An Elegy for the Hillbilly Hypocrite

Uncle Vance and the politics of poverty

This is a very old copy I bought years ago in a second-hand bookstore. The titular character is unfairly vilified as a class traitor, in my opinion. (Photo by Michelle Teheux)

One would think a man who grew up in the working class, surrounded by people trapped in generational poverty, would care about the poor and would favor policies designed to help them succeed.

But class traitor J.D. Vance, who wrote the bestselling Hillbilly Elegy based on his upbringing in Appalachian poverty and is Trump’s choice of running mate, has gone the other way.

It’s surprising that Trump and Vance can abide each other, let alone run together. Trump hates the poor and Vance used to loathe Trump. A New York Times story details Vance’s well-known former disdain of Trump, whom he called “reprehensible” and “cultural heroin.” 

That was then. 

My roots are working class

I lived in a trailer for most of my childhood, although my family was never on any form of assistance. Like Vance, I attended college, but unlike him I never achieved wealth. Maybe that helps explain why Vance and I have come to completely different conclusions about the causes of poverty.

He primarily blames the individual. Maybe he thinks all the people from his childhood – except him, of course – were just too stupid to figure out how to become rich, as he did.

I don’t think I was necessarily cleverer than the people I grew up with who didn’t attend college or have a professional career. I also don’t think I’m less intelligent than people who earn lots of money.

To be sure, small-town central Illinois is not the same as Appalachia, but there are similarities. 

The per capita income of my hometown is $13,212. That figure is close to half of the $24,184 per capita income of Middletown, Ohio, where Vance grew up. I think we can agree I am not coming from a privileged enclave. 

I do not believe individuals are all-powerful

If every person really has the power to succeed as long as they’re willing to work hard, it’s really odd that professional success and financial well-being is best predicted by one’s family of origin. 

If you grew up in a poor area, in a poor family, surrounded by poor people, you’re probably going to end up poor. If you grew up in a wealthy area, in a wealthy family, surrounded by wealthy people, you’re probably going to end up wealthy. Do you think that sort of thing is just a coincidence?

There are always some outliers – Vance is one – and most such people have the grace to understand they benefited from some luck. Perhaps they had a mentor or at a key moment, they met someone who gave them a break by offering them a slot in a good college or took a chance by giving them a good job.

Others are able to ignore the role that supporters played entirely. “I did this. It was me. I’m really awesome!” the Vances of this world must assume.

There is only one reason why somebody who struggled to emerge from poverty would blame the poor for the problems they were born into: To congratulate oneself for being much more clever than everyone else.

That’s Vance.

Vance is a disaster

I’m used to the wealthy blaming the poor for their poverty. I can even understand why they think that way. But for someone who grew up steeped in the culture of poverty to do so fills me with rage. He should know better.

If I were a powerful person, I’d talk about things like improving education, strengthening unions, raising the top marginal tax rate, providing subsidized daycare, making college affordable to the poor and middle class, offering universal healthcare and more.

Vance will throw the poor under the bus. If they don’t want to be poor anymore, they should — I don’t know — just stop being poor, I guess? If you think individuals have limitless power to improve their own lives, nobody else needs to offer them any assistance.

How convenient for the privileged, who need not waste any energy worrying about others. After all, they could stop being poor if they were just hard-working and clever, like Vance.

There’s an offensive term we have all heard used to refer to people of color said to be too servile to white people or who are seen as having betrayed their race. It’s an unfair term, because the Uncle Tom of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a highly moral but enslaved man trapped in circumstances he could not control.

We now have a term suitable for referring to a person who grew up poor but began sucking up to the wealthy for personal advantage and who hates everyone who is still trapped by poverty: An Uncle Vance.

About Michelle Teheux

I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me here or on Medium. My new book is The Trailer Park Rules.