is any indication, he succeeded.
Several media outlets, including The Beacon, lauded the debate as “cordial” and “civil,” praising Vance’s ability to listen to his opponent and respond without personal attacks—the bare minimum. But the bare minimum, especially in comparison with Trump’s poor debate performance, was enough. Vance’s performance impressed many and established his place as a legitimate political candidate.
That is precisely what terrifies me about Vance. The policies he argued for during the debate are not normal and not the incredibly civil, reasonable things people believed him to be saying. Vance’s policies are extremist: there’s no doubt about it. One notable example is his support of blocking women from traveling to receive abortions. In practice, women would be forced to prove that they are not pregnant to be able to travel, thereby limiting access to transportation to women—a law that, of course, would not affect men.
Vance’s ability to take extremist conservative ideas and policies and warp them into something palatable to wide audiences is deeply concerning. The MAGA agenda is not the civil and dependable list of policies Vance wants you to think it is.
According to a New York Times survey, the primary concern of undecided voters with Trump is overwhelmingly his personality and behavior. This is alarming, because if these voters have no issues with Trump’s policies, then Vance’s ability to take Trump’s policies and make them appear ordinary could win over this group of voters.
An ultra-conservative president like Trump is scary, but an ultra-conservative president who can alienate half of the country and pass it off as normal is even scarier yet. Trump is not all there; Vance is present and dynamic, with an elite education and perfectly healthy mental capacity to back him up, and still supports the implementation of an extremist and oppressive agenda—that is what I find scary.
Win or lose, this election will not be the end of Vance. Win or lose, I implore you to not write him off. Sure, he’s weird, sure, he’s strange, but he’s also a man with a significant amount of political power, a penchant for lying and half-truths—often to the detriment of marginalized communities—and a thirst for control that will put the freedoms of many Americans at risk should he ever become president.
