The level of hate and derogatory suspicion being foisted on Vance even by those who are allegedly in the conservative sphere is ridiculous and retarded. And that's conservatives. Liberals see the guy as the incarnation of Moloch.

It's like nobody knows what good character and actual achievement is or what it looks like. You show Vance to a lot of conservatives and the reaction is "nope, not achievement, fishy, too extreme to be real, fuck that guy, he's a fraud."

You ask the goddamnit who then and you get some candidate that nobody will recognize because he's "pure" allegedly.

So what do you do, make your back story so nebulous that nobody questions it? Or have no life achievements? Wait, that would make you a Democratic candidate.

That's kind of a deep cultural issue in our society, the "real" is gaslit constantly by axe grinders. 20 years ago a Vance type would be celebrated by the right. Today the right is circling its wagons and putting him up for public proctology exams.