The Work of J.D. Vance

Reflections on a 2022 conversation with the VP nominee

J.D. Vance did the work, and now he’s the VP nominee

"I started to realize that rich and powerful people attached themselves to my story as something that was useful to them. And to the extent that it was useful to them, they would build me up and if it wasn't useful to them, they would tear me down." — J.D. Vance, 2022

I wrote a long article based in part on his 2022 interview on What’s Left?, the podcast I co-hosted. It was supposed to run somewhere else, but you know how it goes — their editorial calendar filled up, and they couldn't squeeze it in. The nice thing is, they they paid me for the work and said, "Hey, this is good stuff. Find it a home."

Given all the buzz around Vance becoming Trump's running mate, now's the time to get this out there. It examines Vance's journey from Trump critic to VP pick, and I think it offers some interesting read meat to chew on.

I'm throwing it up here on my Substack because, well, why not? This is, after all, where the primo content goes. And hey, to celebrate this piece finding its way into the world, I'm running an "Oliver Prime Day" deal on annual subscriptions. If you've been on the fence about subscribing,¹ now's your chance to jump in at a discount.