How ‘normal’ guides JD Vance’s political worldview
The friends of Vance say that he makes an effort to avoid politics during SMS or socialization, rather preferring to talk about their children or Ohio football. But Vance also appreciates their opinions. During the preparation of the vice-presidential debate last year, he and his wife, USHA, invited several of them to participate and to offer a perspective that he may not have heard of the room professionals, said a person involved in the sessions.
Cullen Tiernan, who has been friends with Vance since they served together in the Marines, said that although they were opposite sides of the political spectrum, they had constructive discussions on their differences.
“I am more on the left, politically, but it is someone I liked to learn in so many different ways,” added Tiernan. “I always say that I hope I influenced it a little too.”
Tiernan, who lives in New Hampshire, recalled how Vance met him and his friends in a Brazilian steakhouse last year after campaigning for Trump before the first presidential elementary of the state.
“He removed the Maga hat,” said Tiernan, “and simply mixed with Manchester, New Hampshire.”
From one world to another
Having grown up in Middletown, Ohio, Vance hunted his idea of normal life.
His 2016 memories, “Hillbilly Elegy”, said his mother’s struggle with drug addiction and other family crises. In a chapter, he recalled how “mom and bob” – his third husband – “were not as abnormal”. In another, he wrote on the summer that he briefly lived with his father, who left him as well as his mother when Vance was a young child.
“His life,” noted Vance, “was normal In precisely the way I always wanted mine to be.
