JD Vance and the “Southern Bourbons”

Republican vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) speaks to reporters in front of the border wall with Mexico on September 06, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

1. Choosing Sides

The other day JD Vance did that thing where conservatives talk about modern America in terms of civil war.

But there was a twist. Vance wasn’t talking about a civil war. He was talking about the Civil War. And he was locating the battle lines in an intriguing way: He said that today’s liberals were like the Yankees.

I agree with Vance, actually. I’m just kind of shocked that he’s willing to admit that in this parallel, Democrats and liberals are the abolitionists and he’s on the side of the slaveholders.

Actually, scratch that. I’m not shocked at all.

To his credit, Vance has enough sense not to say “slaveholders” out loud. Instead, he deploys a classy euphemism, calling those Very Fine People “Southern Bourbons.” That’s nice.

You should read his full quote, because it’s even more nativist than it sounds.

American history is a constant war between Northern Yankees and Southern Bourbons, where whichever side the hillbillies are on, wins. And that’s kind of how I think about American politics today, is like, the Northern Yankees are now the hyper-woke, coastal elites. The Southern Bourbons are sort of the same old-school Southern folks that have been around and influential in this country for 200 years. And it’s like the hillbillies have really started to migrate towards the Southern Bourbons instead of the Northern woke people. That’s just a fundamental thing that’s happening in American politics.

In Vance’s telling, the Yankee coastal elites are a . . . novel . . . group of people. But the “Southern Bourbons” are just the same folks who’ve been around for 200 years. You might even call them Real Americans, I guess.

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This ties in neatly with Vance’s speech at the Republican National Convention in which he made Buchananism the explicit view of the Republican party. Here was the most important passage:

You know, one of the things that you hear people say sometimes is that America is an idea. And to be clear, America was indeed founded on brilliant ideas, like the rule of law and religious liberty. Things written into the fabric of our Constitution and our nation. But America is not just an idea. It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future. It is, in short, a nation.

Now, it is part of that tradition, of course, that we welcome newcomers. But when we allow newcomers into our American family, we allow them on our terms.

Let’s unpack that. In Vance’s view,

• America was founded on some ideas, but is not an idea.

• It is a nation, meaning a distinct patch of land with historical inhabitants.¹

• Immigration to America is only “part of” a “tradition.”

• To the extent that this tradition is allowed to continue, it must be on terms dictated by the “American family.”

• In this “family,” the votes of some members count more than others.²

Those ideas put that “Southern Bourbon” talk about “folks that have been around and influential in this country for 200 years” in an . . . interesting light.³

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2. Fake But Accurate

One more thing about JD Vance. But first, we have to talk a little bit about history.

Two of the formative controversies of my journalism career were fights over Rigoberta Menchú and George W. Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service.