The America JD Vance railed against at RNC in Milwaukee is one Republican ideas built | Opinion
Editor’s note: Contributing columnist David Mastio is covering the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee for McClatchy Opinion.
After J.D. Vance’s speech last night, I really want to go have a beer with him. He seems like a deeply decent man who genuinely wants what is best for America. While his speech was moving, it was also deeply wrong. The deeply wrong are the best people to have a few beers with, because you can still outargue them even with a few Milwaukee’s Bests under your belt.
The bearded Marine was so comfortable in front of the crowd that he could joke about political violence between Michigan and Ohio State fans even as he told endearing Mamaw stories that fired up the crowd, leaving them chanting for the long-dead and heavily armed matriarch of his mother’s family.
Vance is right that America, after 250 years, is now as much a homeland as it is an idea, but he is profoundly wrong that Americans will not fight for an idea. America was founded on the ideas of God-given liberty, of man’s equality as children made in the image of God, and of republican democracy as an expression of that liberty and equality. And we have fought for those ideas over and over again.
The Revolutionary War was fought for the principle that we govern ourselves. The Civil War was fought to bring all of America’s people into the fold of liberty. World War II was fought to save democracy and freedom. The Cold War was fought to protect the flowering of American ideas across the globe.
America is a homeland, but our ideas are what make it unique and worth defending and sharing with the world. We are not a people content with peace; we are an evangelical nation, a beacon, Reagan’s “shining city on a hill” that inspires not just those who call it home, but those around the world who seek something better. That is why America is complete only when it enjoys a stream of fresh Americans to renew its spirit and test its ideals.
Vance is also wrong about what he and Donald Trump are running against. In Vance’s litany of President Joe Biden’s sins, the North American Free Trade Agreement, Permanent Normal Trade Relations for China and the Iraq War loom large.
While it is true that Biden supported all three, it is not some unique sin of his own, spawned by his five decades living in the swamp. NAFTA, PNTR and the Iraq War were Republican ideas that were either so obvious or so popular that Democrats signed on.
NAFTA was negotiated under Republican President George H. W. Bush and signed by Democratic President Bill Clinton. Normal trade relations with China passed the Senate 83 in favor to 15 opposed. GOP President George W. Bush wanted to invade Iraq and Hillary Clinton, Biden and many other Democrats backed him.
When the Milwaukee crowd roared for Vance’s indictment of Biden, they were throwing overboard more than three decades of Republican governance at the same time. That’s the kind of radical idea you can adopt only after something stronger than Milwaukee’s Best.
David Mastio, a former editor and columnist for USA Today, is a regional editor for The Center Square and a regular Star Opinion correspondent. Follow him on X: @DavidMastio or email him at dmastio1@yahoo.com
This story was originally published July 18, 2024 at 6:08 AM with the headline "The America JD Vance railed against at RNC in Milwaukee is one Republican ideas built | Opinion."