J. D. Vance and Misbegotten Memoirs

In the USA, having a publicly accepted and respected “self identity” is a privilege often enjoyed only by those people with access to the levers of power.

Property.  Money.  Education.  Social connections.  Weapons.  The right skin color.

A man called J. D. Vance (his own name the product of a selected identity) wrote a book eight years ago at the ripe old age of 32 called Hillbilly Elegy, in which he purported to explain the source of many Appalachian social problems.  A successful venture capitalist, he offered his advice for “bootstrap” solutions to these problems.

J. D. Vance goes big on “poor white people”, because that is how he chooses to perceive his so-called “hillbilly” identity.

In his book, he speaks of his “Scots-Irish” roots and “Scots-Irish” cultural traditions, and the trans-generational effect he believes the culture of these people had on the creation of an Appalachian or Hillbilly “mentality”.

“The Scots-Irish are born fighters, blah blah, blah…”

“The Scots-Irish don’t like Big Government, blah, blah, blah…”

His book received endless blurbs and praise from the urban “intelligentsia” press, eager to find an easily digestible answer or simple reason for rural Appalachian poverty and voting habits.

For “voting habits”, read “Republican or Trump voters”.

Four years after publication, director Ron Howard made a film based on Vance’s carefully curated memoir.  For “carefully curated”, feel free to insert the words “self-serving”, or “ideologically driven”.  Although boasting some decent acting, the film falls down for blindly accepting Vance’s unschooled sociological hypothesis and retro-fitted recounting of events.

*****

Vance brags about his own bootstrapping attitude, and how he had the get-up-and-go to get-up-and-leave his childhood community.

And how did he escape?  Saving money while working at Walmart?  Selling lemonade?  No.  He did what exactly a million other underclass kids do every decade.  He joined the US military.

The US military industrial complex is so deeply embedded in American culture that “the services” are virtually beyond criticism.  Even American “lefties” won’t touch the subject.

The military is on our sporting fields.  In our high schools.

“Thank you for your service” has become a dead mantra, utterly detached from the real world meaning and consequences of American militarism.

US presidents start wars in places like Iraq at the drop of a hat, making billions for insider cronies while killing half a million people.

Back on US soil it’s called “protecting our freedoms”.

“Thank you for your service.”

It has never occurred to gung-ho capitalist Vance that the US military is socialised, just like police or fire departments.  US taxpayers footed the bill which allowed Vance to escape his hometown via the military.

Vance would rail against such taxpayers funding universal health care or third level education, but these taxpayers are fully expected to fund a vast military.

What about all the young men and women of the Rust Belt who believed the Iraq War was immoral, and wanted no part in offering their “service”?  Where is a taxpayer-funded leg-up in the world for these citizens?

This writer is convinced that the very reason healthcare and third level education are not publicly funded in America, is to ensure a steady stream of youngsters, for whom the military is their only hope of accessing further education and any chance of a better future.

I should know.  I was one of these kids, joining the army on my 17th birthday.  Please don’t thank me for my service.

*****

Mr. Vance is wrong, utterly wrong, about the historical causes of Appalachian poverty.

Even more than this, Mr. Vance misrepresents his own cultural roots, whether by design or ignorance. His roots are to be found far more among the mixed-ethnic communities of Ohio, including those known as “Carmel Indians”.

Groups like the “Carmel Indians” (or the somewhat better known “Melungeons”) are an integral part of the ethnic fabric of underclass America, largely forgotten by mainstream history.

Much of the transgenerational poverty of Appalachian people stems not from something innate to their culture and genes, but from the fact that many families started off as a mixed-ethnic underclass in the not-so-distant past, partaking of all the disadvantages which that entailed.

Note that Vance uses his mother’s maiden name; and while some Appalachian Vances can trace their roots directly to Ulster, our friend J.D. is not one of them.  His mother’s Vance line fades into the undocumented mists of early 1700s Buncombe County, NC and Russell County, Virginia, where an ancestor was hanged for the murder of Lewis Horton, a son-in-law.

It is hard to know whether these people were Vances, German Wentzes, or indeed Scottish “Vauses” due to a colonial era transcription error.

It is in fact quite possible that they were of non-European background altogether.  These <particular> Vances might well have come from an African, Jewish, Shawnee, or Romani background, or indeed from any of the other peoples who commonly borrowed their surname from “white” settlers.

What IS certain (barring out-of-wedlock shenanigans) is that J.D. Vance is descended from Bowmans, Crafts, Gabbards, Creeches, Salyers, Taulbees, Bakers, Hensleys, Rudds, Blantons, Hounshells, Howards, Hammonds, Bollings, Sizemores, Lovelys, Workmans, and others.  He is profoundly mixed-ethnic, and of predominantly German stock (including “Black Dutch”), with some English, Dutch, Melungeon, and almost certainly some indigenous American and African ancestry.

He’s about as “Scots-Irish” as an enchilada.

The ultimate foundational myth of Appalachia revolves around a predominantly “Scots-Irish” identity for its people.

An identity designed to meet all of the right criteria.  Non-British, Protestant, rebellious, and “white”.

A blanket, often dog whistling identity, if you will – and in Vance’s case, an outright fake identity.

This is the US senator falling-in behind the fake reality being propagated by his master this election year. If Trump wins a second term, this reprehensible, shapeshifting opportunist will be a breath away from the most powerful political office in the world.

A man on record as saying he would support the suspension of The Constitution.

A man who made a public name for himself by throwing his long-suffering community under the bus, blaming their poverty on “genes” and an imaginary Scots-Irish culture, instead of blaming rampant capitalism and bad governance.

A man fake in every way, ready to bring some very real and very ugly stuff to a town near you.

[updated 15 Jul 2024]

#jdvance #fake #scotsirish