I Like JD Vance So Much That I Want Him Primaried Hard |
I may be JD Vance’s biggest fan. It’s not just that he’s a fellow Ohioan, though that’s important. It’s not just that he overcame adversity to earn the credentials smug libs treasure and then turned it around and owned said libs. It’s not even that he is cool enough to own his memes and is personable in person – in this gig, I meet a lot of politicians, and far too many of them are mindless automatons who are always spewing clichés and bending with the wind. Not him, and definitely not his wife, who is as bright as she is delightful. It’s not like I pal around with the guy; I’ve met him a couple of times, but he is uniquely impressive. He is impressive enough that I forgive him for being a Marine instead of a veteran of the decisive branch of American military power, the United States Army. And he has been doing an incredible job. He can not only articulate the America First case but prosecute it. That’s why he’s the heir apparent to President Trump – he’s the guy who can take America First to the next level. And this leads me to perhaps the most important reason why I’m such a fan – the media and the Democrats have already started fretting that he’s worse than Donald Trump, that he makes President Trump look like one of the George Bushes.
Sign me up. I want JD Vance to be our nominee in 2028.
But it’s because I am such a JD Vance fanboy, such an unabashed supporter, that I want another quality Republican to primary the hell out of him. I want him to have an opponent who takes off the gloves, gets in the ring, and rumbles with bare knuckles, biting, and hair pulling.
I want JD to head into the convention battered and bloody, tired, and tested. It’s not because I dislike him. It’s because I really like him. And because I really like him, I don’t want a coronation. I want armed combat.
There are some good reasons to avoid a Republican primary and go with a coronation in 2028. It’s less expensive, in some ways it’s less risky, and it unites the party earlier. But there are better reasons to make JD Vance earn the crown.
Remember the last presidential candidate who got handed the nomination? If you look at some of the polls, she’s the most likely to be the nominee for the Democrats in 2028. Kamala Harris got the nod not by going out there and winning it but by being handed it, in part by her own machinations, but also, in part, by Joe Biden’s last manifestation of conscious action, where he decided to hang that Chardonnay-swilling millstone around the neck of the party that had just fit him with cement overshoes. She ran against Donald Trump, who had been on the campaign trail, who had won a primary, and who was tan, rested, and ready to rock. She wasn’t. She was a mess. She didn’t have an effective organization, she didn’t have the relationships, and she didn’t have the practice. She didn’t have the killer instinct honed by months of........