The Gift That Changed American History
And: Quiet Revival, Real?; Fertility & Decline; Anime Pezzentelle; Love & The Other
Was going through some old email this weekend and found the thing above. This is the gift that changed American history. It was from my old and lost friend Surly Temple — I don’t remember her real name (well, I only recall her first name) — a liberal reader of my old TAC blog. I read the book on my Kindle on a flight to Boston, contacted J.D. Vance, who was pretty much a nobody then, and asked for an interview. Posted it to my blog on a Friday afternoon. The Internet went crazy.
The next day J.D. emailed me from his vacation in England to say that the Wall Street Journal had rebuffed his publicist earlier, but now they wanted a copy of the book. And Jake Tapper had gotten in touch to ask for an interview. Within a couple of weeks, he had been all over TV, and had the No. 1 book in America.
The rest, as they say, is history. The vice president shared some of that history in this talk at Heritage earlier this year:
Surly Temple was, and I guess still is, a liberal. I wish I knew how to get in touch with her. I’m guessing she rues the day she sent this gift to me. But maybe not. Anyway, nine years and a political aeon later, I thank you, Surly. Everybody who loves J.D. Vance should.
Gotta add too that reading the e-mails from J.D. in those first weeks and months, I’m so struck by his humility. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him. Didn’t feel worthy of it. Was wondering what to do about it, so that he could be worthy of it. Said he prayed to God for guidance. Part of him wanted to establish a quiet family life, make money to give his wife and the kids he hoped to have, the stability and security he had never known as a child. But part of him wondered if God had other plans for him, and was calling him to politics. He didn’t know. He would keep praying about it. But for now, he was just grateful.
That’s a good man right there. We should be so lucky to have him as our next president.
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Onward, ye subscribers. Today we’re talking about the Quiet Revival, how France stopped having babies and declined, a weird Neapolitan skull cult, Iain McGilchrist on vehicles of love to help us escape the prison inside our heads, and taking up Chris Rufo’s query: Why are there so many Evangelicals in America, but so few in elite roles?
