The great thing about the American Dream is that the dream comes true for many people.
Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Donald J. Trump’s vice presidential pick for the 2024 Republican presidential ticket, is the American dream in the flesh. He shared some of his remarkable story in his speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday evening, July 17, and the details are also well known from his 2016 book, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” and from the film based on that book.
Now I don’t know JD Vance, but I was a follower after reading his book. Despite the vast hardships he endured early on in life, including growing up poor in Appalachia with a heroin-addicted mother, Vance’s story is a happy one.
This is no accident for millions of citizens of the United States.
His is not an invocation of the American dream but a profound example of it, given what he’s done with his life so far with the help of his grandmother, or “Mamaw,” as he fondly referred to her on Wednesday night.
There was no father in the picture and his mother, Beverly Aikins, was missing for much of the time.
And what did “Mamaw” tell Vance when he was growing up?
“Work hard.”
His embrace of the virtue of hard work — along with self-discipline, courage, perseverance, faith and other qualities that I highlight in “The Book of Virtues: 30th Anniversary Edition,” which I co-wrote with my wife, Elayne Bennett — are very much in evidence in Vance’s life, whether it’s his years as a U.S. Marine, his time as a Yale Law School student or his service in the U.S. Senate.
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The 39-year-old’s story also reminds us that families are often imperfect.
There are hardships to endure, challenges to navigate — and often, more struggles, big and small, than anyone ever imagined they would have to overcome.
Yet the family is the rock. It is the place you go to hear the truth about yourself. It is what you have in your life and what you make of it, whatever that family unit may look like.
Vance’s story shows he took the baton he was handed and ran with it.
Despite the rough times for him as a kid, Vance loves his mother, loves her no matter what, as this man with the sunny disposition and gravitas of someone much older indicated on Wednesday night. And now, in 2024, just as he is handpicked by Donald Trump as his running mate, she is nearly 10 years “clean and sober.”
“I love you, Mom,” he said to her in his speech.
Vance also mentioned that when he met his wife at Yale Law School he was $120,000 in debt and had nothing more than a cemetery plot “on a mountainside in Eastern Kentucky.”
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Look where he is now.
In terms of what is potentially ahead for this country, it’s clear Vance embraces the back-and-forth of governing, of creating policy, of debating ideas for the greater good of America.
He is a former philosophy major. So am I. The theme of drug addiction was present at many places in his speech. I was the nation’s first drug czar. I look forward to engaging with him on this issue.
As he said Wednesday night, “We have a big tent in this party, on everything from national security to economic policy. But my message to you, my fellow Republicans, is we love this country and we are united to win.”
He noted that “our disagreements actually make us stronger. That’s what I’ve learned in my time in the United States Senate, where sometimes I persuade my colleagues and sometimes they persuade me. And my message to my fellow Americans, those watching from across the country, is: Shouldn’t we be governed by a party that is unafraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution?”
He followed with, “That’s the Republican Party of the next four years — united in our love for this country and committed to free speech and the open exchange of ideas.”
As I see it, Vance represents not the Grand Old Party, but a grand new party that is economically populist and culturally conservative.
Back to Vance’s personal story, though, because for him and for all Americans, it is key.
“Some people tell me I’ve lived the American dream, and of course they’re right and I’m so grateful for it,” he said on Wednesday night.
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“But the American dream that always counted most was not starting a business or becoming a senator, or even being here with you fine people, though it’s pretty awesome. My most important American dream was becoming a good husband and a good dad.“
In his words, he said he “wanted to give my kids the things that I didn’t have when I was growing up, and that’s the accomplishment that I’m proudest of — that tonight I’m joined by my beautiful wife, Usha, an incredible lawyer and a better mom, and our three beautiful kids, Ewan, who’s seven, Vivek, who’s four, and Mirabel, who’s two.”
Said Vance, “Now, they’re back at the hotel — and kids, if you’re watching, Daddy loves you very much, but get your butts in bed. It’s 10 o’clock.”
As he said later in the speech, “People will not fight for abstractions, but they will fight for their home. And if this movement of ours is going to succeed and if this country is going to thrive, our leaders have to remember that America is a nation and its citizens deserve leaders who put its interests first.”
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“Now, we won’t agree on every issue, of course not … We may disagree from time to time about how best to reinvigorate American industry and renew the American family. That’s fine. In fact, it’s more than fine, it’s good. But never forget that the reason why this united Republican Party exists, why we do this, why we care about those great ideas and that great history — is that we want this nation to thrive for centuries to come.”
As he stood at the podium on Wednesday night, I thought to myself: He is a strong example of what he speaks. He knows what he is talking about because he has lived it.
JD Vance’s talk on Wednesday night, to this observer, looks to be a fine introduction to a better Republican Party with fight and with dream, one with both noble aspiration and — as demonstrated by the head of the ticket, Donald J. Trump — true grit and toughness. It is time to engage.
