In a video podcast with a crucifix-wearing host, Vice President JD Vance discusses his faith and views on immigration policy. Along the way, this happens:
VANCE: “So, I would talk to constituents in Springfield, Ohio. This was when I was still a senator. This was before I was a vice presidential nominee. And here’s the situation they would describe to me would happen in Springfield, Ohio: So, you’re a landlord and, let’s say, you’re renting a three-bedroom house to a family of four, a family of five. They’re paying, let’s say, a thousand dollars a month a couple of years ago in Springfield, Ohio, to rent that house. Now, all of a sudden, four families of Haitian migrants come in — each of them getting a thousand dollars per family — and they’re willing to put 20 people into a three-bedroom house. So, what does that do? That prices all of the American citizens out of those houses. That drives up the rents for everybody, because now you have a three-bedroom house you can rent for $4,000 a month or $3,000 a month instead of $1,000 a month. That completely destroys the ability of Americans to live the American dream, and that’s what those open borders did.”
Brad Bull
HOST: “And that creates division and hatred.”
VANCE: “Of course it does. And let’s say you’re living in a house, and your neighbors move out. … But you have … let’s say, a family of five that you’ve known for five years, 10 years, (who) moves out of the house. They’ve actually been evicted from the house because there are people who are going to pay more for rent. And then what happens is 20 people move into a three-bedroom house — 20 people from a totally different culture, totally different ways of interacting. Again, we can respect their dignity, while also being angry at the Biden administration for letting that situation happen and recognizing that their next-door neighbors are going to say: ‘Well, wait a second. What is going on here. I don’t know these people. They don’t speak the same language that I do. And because there are 20 in the house next door, it’s a little bit rowdier than it was when there was just a family of four, a family of five. It is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say, ‘I want to live next to people who I have something in common with. I don’t want to live next to four families of strangers.’ And the fact that we actually had an immigration system that actually promoted that division is a real, real disgrace of the Biden administration.”
Wow. It’s hard to know where to start.
From a rhetorical perspective, Vance’s labeling of neighbors as “rowdy” constitutes a distraction known as a red herring fallacy. Of course people don’t want rowdy neighbors, but the issue is cultural cohesion, and he poisons the water of that actual topic by implying immigrants are rowdy.
“He sugar coats his main message of contempt for immigrants.”
Next, when he claims we can respect immigrants’ dignity, he sugar coats his main message of contempt for immigrants. Additionally, he and the host gaslight by saying Biden was creating hatred and division, when the people hating differences are themselves.
From a factual perspective, Vance dishonestly asserts that “low-wage” immigrant families got $1,000 per month in rent subsidies from the Biden administration. Google Gemini and other fact-checking sources debunk that amount just like Vance’s prior ludicrous claim that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs, which he repeats here.
While there are federal and state programs that provide rent subsidies for legal immigrants, if folks fleeing oppression receive aid to establish themselves as hard-working, tax-paying citizens, isn’t that at least as good an investment as public money to help sports team owners build stadiums? Primarily though, it’s not legal in Ohio to evict someone to make room for higher-paying tenants. So, if it was happening, why wasn’t he as senator addressing the actual problem of the landlords’ behavior?
From a Christian perspective, it’s despicable that he segues from his new Catholic faith to using sleight-of-hand rhetoric to vilify the E pluribus that is part of our great unum. Furthermore, let’s imagine people who speak Samaritan move in next door to Jesus. Jesus wouldn’t say, “I don’t want to live next to four families of strangers.” And a word of caution to all who applaud Vance’s words: Scripture reports that those who are callous to the “least of these” will hear Jesus say, “Depart from me … .”
That word of caution feels particularly pertinent in light of President Trump’s AI video of himself as a fighter pilot bombing American citizens with liquified feces. The video symbolizes Trump’s disdain not only of dissent but for basic human decency. Vance’s diarrhea of the mouth demonstrates anew that one of the bomb bay doors for spreading his hatred is his own mouth.
“I feel sorry for him and those who swallow the fecal bomb because they think it’s a milkshake.”
I feel sorry for him and those who swallow the fecal bomb because they think it’s a milkshake. It’s tragic that Vance — with his Asian Hindu wife — pretends to not know the joy of multicultural experiences. It appears Vance is telling bigots what they want to hear so they’ll forget how his own family brings racial diversity to their neighborhoods.
Personally, I have seen how racially and culturally diverse families like Vance’s have enhanced my neighborhoods — even when they don’t speak English.
When I lived in Knoxville, Tenn., three doors down lived an Asian family who spoke almost no English. But they always nodded and smiled nicely when we passed. The Muslim man who ran the shipping shop down the street was delightful. Later, in little Jefferson City, Tenn., the Korean family who moved in next door ate with my family, and we ate at their house on multiple occasions. My 7-year-old loved his new buddy and ultra-spicy kimchi.
Multicultural neighbors enrich our lives. All people have plenty enough in common: we are all human beings, and we are all children of God.
We also have that in common with JD Vance. So, while I detest his Nazi-inspired ideology and rhetoric, when people like him move in next door, we need to love them and demonstrate the joy reflected in this proverb: “A stranger is just a friend we haven’t met yet.”
Brad Bull has served as a chain factory worker, UPS driver helper, hospital chaplain, pastor, professor and therapist. He is a descendant of John Bull, the gunsmith and Revolutionary War veteran who settled Bulls Gap, Tenn.