JD Vance’s hillbilly hypocrisy pays off

Antagonism is poisoning American politics. [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a grotesque market imbalance of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. On Sundays, we look at the major themes of the week past and how they will define the week ahead. Sign up for the daily newsletter [here](. [Hillbilly Man]( Quick, when you hear the word “hillbilly” what comes to mind? Here are some possibilities: [Deliverance,  Deliverance, Deliverance](.[1](#footnote-1) For people of a certain age, anyway, that 1972 film starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds and, in one of the most shocking for-its-time scenes, Ned Beatty brought an oft-ignored subculture to America’s silver screens and public consciousness. (And then there was that damn song, [Dueling Banjos]( — and the squinty-eyed, dentistry-deprived child who wins — that you couldn’t get out of your head.) It was a good movie. But it also cemented a stereotype of a poverty-stricken, poorly-educated, Scots-Irish cohort [occupying]( the 206,000 square miles of Appalachian America. Since, there have been plenty of fine films and TV shows set in those hills — [Winter’s Bone](, [Songcatcher]( and [Justified](, for example — but all in some way furthered the tropes. So along came a book by a US senator to set us all straight. I’m referring, of course, to Jim Webb’s [Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America](. Hah, gotcha. Really, I’m referring to JD Vance, the hillbilly-turned-venture capitalist-turned-senator-turned-Donald Trump sycophant (as anybody who followed this week’s Republican National Convention knows). The 2016 memoir of the new vice-presidential candidate, [Hillbilly Elegy](, ostensibly attempted to humanize and explain a culture that hasn’t been empowered since Franklin Roosevelt’s [Tennessee Valley Authority](. But if that was really Vance’s goal, did he succeed? Frank Barry damns with faint praise. “It’s a worthwhile read,” Frank [writes](. “But the dog-eared pages and underlined passages in my copy reminded me what bothered me about it. In short: Vance’s mission was to explain ‘them’ (hillbillies) to ‘us’ (elites). Achieving that mission required supplying answers about how they are different from us. And so at various points, Vance positions aspects of the Appalachian mindset as unique when, in fact, they are quite common, if not universal.” William R. Easterly, in a 2016 op-ed piece, found it a classic example of the three laws that guide the “bogus analysis” of groups. “First, define the group by the outcome you are trying to explain,” William [wrote at the time](. “Second, invoke a stereotype and exaggerate it. Third, endow the group with innate permanent properties, akin to racial characteristics. Together, these errors establish a kind of collective guilt, blaming an entire ill-defined group for the failings of its individuals, even if the offenders are a tiny minority … In the end, collective guilt, fashioned from bogus analysis and delight in stereotypes, is mere slander. It’s a formula for constant antagonism and it’s poisoning American politics.” Not long ago, Vance considered Trump the pusher of that poison: “Trump is cultural heroin. He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they’ll realize it,” he [wrote]( in a 2016 Atlantic essay that’s had a second life for the last six days. I don’t consider hypocrisy a venal sin in politics, more the normal state of affairs. But Patricia Lopez [finds]( Vance’s opportunism “one of the most abrupt and unlikely conversions in recent political memory.” It complements another conversion: the shift of working-class voters to the Republican Party. “When it comes to market forces versus government intervention, of course, the populist right often agrees with the populist left,” [writes]( the Editorial Board. “Thanks to the Republican realignment, voters lose twice over. The absence of small-government conservatives shifts economic policy unopposed toward ill-conceived interventions, and cultural friction between social liberals and social conservatives, which is hard to assuage, comes to dominate the country’s politics.” Or maybe the GOP is just up to its old tricks. “If a Republican pivot toward the struggles of American workers was rooted in policy rather than slogans, it would be a big change,” Nir Kaissar [writes](. “Since at least the 1980s, the party has pursued what is popularly and sometimes derisively known as trickle-down economics. In short, it’s a theory that posits that a growing economy benefits everyone, and that the best path to growth is policymaking that supports corporations and rich Americans.  It’s not a crazy idea, but at this point it’s crazy to believe it can still work.” Nir and the ed board may not think much of Vance’s economics, but he’s become a Hillbilly Hero to … the Chinese proletariat???! “Early this week, the Chinese-language version of JD Vance’s bestseller Hillbilly Elegy went viral after the Ohio senator was named former President Donald Trump’s running mate. People wanted to know how someone from such a humble background could rise so high in politics before turning 40,” [reports]( Shuli Ren. “China’s hillbillies have no voice. They are therefore invisible and dispensable to the top policymakers, who have much grander dreams … Netizens can only marvel at the US from afar. After all, when was the last time a migrant worker held a seat in the Politburo?” It’s nice to see the Chinese public admiring America, but I seriously doubt any migrant workers are going to hold a seat in a potential Trump cabinet, either. Bonus [Underdog]( Reading - Trump-the-Uniter [Couldn’t Last]( for One RNC Speech — Timothy L. O’Brien - MAGA's Migrant Rants Conveniently [Leave Out]( the Economy — Mary Ellen Klas - Some of [Trump’s Tax Cuts]( Worked, But at What Cost? — Tyler Cowen [What’s the World Got in Store](? - South Africa CPI, July 24: Dubious About [South African Democracy](? The Bond Market Isn’t — Mathew A. Winkler - Japan CPI, July 26: Japan Should [Go Big]( or Go Home on Startups — Catherine Thorbecke - US core PCE, July 26: Fed’s [Critics on Inflation]( Should Now Champion July Cut — Jonathan Levin [Stereotypes]( While much has been made of Vance’s humble background and his Saul-on-the-Road-to-Trumpland conversion, what about his VC years and ties to [his mentor](, PayPal co-founder and major Trump backer Peter Thiel? Silicon Valley takes great pride in its progressiveness: Biden took 72% of the vote in Santa Clara County in 2020. But our picture of techies may be as much of a stereotype as our picture of hillbillies: there’s no universal Mountain View mindset. Vance — who once tweeted “it’s time to break Google up” — is gaining from a schism between the big guys like Alphabet and the embattled little guys like, y’know, the [billionaires]( Doug Leone and Marc Andreessen. Parmy Olson says Vance is walking a fine line between the two camps. “There is Big Tech, and then there’s the vast network of startups and wealthy venture capitalists,” Parmy [writes](. “Cracking down on the former without also harming the latter won’t be easy if Vance is serious about leveling the playing field, but addressing Big Tech’s grotesque market imbalance is something that’s long overdue.” Mark Zuckerberg’s [interview]( with Bloomberg TV’s Emily Chang, and his thoughts on Trump’s fist-in-the-air [reaction]( to getting shot, may further Vance’s predicament: I’m not sure where the current [Richest Man in the World]( fits into this digital divide, but Mark Gongloff says that by endorsing Trump, Elon Musk loses for winning. “Imagine you’re one of the world’s wealthiest people and the chief executive officer of one of the world’s biggest electric-car makers,” Mark [proposes](. “It’s an election year, and the presidential nominee and running mate of one of your nation’s two main political parties routinely express deep hostility to electric cars (and boats, but [also sharks](?) and vow to end any government favors to your industry. Naturally, as a shrewd business executive, you would dedicate some of your wealth to making sure said nominee and running mate were defeated at the polls, thus protecting your electric-car franchise and your ability to keep being preposterously wealthy. Then again, you probably aren’t Elon Musk.” Nor, increasingly, would anybody want to be. Notes: Please send cultural-venom antidote and feedback to Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.net. [1] Also possibly Beverly, conjuring the most inexplicable of all [No. 1 shows]( in American TV history. Argh. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. 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