HOW THE VICE PRESIDENT IS CHOSEN (AND WHY JD VANCE IS A LIABILITY FOR THE REPUBLICANS).

How a Vice President is Chosen (And why JD Vance is a liability for the Republicans)

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A Quick Guide for Anyone who is Confused by the United States’ Election System

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By Teri Sprackland

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[This article was prompted by questions about 1) Who is JD Vance, Trump’s pick for Vice President? and 2) How do Americans choose the person destined to be the U.S. President’s second in command? A Belgian taxi driver said to me after Trump was elected, “Your voting decisions make a huge difference to the rest of the world. We don’t get to vote, but we live with the consequences!” So, in deference to my friends in other countries, here is my take on how the system works.]

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In the earliest days of the American Republic, the newly approved Constitution decreed that the candidate who came in second in the election would serve as the winner’s vice president.

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It soon became obvious that such an arrangement was untenable. Suspicion and bitter political rivalries ended that experiment. By 1804, the process was modified with the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, after a tie vote in the Electoral College between Thomas Jefferson and rival Aaron Burr had forced the presidential decision into the House of Representatives. The Electoral College process is still causing trouble in American elections, as it is based on a compromise between big and small states and has resulted in recent years in elections where the candidate with millions more in popular votes, such as Hillary Clinton and Al Gore, still lose the election. The Electoral College votes are counted and certified in a Congressional procedure which in January 2021, led to an opportunity for Trump-supported insurrectionists to storm the Capitol and threaten the official transfer of power.

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Each political party is free to choose a running mate for their presidential candidate. If the original procedure was still in place, Joe Biden would have had Donald Trump just a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

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Originally, the choice was based on who could bring in the most electoral votes. Party members hoped the choice would lead to “balancing the ticket” so that different geographic or other segments of the American voters would recognize themselves in a potential Vice President, if not in the person chosen by the party to run for President. Last time around, Trump chose Mike Pence, a Midwesterner from Indiana. Pence was known as a strongly conservative Christian, and many Republican voters needed reassurance that their values would have a say in the presidency of Trump, a freewheeling New York real estate tycoon and television star with several divorces, and an affair with an adult film star, in his past.

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Pence endured years of standing silently behind Trump, so the traditional role of the Vice President as the person who could present advice as “the last to leave the room” was never fulfilled. The only time Pence refused to give Trump his total subservience was in January 2021, when he chose to follow the law instead of fulfilling Trump’s demands to keep Joe Biden’s election from being officially certified in Congress. For that choice, Pence was hunted through the halls and tunnels of Congress by armed insurgents shouting, “Hang Mike Pence.”

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It is therefore striking that any sane Republican would choose to throw their hat in the ring to be Trump’s running mate. Yet for several months, various Republican politicians were seen abasing themselves in a bizarre contest to gain Trump’s approval. Among the contestants were Senator Tim Scott, an African-American from South Carolina, and Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota who tried to show how ruthless and tough she was by publishing the story of how she shot and killed her 14-month old hunting dog, because it was not responding to her commands.

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They lost the Trump popularity contest to JD Vance, born James Donald Bowman, the author of a bestselling 2016 autobiography, “Hillbilly Elegy, A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,”? written while he was in Yale Law School and published just as many observers were searching for explanations for Trump’s unexpected appeal. Perhaps the core of the issue was described in a political cartoon claiming that a voter chose Trump only because “he hates the same people I do.”

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Appalachia spans thirteen states, from Pennsylvania to Georgia, and Vance’s book describes the decline of the white working class originating in the region’s Southeastern mountains. The culture there has roots going back centuries to the emigration of strict Protestants of Scots descent from Ulster, Ireland to America. The people have traditionally exhibited a deep distrust of outsiders and of government, and a fondness for “moonshine”—homemade, untaxed hard liquor. Efforts to evade revenuers attempting to shut down illegal stills is said to have evolved into the NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing) races like the Indianapolis 500. Country-western music, as performed in the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, shows its heritage evolving out of Scots and Irish ballads. The residents of mountainous “hollers” and remote villages were known as “hillbillies” or other pejorative nicknames, such as rednecks, crackers or white trash. The insults are documented well back in the 19th century. However, the term “hillbilly” has been adopted as a badge of pride by many from the area, but is seen as an insult if voiced by outsiders. Singer Dolly Parton, however, has cheerfully referred to herself as “white trash.”

