"I am not a senator, a governor or a former secretary of state", J.D. Vance wrote almost a decade ago in the first pages of his autobiographical novel "Elegy for the Mountaineers". He did not yet know it then, although he probably hoped that just a few years later this would change. He himself was changing - from a man analyzing the success of right-wing populist ideas among the white working class in the "Rust Belt" of the United States, to a vice president who embodied these views.
A springboard to his political career?
Is this metamorphosis a coincidence, or was "Elegy for the Mountaineers" originally Was it intended as a springboard to a political career? It's debatable. The year is 2016. Vance's memoir is a resounding success - though not so much as a literary achievement as as a "current sociological text", which has even become part of the literature curriculum at some universities in the United States. The book offers a simple - some critics even say too simplistic - explanation of how once staunchly white working-class Democrats in the Midwest turned sharply to Donald Trump in the presidential election that year. Is it a racially motivated reaction to Barack Obama's presidency? Is it because of the elimination of industrial jobs in large parts of the Midwest and Upper South? Or is it a rejection of the changing social and cultural norms that have made the "mountain people" feels forgotten and unrepresented in politics?
"[There is] a lack of responsibility - a feeling that you have no control over your life and a desire to blame everyone but yourself" - this is how Vance summarizes his observations of the attitude of the people of the region. Around him he sees an unwillingness to work, an irresponsible attitude towards obligations, a lack of financial literacy and being overwhelmed with debt. And something more - an acceptance that if you are born in this place, you are doomed. "For these people, poverty is a family tradition."
A cruel grandmother, an alcoholic grandfather and a drug-addicted mother
Among Americans, residents of certain territories in the states around the Appalachian Mountains are also known as "hillbillies", "rednecks" and "white trash". "My grandmother came from a family where they would rather shoot you than argue with you", Vance recalls, and how she once even doused her husband with gasoline and set him on fire because he came home drunk again. Yet his cruel grandmother "mamaw" and his alcoholic grandfather "papaw" prove to be better guardians of the teenage J.D. than his drug-addicted mother, who lives on welfare and threatens to kill him in a deliberate accident. His grandmother is the one who encourages him to continue his education and the one with whose help he escapes "his destined fate as a welfare recipient or a drug addict". His grandmother also instills in him the patriotic intoxication that they live in "the greatest country on Earth".
However, the touching story of salvation is not as innocent as it may seem at first glance. Although from the very beginning, Vance addresses the reader with the caveat that he does not aim to convince the reader of the existence of the problem, but to describe what it feels like to experience it, he does not shy away from political innuendos, criticism of the Democratic Party (which his family actually supports), and touches on topics of class and race. Although at the time Vance defined himself as a critic of Donald Trump, Trumpist ideas are often read between the lines of the memoirs described in the book. For example, he calls his friends and neighbors – a contemptuous term that suggests that they abuse welfare funds, although his family's survival is also largely due to welfare. Later in the book, Vance recalls how a drug addict acquaintance of his often bought steaks on welfare, while J.D. - who worked at Dillman's and from whom federal and state income taxes were withheld - did not have this opportunity. "This was my first indication that the policies of the "working party" - the Democrats - were not what they claimed to be," he wrote. Vance's explanation - that people in the region were simply very lazy, drank too much and beat their wives - appealed to the general public because it was extremely simple, even though it was too general, imprecise and without deeper context.
Vance - one of the few, had the will to achieve something?
Against the backdrop of the poignant picture of the Appalachian region that "Mountain Elegy" paints, J.D. Vance stands out as one of the few who had the will to achieve something in life. "I'm writing this book not because I've achieved something extraordinary. I'm writing it precisely because I've achieved something very ordinary, something that doesn't happen to most kids growing up like me." Four years later, Vance was the executive producer of the film adaptation of the book, which critics described as a failure despite the participation of Glenn Close and the direction of Ron Howard. It is said that the low appreciation from Hollywood and the "liberal elites" contributed to Vance finally turning against the "wealthy elites" – a hatred that began in his early years and which he describes in "Elegy of the Mountaineers".
In the stories of politician J.D. Vance, the line between reality and fiction sometimes blurs. Such is the case, for example, from the 2024 election campaign with the story about Haitian migrants in Ohio who ate dogs and cats, which he later implied was invented in order to draw the media's attention to the pressing problem with immigrants. Did the unknown lawyer from Ohio who wrote "Elegy of the Mountaineers" do the same? The answer to this question is probably known only to the Vice President of the United States.
Author: Stea-Maria Miteva