ROOKE: JD Vance Explains MAGA’s Appeal In A Way Liberals May Finally Understand

The D.C. establishment seems confused about why President Donald Trump and his administration are doing so well with American voters. Still, if they had been paying attention, Vice President JD Vance explained this months ago.

A post from a left-wing account came across my X feed over the weekend. It included a screenshot of an interview with Vance discussing how older Ohio voters understand national conservatism even if they don’t follow along online.

The post said, “Fascinating Vance quote. It really sums up the whole thing.”

Fascinating Vance quote. It really sums up the whole thing pic.twitter.com/OvpzXhF46X

— LowρUF👁️ 🇵🇦🇬🇱🇨🇦🇲🇽 (@LowRhoUfo) March 23, 2025

Of course, the anonymous poster was being sarcastic in the sense that he didn’t actually believe what Vance said was “fantastic.” Instead, it was an attempt to attack Vance for his views on the American electorate. But if the left were smart, they’d read Vance’s entire interview because he perfectly encapsulated why Trump won in November and why the American people are giving his administration a glowing review.

The interview with Vance occurred at a conservative conference in 2021, three years before he knew he’d be running as Trump’s vice president. Still, what he said was as accurate back then as it is today. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

“The left is committed to brain-dead Bidenism,” Vance said. “Biden’s entire political project is harmonizing various parts of the American left that don’t make any sense. And the American right, at the establishment level, is a series of dogmas that existed 40 years ago and are totally exhausted. And then there’s this thing called national conservatism,” he continued, “and it is vibrant and young people are excited about it.”

Drinking With J.D. Vance: ‘Israel is a country and a nation that doesn’t hate its own fucking people’https://t.co/DfflWVuhiU

— Tablet Magazine (@tabletmag) July 16, 2024

This idea that Republicans have to reach out to the “vibrant and young people” excited about national conservatism to remake the party in their image got Trump over the line in November. Trump did historically well among young voters.

Democratic firm Blue Rose Research recently released voter data from the 2024 election showing just how bad former Vice President Kamala Harris faired with voters under the age of 25.

“[I]f you look at people under the age of 25, every single group — white, nonwhite, male or female — is considerably more conservative than their millennial counterparts. And it even seems that Donald Trump narrowly won nonwhite 18-year-old men, which is not something that has ever happened in Democratic politics before,” said David Shor, head of data science with Blue Rose Research.

Still, Trump needed more than just young voters to win back the White House. His populist movement would have to translate on the ground with all Americans. Vance read the writing on the wall and felt they did.

“Does a normal Ohio voter read Yoram Hazony and Mencius Moldbug? No. They’re old people. They live their lives, they support their family, they want jobs,” Vance said. “But do they agree with the broad thrust of where we think American public policy should go? Absolutely.”

“Translating the impulse of the multiracial, multicultural middle class turned working class—there’s a lot of work to do,” he continued. “But the instincts of the middle-class Black voter, the middle-class white voter, the middle-class Latino voter, are the same.” (Republicans Face First Test To Determine If They Can Keep Trumpmentum Going)

“We love our country, but we don’t want to live in a sh*thole,” Vance added.

Shor admitted that Blue Rose Research found that “40 percent of the country identifies as conservative.” That’s across racial lines. This likely stems from the complete neglect of our middle class by our elected officials (both Republican and Democrat). For decades, Americans have watched their towns decimated by the ever-encroaching death march of globalism that stripped them of good-paying manufacturing jobs and placated their lack of purpose with pills and social media.

“The reality is if all registered voters had turned out, then Donald Trump would’ve won the popular vote by 5 points [instead of 1.7 points].”

https://t.co/R8wt1nXEfj pic.twitter.com/7lBTdFmiUr

— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) March 18, 2025

Vance talked about this during his recent address at the 2025 American Dynamism Summit, where he detailed a conversation he had with a tech CEO who said he wasn’t worried about the middle class losing their jobs and, with it, their purpose due to globalism because they would replace it with “digital, fully immersive gaming.”

His wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, apparently texted him from underneath the table, saying, “We have to get the hell out of here. These people are effing crazy.”

“For far too long, we got addicted to cheap labor—both overseas and by importing it into our own country—and we got lazy.”

Read more from VP @JDVance‘s remarks at @a16z‘s American Dynamism Summit in Commonplace: pic.twitter.com/HWxQ4afn5Z

— Commonplace (@commonplc) March 20, 2025

While the Vances have been very successful, they still seem to understand the plight of regular Americans who long for purpose and to see American Exceptionalism as the official policy of the federal government. A majority of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction, and Trump’s approval rating equals his best-ever mark.

While it seems the left is overwhelmed by the national conservative uprising from the American electorate. If they want to understand why Trump’s populist movement resonates with so many Americans, all they have to do is read Vance’s 2021 interview.

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