Profiles in Pusillanimousity: The US Senate’s Silicon Valley Hillbilly
Jim Hightower's Lowdown
English - June 28, 2023 16:01 - ★★★★★ - 303 ratingsNews Society & Culture populism progressive politics texas Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio is a “Hillbilly Hero.” We know this, because the Republican lawmaker keeps telling us it’s so, regularly bragging that he rose from hardscrabble rural Appalachia to become the political “voice of the Rust Belt,” the champion of America’s working class.
Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio is a “Hillbilly Hero.” We know this, because the Republican lawmaker keeps telling us it’s so, regularly bragging that he rose from hardscrabble rural Appalachia to become the political “voice of the Rust Belt,” the champion of America’s working class.
He doesn’t dwell, however, on Chapter Two of his rise to power: He’s a Yale Law School graduate, corporate lawyer, a high-tech San Francisco millionaire, and the darling of Silicon Valley’s billionaire elites. Indeed, such right-wing tech tycoons as Peter Thiel and Robert Mercer helped him become a vulture capitalist and amass a personal fortune. Then they invested multimillion dollars each to grease his Senate campaign. Thus, unsurprisingly, ol’ J.D. has proven to be their pet redneck, faithfully performing in Congress as Silicon Valley’s Hillbilly Sweetheart.