Hillbilly Elegy director Ron Howard has taken a swipe at JD Vance, suggesting that Donald Trump’s Republican running mate has “changed” since he first met him.
Earlier this year, Vance was selected to be Trump’s possible vice president in the 2024 US presidential election race – but before his political career, he was known for being the author of memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which was later adapted into a Netflix film of the same name.
Since being announced as Trump’s running mate, Vance has been criticised for comments that saw him refer to women, such as Trump’s presidential rival Kamala Harris, as “childless cat ladies”. This prompted swift backlash and accusations of sexism, with Vance claiming the remarks were made in “sarcasm”.
Yeah he’s as much a hillbilly as I am, except I actually lived in urban Kentucky for like a year once and sometimes date actual Appalachians. He’s just some guy who got into a good school and ditched the rust belt for the coasts, which I don’t judge, it’s a good decision and one I wish I’d studied enough for. But a lot of those folks build their identity on being from back here and it gets weird.
There’s this coastal idea of Ohio vs the realit. I think Ron DeSantis showed it best where they keep trying to act like Ohio is this salt of the earth conservative place, and like yeah it’s lost its swing state status, but it isn’t conservative like Miami or Orange County, it’s conservative like folks who haven’t met people different from them. It’s conservative but we love weed and abortion is contentious not hated. And also Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati aren’t conservative. Please coastal conservatives stop moving to Ohio cities and thinking we’re cool with your bigotry.
Anyways yeah Vance is a costal conservative and thinks he understands Ohio just because he lived in Middletown until he had the ability to bail.