Dem
51
GOP
49
We have noted several times that we agree with Andy Beshear (see above) that J.D. Vance's "hillbilly" persona is as phony as all get out. Last week, we linked to an op-ed on the subject by Neema Avashia, who writes "J.D. Vance doesn't represent Appalachia. J.D. Vance only represents himself." We were taken to task for our choice of op-ed by a reader who thinks it is laughable that a first-generation immigrant could somehow understand what it means to be a hillbilly.
Now, that reader—who bravely chose not to provide their name or their city of residence—is clearly a bigot. And so, we do not care about their stupid opinion. However, we do like to show our work, and cross our t's, and dot our i's. So, here's a whole bunch of op-eds from people from Appalachia arguing that Vance is a phony:
We think this makes our point, namely that the people running the Republican Party and the Trump campaign might think Vance can connect with blue-collar/Appalachian voters, but may well be fooling themselves.
Now, all of the above are 1,000, maybe 1,500 words. You can knock something like that out in an hour or two. If you really and truly want to be on top of your "phony J.D. Vance" scholarship, then you're going to need to buy and read J.D. Vance Is a Fake Hillbilly: Think Twice Before Calling (All) Coalfield Appalachians Racists, Sexists, and Ignoramuses. That one is a 180+ page, 12-chapter takedown of Vance's persona; the chapter "Women and Other Innovators" is particularly pointed.
The author of that book (which is currently a bestseller on Amazon, by the way) is Frank Kilgore, whose ancestors were among the first Europeans to settle Appalachia, and whose immediate forebears were coal miners. Kilgore was quite devoted to the region, getting his law degree and then practicing law there for more than four decades. His résumé as a pro-Appalachia activist also includes the following:
As you can, perhaps, tell from this list, education and environmentalism top his list of interests. That said, he did so much to market the region, in hopes of persuading people to pay a visit, that he acquired the nickname "Unofficial Chamber of Commerce for Southwest Virginia."
Given Kilgore's goals, fealty to just one political party was not a smart play. Many of the local politicians are Republicans, but many of the state politicians are Democrats. So, he registered as an independent. That said, he did back politicians whose goals were in alignment with his, and he was outspoken on certain issues. For example, though the son and grandson of coal miners, he told anyone who would listen that coal mining is not the future of Appalachia.
Anyhow, from where we sit, this is what a real hillbilly looks like. And by that, we mean someone who is not only steeped in the culture of the region, but is dedicated to making it better. Oh, and as the book about Vance makes clear (specifically, in Chapter 3), Kilgore did not believe that to be a part of the community and the culture, a person had to be multi-generational or white.
Now, much of what you see above, we prepared during the Republican National Convention. If any of the days had fallen short of our "10 things to talk about," we were going to write a section comparing Vance and Kilgore. As chance would have it, on the last day of the Convention, we got an e-mail from reader M.W. in Richmond, VA, who proposed a Vance-Kilgore comparison, while also sharing the news that Kilgore passed away on July 14. M.W. writes: "During my 24 years in southwest Virginia, I had the privilege of knowing Frank Kilgore. Given the recent prominence of a fake hillbilly, I hope you will consider the life story of a real hillbilly to be worth a mention in Freudenfreude."
So, here is to a life well lived. One can only hope that if there's a heaven, Frank Kilgore's corner of it looks like southern Virginia.
Have a good weekend, all! (Z)