Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance

[g5000]

Funny how the critics hated this movie, but audiences loved it. I thought it was pretty good, but wanted to see more about JD’s military experience. All in all a solid flick.

Vance's wiki page says he was a Marine correspondent. So not really a warrior.

The highest award listed on his wiki page is the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal which is pretty small potatoes.

That's probably why he doesn't talk much about his military career.

 

[Billo_Really]

A best seller I'm told but I never read it. Vance is the current republican nominee for V.P.

Now he's trying to be the average hick?

 

[g5000]

Now he's trying to be the average hick?

Vance is an opportunist. He saw Trump for exactly what he is, but chucked his principles out the window for a shot at political power.

It is positively paranormal the way Trump is able to get groveling politicians to chuck their beliefs, both moral and political, right out the window and submit themselves to him.

Those who don't are banished.

This is getting biblical.

 

[marvin martian]

A best seller I'm told but I never read it. Vance is the current republican nominee for V.P.

You should read it. It will give you a distinct advantage over all the lefty mouth-breathers who believe JD Vance wrote about having sex with a couch in that book because someone on MSNBC told them so.

 

[Billo_Really]

Vance is an opportunist. He saw Trump for exactly what he is, but chucked his principles out the window for a shot at political power.

It is positively paranormal the way Trump is able to get groveling politicians to chuck their beliefs, both moral and political, right out the window and submit themselves to him.

Those who don't are banished.

This is getting biblical.

Trump has to be the greatest grifter of all time!

 

[g5000]

Trump has to be the greatest grifter of all time!

He has a genius for sniffing out the weak-minded and the vulnerable. He has a gift for telling them exactly what they want to hear.

But the key factor of his success is the total lack of a conscience. He is a predator.

As with all con artists (psychics, mediums, telemarketers, grifters, etc) all the hard work is done in the minds of the rubes.

The desire to believe is one of the most powerful forces in nature.

 

[g5000]

Trump's success is due in no small part to the condescending and disconnected attitude of the "elites" who he attacks.

Never mind Trump is one of those elites.

The American people have been getting ripped off for a very long time. They can feel it. They just don't know how or who is ripping them off. But they can feel it in their bones.

And that is where demagogues find their niche. "I'll tell you who is robbing you. It's those (fill in the blank)."

Jews, Mexicans, socialists, elites, whatever.

I can't blame people for wanting to tear the whole system down and start over. But sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.

We need targeted medicine, not radical amputations of all our limbs.

I would not mind if we got rid of every federal elected official and replaced them. They are the source of the rot.

But at the same time, we can't have newbies making decisions about very complicated matters.

What to do...what to do...

If at the end of the Trump era we have a body politic which heeds the voice of the people, then maybe this was all worth it.

But I see no sign of that. If anything, the GOP is less responsive to the American people than ever before.

Fearing and heeding the torch-bearing mob is not the same thing as listening to the American people.

Vance seemed to understand this back when he wrote his elegy. Now he's throwing matches.