Subject: Re: Trump's VP pick is Vance
Yeah, nothing says "Man of the People" more than a venture capitalist.

That's a great example of how Democrats sometimes lose the plot on the political divide these days, and the difference between left-wing and right-wing populism. Both involve the same basic working model of society - you have "the righteous People" versus "the corrupt Elite." But they differ on how to define those groups. Left-wing populism defines based on economic class - the righteous People are the poor and working class, and the Elites are economic elites that have a lot of money. Right-wing populism, though, defines based on values - the righteous People are those who esteem patriotism, the Nation, cultural pride, religious faith, and other non-bourgeois values, while the Elite are the ones who try to overrule the values of the People from their positions of cultural or political power.

It's lowbrow vs. highbrow, not rich vs. poor.

What Trump wanted was an attack dog and no one else filled the bill.

Yep - but that's one of the classic roles of the Veep on the ticket, to be an attack dog. To be the partisan while the top of the ticket tries to be the statesman. Trump has no interest in the latter, but he still recognizes that one of the strongest things a Veep can do for the ticket is be that attack dog.

Vance hit exactly the right note after the assassination attempt, from a campaign strategy. The top political use of the assassination attempt will be to feed into the "Strong vs. Weak" theming that Trump's been running for a year now. But the secondary use will be to try to delegitimize the Democratic strategy of demonizing Trump. That's the perfect line for the Veep - to try to paint the assassination as the end result of Democrats' recklessness in portraying Trump as utterly demonic, rather than simply someone they think would be bad for the country.