Vance, Transforming

SOPHIA NELSON is a public defender in Michagan, and transgender. She could undoubtedly pursue more lucrative areas of the legal profession, but feels a sense of community and public service which larger paychecks could never replace. She is also a former friend of Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance, Trump clone and Trump running mate. They met at Yale law school less than twenty years ago, which highlights their relative youth amid their incipient fame. At Yale they became part of a group of like minded students gathered together to jointly endure the rigors of law school in the Ivy League, and to share world views views and good times. The fact that Vance and Nelson both came form the American midwest, he from Ohio and she from Michigan, solidified their friendhsip around the classic Buckeye Wolverine sports rivalry. They graduated, went on with their respective careers, and then, over time, something changed. He changed, according to her. He married, settled down, and strted a family. She transitioned into a trans woman. That in itself is a striking indication of the divergent paths of these two formerly moderately conservative law scholars on a generally progressive minded Ivy League campus. The current controversy became a controversy when she recently made public a series of emails between the two which they exchanged only about a decade ago, in which Vance was seemingly the same moderate, reasonbale person she had grown to know and love. His dramatic change, into a hard line far right wing extremist with extreme points of view has, evidently, taken place quite recently indeed, an utter transformation, the remaking of a nascent politician for what appear to be purely political reasons. In the Ohio politics of the second decade of the twenty first century, it seems that a hard right, pro Trump political stance is a better entry into political success than any middle of the road moderation. His election fo the United States Senate a mere two years ago would seem to bear that reality out. Vance, from one extreme to another. Trump has not only captured the American conservative community, the Republican party, and conservative Ohio politics, Trump has also captured the heart, mind, and soul of Senator J. D. Vance, the born again political animal. In 2016 he was an out and out never Trumper, who used every derogatory epithet in the book to describe a man he obviously considered unfit for political office, or for much of anything else. Regpugnant, in moral terms, a chameleon, ready on a whim to transform himself into whatever will enhance his popularity, a political commodity for sale to the highest bidder, was Trump, in the world according to Vance. Sophia Nelson make no bones about the fact that the J.D. Vance she once knew was tolerant of everybody's point of view, easy to get along with, amenable to listening to folks from all points along the political spectrum. Courteous, understanding, moderate, solidly conservative. It seems that Trump is not the only shape shifting demagogue in the right wing room. The old Vance would never have attacked people for merely having the audacity to remain single, says she. There never would have been any flat out weird comments about unmarried, childless cat ladies having less value in the elecorate than normal, married, child bearing, parental people. And indeed his remarks of that nature, currently so much in the news, are indeed weird, and are inspiring an entire industry predicated on ridiculing them and him, as they amply deserve. The man cave mutual love fest shared by Vance and Trump is no less weird, no less toxic. About the newly released emails, which reveal so much, he has little choice in his response. He does not deny his change of heart. He was wrong about Trump. Getting married and starting a family motivated a change of heart, made him see things differently, even thouhgh, ss he recently reminded us, he did not marry a white woman. That sort of generic blather, intended only to soothe and ameliorate newly aroused shock among supporters and detractors alike, only serves to enhance Vance's emerging reputation for weirdness. But J.D. Vance has done more than merely "change". He has become, like Trump himself, postively, undeniably weird, unhinged. Nobody doubts that marriage and family transforms a young man, grows him up, fast. We've all seen it happen, and it is a heart warming process to behold. But it need not and seldom does, thank the lord, turn a marginally reasonable person into a ranting lunatic. As this campaign proceeds, we'll hear much more from the strident, out of key and control voice of Mr.Vance, and, more likely than not, his unhinged path will continue to parallel Trump, as they spew their verbal garbage about Kamala's mixed race and failure to have her own children for the American voter to take into full consideration on their way to the November ballot box.