Is it possible that JD Vance’s traumatic childhood influences his views today?
JD Vance’s traumatic childhood couldn’t be more different from Trump’s. While Donald Trump was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Vance was born in the “Rust Belt,” marked by violence and poverty. When taking a closer look at Vice President JD Vance’s background, there’s no denying that this man has defied many odds.
And no matter how people feel about the man, one has to admit that he managed to rise above his circumstances and accomplish something near-impossible for many of those who grew up like he did: He became the vice president of the United States of America.
Some might have been more forgiving of JD had he not shifted on his stance toward President Donald Trump. And the truth is that these two politicians have a complicated relationship, with Vance once being one of Trump’s biggest critics and even comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
Now, the two rule the halls of the White House together. So Light On Politics wants to know… Will JD Vance’s traumatic childhood affect politics in a positive or negative light?
Due to JD Vance’s traumatic childhood, he struggles with anger management
Vance has owned up to some of his shortcomings. In his book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” the vice president confessed that growing up in a violent environment left its mark on him, and he has a tough time with anger management as a result of this.
He recalls in the book how he frequently heard the fights between his mother and her partners throughout the years. What affected him the most, though, was his mother’s heartbreak when her relationships eventually ended.
“When she lay sobbing in bed after another failed relationship, I felt a rage that could have driven me to kill,” he recalls. Fast forward to the present, and JD admits that managing his anger is still hard.
“Even at my best, I’m a delayed explosion,” he admitted in his book. Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, learned how short her husband’s fuse could be pretty quickly after a job interview he thought he blew.
“I didn’t get here by making excuses for failure!” he recalled shouting at her when she tried to console him. Vance’s former roommate at Yale believes that anger is what caused the politician to swear allegiance to Donald Trump.
Georgia Senator Josh McLaurin said that Trump’s wrecking-ball style to norms and institutions is really what JD is parroting here, which comes from grievance and anger. In his book, Vance said he has benefitted from therapy, but his wife is the one who keeps him grounded when his anger overcomes him.
JD Vance’s traumatic childhood included his father putting him up for adoption
Not only did Vance’s father abandon him when he was a baby, but he also ultimately gave him up for adoption when he was six years old. Vance’s mother had just remarried Bob Hamel, and Vance’s biological father, Donald Bowman, let his ex-wife’s new husband adopt his son.
“After the adoption, he became kind of a phantom for the next six years. I had few memories of life with him,” Vance reflects in his memoir. “I always felt loved when I spent time with him, which was why I found it so shocking that he ‘didn’t want me anymore,’ as Mom and Mamaw told me.
He had a new wife and two small children, and I’d been replaced.” The vice president and his father would reconcile years later, his father explaining that he never wanted to give up his son but instead tried to avoid a dirty custody battle.
Knowing the complexities of family and having been adopted himself, it was somewhat ironic that JD called women without children “childless cat ladies” during an interview with Fox News, accusing the Democrats of having created an “anti-family and anti-children” narrative.
JD Vance cited Kamala Harris as a prime example, even though she has two step-children. “The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” he claimed. “How does it make any sense we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t have a direct stake in it?”
Of course, backlash followed, and JD’s comments even led to a viral dispute between him and actress Jennifer Aniston because of this.
JD Vance’s traumatic childhood included moving from one unstable household to another
When Vance was 12 years old, his mother was arrested, and young JD lied to the court about how bad her behavior was, afraid he’d end up in the foster care system if he told the truth. Keeping quiet about what was happening with his home life would allow him to stay with his grandparents, and that was preferable, even though they didn’t offer the most stable home either.
His grandparents, James and Bonnie Vance, had a violent relationship, too. His grandfather was an alcoholic, and his grandmother, when she got fed up with his antics, would resort to acting out against her husband, serving him garbage rather than food and, on one occasion, attempting to set him on fire.
These circumstances happened during Vance’s mother’s childhood, and growing up in a violent home is most likely what led Vance’s mom to make the same mistakes with her kids. By the time JD went to live with his grandparents, though, their household was no longer as violent as it used to be.
When the now vice president started hanging around the wrong crowd and experimenting with narcotics, his grandmother threatened to run his friends over with her car if he didn’t stop hanging around them. Young Vance was so used to violence that he didn’t even question if she would do it.
“So I did stop hanging out with the kids she told me I couldn’t hang out with. Many kids don’t listen to that demand when their parents make it. But I was so terrified of mamaw that I listened and listened well,” Vance shared in an interview.
JD Vance’s traumatic childhood was filled with abuse and neglect by his mother
In his book, Vance doesn’t mince words when talking about his chaotic childhood with his sister, Lindsay Ratliff. He described one of the book’s most brutal experiences in an interview. JD’s mother had picked him up from his grandparents’ house and planned to take him out for a treat to make up for her wrongdoings.
But, the mother-son date didn’t go as planned: The now vice president said something to make his mother upset, who in turn threatened to kill them both. “She sped up the car on the highway. Went over, you know, it seemed at the time like she was driving over 100 mph.
And she just kept on saying, I’m going to crash this car and kill us both,” Vance remembered during the interview. Afraid, he went to the backseat. This made Beverly Aikins ven more angry and she brought the car to a halt. “[I thought she] was going to start hitting me. And so I ran. I ran out of the car.
We were in a pretty rural part of the state. And I ran through a field to a person’s house,” Vance reflected. JD Vance reexamined that terrible day while talking to Megyn Kelly for NBC.
He became very emotional as he remembered how relieved he felt when the authorities apprehended his mother because the realization that he’d survived the ordeal began to set in. But then he became aware of something much worse… he was all alone. “The relief of having survived another day was gone.
Then I just wanted somebody to come and take me away,” he declared, stating that his sister, Lindsay, ended up being his savior that day. “Violence and chaos were an ever-present part of the world that I grew up in,” Vance disclosed in an interview.
What do you think about JD Vance’s traumatic childhood? Please feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
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