JD Vance s Working-Class Pander – WSJ

In Hillbilly Elegy, Mr. Vance portrays his victim class largely as self-victimizing, dragged down by self-defeating behavior. Hoping the coat-hanger or plush-toy factory will come back is a poor substitute for adapting to the world as you find it leaving home, seeking opportunity, attending to one s human capital, avoiding bad habits.

Even a town isn t forever if its economic base disappears, although better tax and regulatory policy can always improve opportunities for all. Yet the world is also looking up for people able to do smart things with their hands given the arrival of artificial intelligence and an aging workforce.

Mr. Vance, as an Iraq veteran, might be forgiven for sharing the instant intuition of so many small-town Americans that overseas wars aren t our business or our problem.

An old quote comes to mind: You may not be interested in war, but war is interested you. LBJ was far less in love with the cause of South Vietnam than many elites are now with Ukraine, and LBJ sent 530,000 troops to South Vietnam at the war s peak. If Vancism doesn t end in the same way, it ll be because the U.S. effectively enabled Ukraine, Taiwan and other allied frontline states to defend themselves.

via www.wsj.com

Holman Jenkins hits the nail on the head as usual.