Theories abound about how J.D. Vance—once a promising Yale Law School graduate with a best-selling memoir—went MAGA. Some believe it’s a mistake to conflate the Vice President’s cosmopolitanism with intellectual sophistication, pointing out that “Hillbilly Elegy” is a terrible book that panders to the right’s ugly stereotypes of its working-class families. Others see him as an empty shell who will do anything to gain money and power, as evidenced by his changing attitudes toward race and religion. The truth may well lie in the “why not do both?” arena. After all, empty and insecure people are often attracted to far-right ideologies.
But for a man who once called Donald Trump “American Hitler,” his “Great Again” transformation has an underappreciated possibility: He’s finally found an audience willing to laugh at his unfunny jokes.
Vance was clearly involved in a lifelong battle with the common problem of serious people who think they are geniuses. He longs to be the funniest person in the room, but he can’t understand how humor works. But the vice president discovered what the B-list talent who eventually became Fox News’ “comedy” relief learned long ago: Right-wing crowds don’t care if you’re funny, as long as you’re cruel.
Vance took advantage of MAGA’s lack of insight in the final weeks of the midterm elections. While supporting Republican Senate candidate and state Attorney General Ken Paxton in Texas, Vance responded to a fan: “I love you too, sir. And to be clear, in a completely platonic way. I’m the vice president, not James Talarico.” The audience erupted in laughter, apparently unaware, by calling Paxton’s Democratic opponent “faggot.”
The vice president kept making tired jokes about Talarico, who was leading in statewide polls. On the way to Texas, Vance falsely accused Talarico of having a “weird preoccupation with transgender children and drag queens,” topics that he and Trump brought up every chance they got. Vance added, “Typically people who say things like this tend to have some very unusual search histories.”
But Vance isn’t content with simply dabbling in homophobia and transphobia. Racism was also his strong suit. At a rally in North Carolina on Monday, he called non-white congresswomen “crazy” and mispronounced the name of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. When a protester stood up to demand that the Trump administration release Epstein’s documents, Vance, apparently noticing the young man’s darker skin, said the protester had come to the United States because of an “illegal crossing.”
At another event, Vance called Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Dr. Abdul-Sayed a “little weasel” who should “shut up and show a little gratitude.” This is not out of character for him. The Vice President often requires people of color to grovel before white people who graciously allow them to exist. But this time, he was scolded by the funnier El-Sayed, who responded that Vance had a cute little gathering with “five people who like him”.
But the vice president’s lack of wisdom was perhaps best demonstrated at a rally in support of Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio, when he suggested that Democratic candidate Dr. Amy Acton had a substance abuse problem. “I did promise Amy that I would meet her at the bar later. I know she’s interested in that sort of thing. “Vance said, pausing and laughing so hard that even the MAGA audience couldn’t laugh.
Vance’s insinuations can be traced to a Republican ad that portrayed Acton as an alcoholic after he called the police during a heated argument with her husband. The call was not violent, according to police reports, and her campaign claimed the situation was exaggerated. (Acton was also hit with insulting ads from her mother, Donna Arthur.) She and Donna Arthur were estranged from 1978 when Arthur accused her stepfather of molesting and raping her between the ages of nine and 12, and Arthur refused to support her. According to the New York Times, Acton’s anti-stepfather then filed for trial in the United States on the charges.
Vance’s litany of insults sounded especially hurtful because he had spent the summer portraying himself as a sincere Catholic convert whose salvation had filled him with a newfound sense of Christian grace.
Vance’s litany of insults sounded especially hurtful because he had spent the summer portraying himself as a sincere Catholic convert whose salvation had filled him with a newfound sense of Christian grace. The vice president published “Communion: Finding the Way Back to Faith” in June in an apparent effort to soft-launch his 2028 presidential campaign and went to great lengths to convince interviewers that they were seeing a humble servant of Jesus Christ.
Vance told USA Today that “my faith tells me to fight the blind pursuit of ambition” and instead “focus on the good” and “make wise decisions and moral decisions.” In an excerpt published by The Wall Street Journal, he wrote that he learned to “love all parts of our Christian community,” including those “who voted for me and those who didn’t.” He delivered this moderate Christian message on “The View,” deploring “stupid” insults in the past, such as his descriptions of childless women as “tragic,” “sociopaths” and “catwomen.” The host wasn’t having it, though, pointing out that there was no Christian communion in the administration’s attacks on black people and immigrants, and leaving a visibly uncomfortable vice president to pretend he had no idea what they were talking about.
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Vance may be able to get around his very un-Christian insults and lies about Democratic politicians by calling politics a “dirty business,” as he did in the Wall Street Journal. But it is impossible to reconcile his claims to grace and salvation with the abysmal attitude he inflicted on immigrants, most of whom were themselves Christians. He has yet to apologize for falsely accusing Haitian immigrants, most of whom, like him, are Catholic, of stealing people’s dogs and cats to eat. Shortly after publishing “Communion,” Vance blamed immigrants for making America “nastier, poorer, less safe, and less prosperous.” (This is also completely false, since immigration has been shown to boost the economy and the country is objectively cleaner than it was a few decades ago, when thick smog enveloped many American cities.)
Through it all, Vance seems to be hoping that the crowd that sees his “Christian charity” face isn’t the same crowd that yelled at his lame “non-gay” joke about the pious Talarico. This behavior was on display during his recent CBS town hall, where he put away his bad insult comedy and donned a choirboy mask. The dishonesty and hypocrisy reached extremely high levels when viewers, including a Catholic nun, questioned Vance’s support for mass deportations and his racist lies about immigrants.
“It’s not perfect in terms of my rhetoric, and that’s my responsibility,” Vance said, before framing the government’s widespread abuses as reasonable and even compassionate restrictions on immigration.
His comments came just hours after he falsely blamed the unrest in France on immigrants, saying on X that “liberals introduced the Third World to France and other countries” while “ignoring this.”[ing] Fundamental issues of assimilation and compatibility. “There is no doubt that if Vance was confronted with the issue he would deflect and deny it, but there is no way to interpret his words except by claiming that people of different backgrounds cannot live together without violence – something he often hinted at, but was never slowed down by the fact that his own wife and children were Indian-American.
That’s why—while Vance’s insults toward Democrats, immigrants, queer people, and single women are undeniably ugly—his humor rarely elicits the outrage that he clearly incites. Vance comes across more as a pathetic striver than an effective bully. If the would-be baker is confident, or at least has the ability to feign confidence, verbal attacks are much more effective. Whether he’s talking about love or hate, Vance never really seems to talk with any conviction other than the hope that whatever he says will win him more power.
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From Amanda Marcotte