Photo/Illutration Senator J.D. Vance delivers his vice presidential nomination acceptance speech at the Republican Party’s convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 17. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

J.D. Vance, 39, was only 31 when he published “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” eight years ago.

I was shocked when I read it back then. And my heart went out to its young author.

In the book, Vance explored the grim reality of the lives of poor, white working-class Americans in a small Rust Belt town, where joblessness, poverty and violence were all par for the course.

Vance’s mother was a drug addict.

When he was about 12, she suddenly declared while driving on a highway that she was going to crash the car so that both she and her son would die. However, she ended up being arrested.

Vance’s grandmother, who raised him while his mother struggled with addiction, had a fiery temper. Once, she literally doused Vance’s alcoholic grandfather with gasoline and lit it.

Having survived his brutal youth, Vance was nominated earlier this month as the Republican vice presidential candidate for 2024.

He was chosen by former President Donald Trump, who promised to “protect the forgotten people” during his 2016 presidential election campaign and won over working-class white voters who had been traditionally Democrat-leaning.

Vance is determined to secure the support of those people. In his vice presidential nomination acceptance speech, he abandoned the argument he’d made in his book and took a different tack.

For instance, he blamed all present-day problems on the Democratic administration, whereas in his book, he criticized young people for avoiding hard work and being all too quick to blame the government.

That’s quite an about-face, really, from preaching self-responsibility to accusing the administration for every failed policy.

Moreover, Vance is now in hot water for his 2021 remarks about “childless cat ladies” running the country. He has made diplomatic misstatements, too.

His “Hillbilly” book tells the success story of a young man who struggled to overcome poverty and kept improving his life.

Vance was once a Trump critic. But now that he has pledged his allegiance to Trump, are we to understand him as a product of this era of political instability and divisiveness?

—The Asahi Shimbun, July 30

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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