The Chameleon

Lessons in authenticity according to J.D. Hamal/Bowman/Vance

By September 2022, J.D. Vance’s transformation was complete. 

During his campaign for the Senate, he was sitting on stage at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio. The man whom he’d repeatedly trashed, whom he’d described as “America’s Hitler,” was speaking. 

“J.D. is kissing my ass,” my uncle told the crowd. “Of course he wants my support.” 

Donald was angry because The New York Times had reported that some Senate candidates were distancing themselves from him. He would make them pay, because that’s what he does.

“Yeah, [J.D.] said some bad things about me, but that was before he knew me and then he fell in love,” Donald said. “Remember I said that about Kim Jong Un? He fell in love, and they said, ‘Oh, Trump is saying he fell in love.’ Actually, he did, if you want to know the truth.”

Because that’s a totally normal thing to say.

It’s also one of the reasons J.D. Vance shouldn’t be calling anyone else a “chameleon.” 

But with the Trump/Vance campaign taking on water and desperation driving their decisions, they’re starting to throw anything at the wall, hoping something will stick. The problem is, doing so exposes their weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the process.

With his numbers tanking and having earned the distinction as the most unpopular running mate in history, Vance is now trying to attack Vice President Kamala Harris, a woman who is of both Jamaican and Indian descent, for pretending to be someone she’s not.

On CNN this past Sunday, host Dana Bash asked Vance about Donald’s racist attacks on Harris and his charge that she’s not really Black.

“I believe that Kamala Harris is whatever she says she is,” Vance said, laughing. “But I believe importantly that President Trump is right that she is a chameleon. She pretends to be one thing in front of one audience. She pretends to be something different in front of another audience.”

Seriously, J.D. Vance? Or should I say James Donald Hamel? Or is it James David Bowman?  Or whatever your name is.

To Bash’s credit (which she desperately needs after her disgraceful performance at the Atlanta debate), she immediately asked Vance about his own flip-flop on Trump, a man he once referred to in public as “a total fraud.”

In 2016, Vance wrote to a friend. “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler. How’s that for discouraging?”

So why did Mr. Hamel/Bowman/Vance change his opinion about the man who attacked the United States Capitol and refers to American veterans as “suckers and losers?” What exactly has Donald done in the last eight years to disabuse Vance of the notion that he is America’s Hitler?

When Bash said, “You changed your position on an important thing, which is Donald Trump, Vance replied, “Of course I did. Because, Dana, I’ve explained to the American people what’s different. People change their minds when the facts change. They should.” Then he described Vice President Harris as “a fundamentally fake person. She’s different depending on who she’s in front of.”

Here are some facts: Vance has no backbone, no moral compass, and no guiding principles except whatever will help him satisfy his grasping ambitions. 

If he needs to sit on stage and take it while my uncle accuses him of being the spineless ass kisser he is, that is not a problem for him. If he needs to attack a biracial woman despite having biracial children of his own, J.D. Vance is your guy. And if Donald needs someone without conscience, someone who so easily changes his allegiances, he could not find a more fit person to be his running mate than J.D.

It’s transparent and it’s pathetic, but this is what we expect from Republican senators, from Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio to Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell.

These men are cowards who grovel at the feet of an authoritarian, not because they believe in him, but because they desire power or protection. Vance is just the latest to join their ranks.