I grew up under similar circumstances to JD Vance, Donald Trump’s vice presidential candidate for 2024.
Vance and I both grew up in lower-class households in towns with less than ideal economic opportunities. He in Middletown, Ohio, among family members who had moved from Appalachia. I grew up in Cashiers, NC, in Appalachia.
Our relationship with our parents was heavily influenced by drug and alcohol pasts, and we both attended Yale University. I am a rising sophomore studying political science. Vance is a graduate of Yale Law School. He wrote a memoir about his childhood. I am doing the same. My family even says we look alike.
You can imagine my surprise when I recently read his book, Hillbilly Elegy. It was almost like reading about myself in a parallel universe where I grew up in Ohio instead of North Carolina. I see a lot of myself in Vance, and I think our parallel experiences have led us to some of the same conclusions in adulthood. For example, we both agree on certain economic policies, such as raising tariffs on China and other hostile competitors to protect American workers.
Nevertheless, I strongly question many of JD’s insights from his childhood.
From what I see, JD seems to be very judgmental of the residents of Middletown, Ohio. He generally describes them as lazy and pessimistic people who have failed to climb the economic ladder because they have no desire for a better life. In particular, as children, they lose hope that their positive actions – such as studying, going to school, and living “clean” lives – will change the course of their lives for the better.
In my experience, this is a fallacy. The children in my hometown of Cashiers have the same dreams as everyone else. My first dream job as a kindergartener was to be a brain surgeon. I know that other young adults in Cashiers have big dreams too, and I know many people my age who have enough passion to move mountains. What they lack, however, is the tools and knowledge to turn that passion into a successful career.
In JD’s vision of what he calls the “white working class,” government assistance needs to be cut to force people to work harder to improve their lives. But I believe more assistance should be provided – especially for children. As a country, we can improve economic and social conditions by expanding the opportunities we give to our poorest citizens.
Here’s how I envision the Appalachian region of the future: expanding preschool education in low-income communities, improving the quality and quantity of our public meeting spaces, increasing funding—and pay—for public school teachers, and ensuring that all students have access to free mental health counseling every day of the year so they can overcome the trauma that often accompanies poverty.
Although Vance and I had similar childhoods, I believe his history of dismissing low-income rural Americans as “lazy” or “dispassionless” is not the solution. Instead, we must invest in these communities to ever see real economic and social improvement for those growing up there.
I have a lot of respect for Senator Vance because I know what it’s like to grow up like we did and then as adults climb the socioeconomic ladder by attending Yale. But our visions for how to improve our respective communities couldn’t be more different.
Garrett Warner is a rising sophomore at Yale University. He spent most of his childhood in Cashiers, North Carolina, as the son of a single mother.
