JD Vance has a problem

JD Vance is obsessed with death. Why? And does it matter?

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About us:
Spectacles is a love letter to democracy, its values, its caretakers, and its ideas. Around the world, individual rights and representative government are facing unprecedented attacks from the forces of reaction and revisionism. But despite liberal democracy’s real shortcomings and today’s all-too-fashionable cynicism, we remain committed to its preservation and improvement. Join us as we explore just what liberal democracy is, how it comes about, and how it can best be maintained in a changing world.
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SOURCES
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00:00 INTRO
01:41 WHAT IS AMERICA?
04:46 LEADERSHIP
08:14 VIOLENCE
12:32 BEYOND VIOLENCE
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Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images

[braytonlife]

I'd forgotten how Obama showed up looking like a guy that just graduated from college... he looked so young!

[ChangedWinds]

For a dude who only served 4 years, only deployed for six months during a time when Soldiers and Marines served for 18 months in the same war zone, who volunteered to be in a job where he wouldn't engage in any form of combat, talks a lot about killing for his home. It's kinda weird.

[henrybiedron]

Brother got some bad info from a psychologist on the effects of mortality salience

[ophthalmophobicnpc]

Its kind of ironic that JD Vance emphasizes how important it is to be willing to die for your country/nation when he is the running mate of a Vietnam war draft dodger.

[Danoid-]

original title was
'why won't jd vance stop talking about death?'

[andrewcgs]

There's a saying in Italy, "Armiamoci e partite!", which roughly translates to "(Let's all) take up arms and (you) leave for war!" (pronouns are omitted for comedic purposes, but it doesn't work in English without them).

If I learned anything from politics is that anyone talking about dying for their country will be the last man standing.

[Croz]

Obama and Vance are politicians of different eras, and I think the rhetoric shows. Vance is campaigning in an environment of far more divisive and identity focused politics, and he's constructing an identity for the voters he hopes to persuade, working class, traditional values, feeling left behind. He doesn't see the point in trying to unite everyone because he doesn't think that will work anymore. I think he's far less optimistic and far more cynical than Obama. It will be interesting to see how he compares to Walz, because the two aren't that different, mainly in terms of age but both are supposed to appeal to working class Americans.

[chonkycheeze]

Absolutely incredible video, as always. I vividly remember seeing Obama’s 2004 speech while on vacation with my family. If I remember correctly, most networks didn’t cover it live, but the place we were staying only had “free” channels like PBS and C-SPAN, and I just happened to catch it as it was happening. I remember telling friends and family that they needed to watch it (I recall I mistakenly mixed up his name and called him “Obama Barack” 😅), but we were still several months away from YouTube being invented (and 3 years before the first iPhone), so it was actually not super easy to find and watch it. It was worth it, though: The speech was incredible, and so clear right away that he was meant for something substantial, regardless of whether one agreed with his policies.

One interesting similarity with Obama and Vance is how much their memoirs influenced their political paths. I’m not sure Vance would have a political career at all without his Hillbilly Elegy, which became huge after Donald Trump’s election partly because people said it would “help coastal elites understand middle America.” I haven’t revisited it since reading it in ~2016, but I found it well written and compelling at the time. (I’m from middle America and read it less as a way to understand the region and more because I thought it was great that a “local writer” from an impoverished background was doing so well.)

By contrast, Obama’s first memoir, Dreams From My Father, was NOT a hit by any means upon release — it was published in the mid-‘90s, and he was very much unknown at the time — but IIRC it became a bestseller after that 2004 convention address. The book’s themes, though, are a guiding principle of (at the very least) Obama’s oratory and the worldview his speeches presented.

Thank you for creating such consistently and enviably fantastic content! Take care!

[southend]

You're giving Vance too much credit. He's just grifting.

[kenster]

Those deep-set, melancholic raccoon eyes of his, surrounded by lush eyelashes and a plump babyface. Those eyes tell a story.

[ComradeCatpurrnicus]

How dare you rob JD of his sunken eyed natural eyeshadow in the thumbnail, it's the only thing the guy has going for him, maybe it's Maybelline, maybe he's born with it and it's his only redeeming characteristic 😅

[barbarapearce]

He knows something about couches that we don't

[b.j.]

I love how subtle this video is with it's presentation. Listing all the symptoms of Perpetual Warfare, Cult of Personality and Might-makes-Right mentality without directly mentioning the disease.

The dumbest amongst them will be left unarmed without their cookie-cutter rhetoric to regurgitate like seagulls if they don't even know they are being shit on, and the smartest will find themselves impotent to call out any criticism without risking ousting themselves as something they claim to be proud to be but still have to wear masks and hoods to conceal.

[jorgehaswag]

I don’t think vance knows more than anyone else

[victorhiggins]

Hey J.D. Tammy Faye called.
She wants her eye make-up consultant back.

[pavelow]

I subscribed. But I think you are wrong about JD Vance.

[jacksonbauer]

Yeah, America needs trump about as much as I need the testicular cancer I was recently diagnosed with…

[ARandomDonut]

Even my conservative friend has said "JD Vance was a mistake... every time he opens his mouth it's another 20 million votes for Kamala". Obviously an exaggeration, but his main point stands. Vance can't talk his way out of this one, because he's talking his way into it.

[jamarswope]

Outstanding video! Breaking down the psychologies and ideas behind the two speeches was super interesting. Good job, guys.

[gilmour]

JD Vance feels like a villain from a season of Fargo