What an amazing night at the Republican National Convention. I'm off to write about it for tomorrow's Morning Briefing, and we're going to be wrapping up the live blog for tonight. My colleagues and I are beyond grateful to all of you who hung out with us. Let's do it again tomorrow night! Remember: We've got the VIP SUPER GANGA SALE going on. Use the promo code MAGA24 when you subscribe to get a 60% discount! Sixty-eight cents a week gets you a VIP Gold subscription, which is the Townhall Media version of a backstage pass. Thanks again, everyone!
My mother had my sister two weeks after she graduated high school. She grew up poor; her father worked on the oil pipeline until he was able to buy a small filling station in an even smaller town in northeast Oklahoma. She and her sisters moved to Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, in the early '80s and that was when she met my father, a young and driven surgeon. He built her a mansion, gave her everything anyone could ever imagine, and loves her to this day more than anyone could hope to be.
My brothers and I grew up under the threat of a wooden spoon, with boxed casseroles on the stove and bare feet playing outside until the street lights came on at dusk. We spent Sunday afternoons with my paternal grandparents, eating pot roast alongside canned green beans and carrots. We spent Saturdays with my maternal grandparents, who wrapped their sofas in clear plastic and had one TV with rabbit ears tuned toward Gun Smoke. I was wildly privileged, but I also knew exactly where I came from.
Paula, you're commentary right: just because a family moves doesn't mean they leave their culture behind. My dad ran away from home in high school, and then skulked back to live with his older sister while working in a greeting card warehouse until he graduated; his mother submitted his college applications. My mother went on to have three more children and raise four, making sure we understood hard work and stewardship. Silver spoon? On the outside, no doubt. Red dirt between my toes and a twang on my lips? One hundred percent. If I had to give up one, you can keep your flatware - I'll take my roots.
There's been a lot of discussion this week about JD Vance being from Middletown, Ohio, a lovely suburb of Cincinnati. How does that make him a "hillbilly"? The best explanations I've heard are that a) he spent a lot of time with "Mamaw," who was from Jackson, Ky.. and b) when a family moves to a different state, they don't automatically leave their culture behind.
JD's family hails from coal country in Eastern Kentucky. If you've never been to Appalachia (especially as it was in the 1970s and before), you'd be excused for thinking you were in a third-world country. My grandma was from SW Ohio, across the river from Wheeling, and she never lived in a home with an indoor toilet, even though she lived until 1982. She and every one of her neighbors had outhouses. I grew up thinking everyone's grandma had one!
There's a very distinct and beautiful culture there, and most people I've known over the years who've left the region behind never completely left the culture—they take with them the blue-color values, the accent (yoons!), the diseases from working in coal mines, the effects of living in generation poverty, and, sometimes, as in Vance's case, the substance abuse.
I bet a lot of people who watched could say that.
Tonight I'm reminded in a lot of ways how Vance's people are my dad's people.
Tonight I'm reminded in a lot of ways how Vance's people are my dad's people.
Beg to disagree Stephen. My family has lived under five different governments without ever leaving America. The ideas are important, but we are far more than an idea. And if this government were ever to fail, we would still be here. Politics, politicians and governments may come and go, but the people keep on.
Agreed 👍🏻
I do have a problem with the content of Vance's speech, which was pretty damn good overall and very well delivered.
He dismissed America as an idea. He said Americans won't fight for an abstraction. But America is an idea and Americans have fought for it since 1775.
"It's our home," he said. And that's true. But without the American idea, it's no more than that. With it, it's that shining city on a hill.
I've watched a lot of these rodeos over the years and attended a couple, and never have I seen one so upbeat, encouraging, and joyful. It was a very good night for the RNC.
I do have a problem with the content of Vance's speech, which was pretty damn good overall and very well delivered.
He dismissed America as an idea. He said Americans won't fight for an abstraction. But America is an idea and Americans have fought for it since 1775.
"It's our home," he said. And that's true. But without the American idea, it's no more than that. With it, it's that shining city on a hill.
Can I tell you how depressing it is that Vance’s mom is 5 years younger than me?
