I’ve never interviewed J.D. Vance, and my chances of doing so in the future are extremely slim. If I did, however, it would run something like this:
C: Thank you for your time.
V: No problem. I always look forward to owning members of the liberal establishment.
C: You’re the one who went to an Ivy League school, not me.
V: You’re the liberal, not me. What do you want to discuss?
C: I want to see how you reconcile what I think are contradictory ways of thinking.
V: OK. Go ahead.
C: I think it’s clear that you have two mentors of a sort–Peter Thiel and Donald Trump. You worked for Thiel, received aid from him during your campaign, and consider him a friend. Trump’s influence on you is obvious.
V: Wouldn’t disagree with that.
C: Thiel is what I would call a conservative libertarian. He looks forward, not back. He thinks that America would be much improved if we took all of the tax and regulatory shackles off of people like him and let them run the country. His ideal America is a sort of techno-aristocracy. Trump, on the other hand, is a reactionary. He wants the economy of the 1950s, with lots of steelworkers and coal miners. He wants jobs for burly men who bring home the bacon for compliant housewives. And he thinks only he can speak for real America. He doesn’t believe in an aristocracy.
V: I’m not sure I completely agree with those descriptions, but they’re largely accurate. What’s your point?
C: They represent mutually exclusive visions for America. How do you reconcile them?
V: It’s only a problem in the long run. Thiel and Trump both think America as it exists today needs to be completely changed. They agree on burning it down. We’ll deal with what happens afterwards when we get there.
C: Which side are you on?
V: I’ll worry about that when we get there.
C: So you either don’t know or won’t say. My next question is about labor and capital. Like many members of the center-left, I would argue that the McConnell version of the Republican Party existed to transfer money and power from workers and government to judges and capitalists. He used the filibuster, conservative judges, and gerrymanders to accomplish this. He got workers to vote against their self-interest by feeding them social conservatism. What’s your reaction to that?
V: I don’t identify with McConnell. I think his version of the GOP is dead as a doornail. I support workers, not woke bosses.
C: But what have you actually done to support labor, besides showing up on a picket line on one occasion? Do you oppose the Trump tax cuts?
V: No.
C: Will you vote to reauthorize the tax cuts for the wealthy?
V: I don’t believe in tax increases.
C: Do you support legislation and rules strengthening organized labor/
V: Too much of organized labor supports Democrats. So, no.
C: Do you have any plans to cut taxes just for working people?
V: Not yet.
C: You don’t actually do anything for workers, but you’re big on attacking wokeness. That sounds exactly like McConnell.
V: I put workers first, not bosses. And you haven’t figured out my plan to help them.
C: Which is?
V: Tariffs and the deportation of illegal immigrants will create labor shortages, which will drive up wages faster than anything a union can accomplish.
C: It will also result in inflation. I thought your party hated inflation.
V: Only when we can blame the Democrats for it. It’s like the deficit. I know there will be some pain in the short run, but it will be worth it.
C: The tariffs will crush the forward-looking and prosperous part of the American economy. That sounds reactionary to me.
V: We’ll support the economy of the future with income tax cuts, subsidies for businesses who support our program. and deregulation.
C: Last question–you sometimes say that culture wars are class war. What do you mean by that?
V: Look at the people who hold left-wing culture war beliefs. They’re all part of the coastal elite. They’re the problem with our country.
C: So, in your view, workers and incredibly rich businessmen are on the same side, fighting a class war against highly-educated doctors and teachers and scientists?
V: Exactly!
C: How do the doctors and teachers and scientists keep the wages of workers down?
V: They don’t, but they keep them feeling inferior. It’s the same thing.
C: Thank you for your time.