Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) says his earlier criticisms of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign have proven incorrect and that with rising inflation, a stagnant economy and growing sense of crisis in every corner of the world, American voters have some serious questions to consider as to how they will vote in November.
In his 1980 presidential campaign against incumbent Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan famously posed the defining question of their race by asking, “Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?” The answer to that question was self-evident to many voters and Reagan defeated Carter in a landslide.
In 2024, with a popular Republican frontrunner going up against an increasingly unpopular Democratic incumbent, it should be fair game to ask a similar question of the American people.
Rep. J.D. Vance (R-OH) made the case on Fox News Sunday that the answer should be similarly self-evident to the American public.
Low inflation, rising wages, and a world that wasn’t on fire under Trump. Rising inflation, a stagnant economy, and a crisis in every corner of the world under Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/4FWRCYdr6L
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) April 28, 2024
Vance has been a target of harsh criticism from various pundits and members of the D.C. establishment for becoming an unapologetic supporter of Trump after making disparaging remarks about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. According to Politico, at that time, Vance described himself as a “never-Trumper” in an interview with Charlie Rose and referred to Trump as “an idiot” in an Oct 2016 tweet.
On Sunday when Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream quoted a New York Times piece by Trump critic David Frum that accused Vance of having “sunk to the depths of personal degradation” by supporting Trump.
Vance pushed back by noting that many of the people who had criticized Trump prior to his election in 2016 can now see the actual reality of the policies instituted by Trump during his presidency.
The Ohio Senator pointed out that he, like many other critics, was wrong about what kind of president Trump would be and that the U.S. did enjoy a growing economy and mostly peaceful world during Trump’s term of office. Vance explained that the results of Trump’s policies were low inflation, rising wages and greater geopolitical stability.
Vance’s critics maintain that his change of heart cannot be genuine and is more likely tied to a possible spot on Trump’s V.P. list.
In today’s polarized political climate, the idea that a person might change his or her thinking is not treated as an honest reaction to encountering new truth but rather as a cynical ploy done purely for political advantage.
A lot of people weren’t happy with Donald Trump as the candidate but as it became apparent he was going to be the nominee, changed their attitude. I was one of them. For one thing, it was either him or Hillary who is the devil in a pantsuit. He won the election because most Americans are tired of the lying of Democrats, who are basically the New Left grown older. (I know, Hillary got more votes - in left-wing states.) Trump was the lessor of two evils but he did a good job in spite of a hostile media and the criticisms of the right-wing progressives who hate him because he was the nominee.