The Bulwark

Vance’s politics are the politics of hate. Perhaps he once read The Education of Henry Adams and learned that, “Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” Or perhaps he just watched Trump’s success and internalized its lessons. But in any case, for Vance it’s all about hate.

But instead, Vance and Trump have gotten “distracted” into a debate about legal Haitian migrants who’ve come to Springfield to work legally. Or is it a distraction? Might Vance and Trump know what they’re doing? Perhaps a pure play on racism and nativism is more effective politically than a somewhat complicated debate about the border—especially after Trump killed the border bill, and especially in non-border states in the Midwest?