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As an adult, Vance chose to change his name to honor his maternal grandmother who he credits with providing stability during his chaotic years as a child of a drug-addicted mother and multiple stepfathers. After he graduated from high school he immediately joined the U.S. Marine Corps, under the name James David Hamel, which he received when his mother remarried and his stepfather adopted him. He served as an enlisted soldier in a noncombat role in Iraq. He opposes any assistance to Ukraine in its battle against Russia but supports the U.S. providing arms support to Israel in its war against Hamas.

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Vance has expressed deep disdain for anyone who can’t solve problems without the aid of government services, and does not correlate the incidence of opioid addiction with the financial incentive that Big Pharma companies had in promoting opioid sales. (That correlation has become well known and the courts have been adjudicating billions in claims against Purdue Pharma company.) He has also said that the deadly drug fentanyl has intentionally been brought across the southern border for nefarious political purposes. “It’s like Joe Biden wants to punish the people who didn’t vote for him and opening up the floodgates to the border is one way to do it,” he said in an April 29, 2022 interview.

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Until the arrival of radio and television in the 20th century, many in Appalachia were known to speak a version of English that differed little from that spoken in Shakespeare’s time. For a thorough and enlightening history of this region of America, a very good book to read is “Born Fighting,” by former Virginia senator Jim Webb and published in 2004. Two novelists, Sharon McCrumb and Margaret Maron have infused their mystery series with excellent evocations of Appalachia. Maron’s protagonist is a North Carolina judge who is the daughter of a reformed moonshiner. McCrumb’s stories evoke the haunting tales and history of her Scots-Irish ancestry. Both writers present a more nuanced and compassionate view of the Appalachian folk than does Vance.

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Vance, however, is not from Appalachia, but from Ohio, where many families from Appalachia, including his grandparents, moved in search of better jobs in the once-thriving industries of the 20th century. The need to move to get better-paying jobs became known as taking the Hillbilly Highway. Vance is the protege of a major Trump supporter, conservative Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiele, who opened doors for him leading to several years’ work in venture capital firms. Thiele, who was born in Germany, is now an American citizen, as well as holding New Zealand citizenship. Thiele wrote in 2009 that he “no longer believed that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Thiele is the man who personally introduced Vance to Trump. Vance seems to have failed to make much impression in Silicon Valley prior to his return to Ohio and the launch of his new political career.

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Vance won a Senate race in 2022 and otherwise has no legislative or political experience. Ohio is considered a “safe state” for the Republicans, so he is unlikely to persuade new voters to vote for Trump. In fact, polls are showing him to be unusually unpopular as a vice-presidential candidate, whereas there is usually a “honeymoon” period after a national convention. He has not attracted undecided voters, and has yet to appeal to voters beyond Trump’s base.

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So why did Trump choose him? After all, Vance was considered a “never Trumper” during the last presidential contest, and is known to have expressed the opinion that Trump was America’s Hitler and acted as an “opioid” to voters. Vance now claims he has changed his mind because of Trump’s performance as President.

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According to a recent interview, Trump chose Vance because “he likes me more than anyone else.” Additionally, Trump seems to be attracted by Vance’s sense of grievance and proclivity to insulting his rivals. Vance called Kamala Harris “a childless cat lady” who had no stake in America’s future because she had no biological children. This approach is unlikely to convince undecided women to vote Republican.

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Coming immediately after surviving an assassination attempt, Trump was given a Republican convention that bordered on idolatrous, so little effort was made to convince him to widen the Republican appeal with swing-state voters. A general perception was held that Trump was headed for a landslide victory, so the vice presidential decision was inconsequential, despite Vance’s woeful lack of experience in public office.

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That was last week, before President Joe Biden upended all calculations by choosing his vice president, Kamala Harris, to take his place at the top of the Democratic ticket. Biden’s decision was made after weeks of pressure and consultation with many leaders, voters and pollsters in the Democratic Party. He listened to them and took their advice to pass the torch to a younger candidate, which he believes is in the best interests of the United States. Since then, a tsunami of popular approval has flooded toward Harris. Unprecedented numbers of new Democratic voter registrations, donations in the millions of dollars and enthusiasm for grassroots volunteering have entirely shook up the Presidential contest.

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It is in total contrast to the Republican autocrat, who gave no heed to the opinions and concerns of his party and supporters, and has begun to lose ground in polls, where he had been forecast to win in November.

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In a popularity contest for the chance to be the Republican vice-presidential candidate, in 2024 only one vote counted—that of Donald Trump.