Can I tell you how inspiring it is to see someone on a presidential ticket who is not old enough to be my father or grandfather? J.D. Vance and I were seniors in high school when the 9/11 attacks played out on live television; he enlisted and I tried to, but my mama cried when I told her I was going to sign the USMC paperwork with her blessing. Needless to say, I didn't serve in the way I wanted to; instead, I married into the service.
Anyone who grew up under a Drill Instructor's thumb the way J.D. Vance did, went on to graduate from college and law school, marry a strong woman, and be a present father in spite of a demanding job has a strong vote of confidence in my book.
That sound you hear in the Pennsylvania night is the Democrats' Magic Mail-In Ballot Machine™ being turned up to 11.
I was just thinking that! Every time I hear it I think of Bill Clinton, which has diminished some of its greatness.
Interesting observation: the band is playing "Don't Stop." Remember how that was the theme song at the '92 DNC?
Interesting observation: the band is playing "Don't Stop." Remember how that was the theme song at the '92 DNC?
JD Vance certainly sold himself and his family to Republicans tonight.
Can I tell you how inspiring it is to see someone on a presidential ticket who is not old enough to be my father or grandfather? J.D. Vance and I were seniors in high school when the 9/11 attacks played out on live television; he enlisted and I tried to, but my mama cried when I told her I was going to sign the USMC paperwork with her blessing. Needless to say, I didn't serve in the way I wanted to; instead, I married into the service.
Anyone who grew up under a Drill Instructor's thumb the way J.D. Vance did, went on to graduate from college and law school, marry a strong woman, and be a present father in spite of a demanding job has a strong vote of confidence in my book.
There's been a lot of discussion this week about JD Vance being from Middletown, Ohio, a lovely suburb of Cincinnati. How does that make him a "hillbilly"? The best explanations I've heard are that a) he spent a lot of time with "Mamaw," who was from Jackson, Ky.. and b) when a family moves to a different state, they don't automatically leave their culture behind.
JD's family hails from coal country in Eastern Kentucky. If you've never been to Appalachia (especially as it was in the 1970s and before), you'd be excused for thinking you were in a third-world country. My grandma was from SW Ohio, across the river from Wheeling, and she never lived in a home with an indoor toilet, even though she lived until 1982. She and every one of her neighbors had outhouses. I grew up thinking everyone's grandma had one!
There's a very distinct and beautiful culture there, and most people I've known over the years who've left the region behind never completely left the culture—they take with them the blue-color values, the accent (yoons!), the diseases from working in coal mines, the effects of living in generation poverty, and, sometimes, as in Vance's case, the substance abuse.
“We want this nation to thrive for centuries to come,” —JD Vance
Charlie mentioned something about Reagan earlier. I wrote this in today's Morning Briefing, and it's even more true tonight: "I mean, I think that the last time I was really excited during the week of the Republican National Convention was in 1984."
I imagine the Democrats watching the RNC tonight have cried themselves a Mississippi-sized river. No way they can compete
JD Vance says he told his now-wife he came with massive student debt and a cemetery plot in Kentucky
Vance: "We are going to stop the Chinese Communist Party building their middle-class on the backs of the American people." America is a people, not an idea.
Today is my darling daughter's 26th birthday and, as is always the case now that she's an adult and living 2500 miles away, I was a little down about not being able to celebrate it with her. Tonight's RNC has been a wonderful distraction, perfectly orchestrated, mixing wrenching, poignant moments with levity. Sure, Kimberly Guilfoyle perforated my eardrums, but the rest of it has been spot-on.
After tonight, the Dems might have better luck starting an OnlyFans account.
I can only imagine what Mama Vance thinks about her son. It's so inspiring and heartwarming.
He'll be OK with it.
My dad just said, “JD’s Memaw had more guns protecting her family than Trump’s Secret Service had protecting him on Saturday.”
What’d I tell you?
Mamaw is the one who had 19 loaded handguns in her house when she died.
Mama Vance just nodded to the stage and said "My boy" as the Speaker of the House of Representatives leaned in to say something to her. This is a freakin' Hollywood script tonight.
He needs to coordinate his hand gestures and movements better with his words. But when his list of issues about how ordinary Americans are being mistreated kicks in, his animation and vigor are right on target.