The Trump administration needs a crash course in ‘Working Class’ from JD Vance

Note to Republican leadership: If you truly deem the Democrats coming back into power in Congress and the White House as an existential threat to our nation, then why are you handing them the winning issue for this election cycle on a silver platter?

To be sure, there are still millions of Americans who believe President Trump has an exceptional understanding of economics and that the “business of America is business.” That said, they also understand that Trump is a leader who was blessed to grow up in a bubble of wealth and privilege.

As such, the day-to-day struggles of working-class Americans, no matter how much Trump may sympathize, are still only academic to him.

Our 45th and 47th president has never experienced the hope-crushing and mentally debilitating realities millions of Americans face each waking morning. Realities such as: not having enough money to pay the rent or mortgage; the threat of eviction; being forced to choose between heating fuel or food; not having enough money to buy your child needed medicine; having to walk to your minimum wage job because you did not have enough money to buy gas for your car; not having the money to move from your crime-infested neighborhood; not having the money to fix your teeth; or not having the money so your child could attend the prom.

I can assure you, as someone who grew up in abject poverty and was homeless as a child, millions of our fellow Americans are dealing with these issues every single day. Just as I can assure you that having people in bubbles of wealth and privilege tell paycheck-to-paycheck working Americans to “suck it up” so we can prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is infuriating.

I have spoken with many Republicans and Trump supporters who have continually asked over the last few months: “Wait a minute, I thought the president said we obliterated Iran’s nuclear capability last year! So why am I now being forced to pay higher gas prices and tell my family we can no longer afford meat?”

No matter if the Republican leadership wants to admit it or not, they have a growing perception problem with working-class and disenfranchised Americans. These voters not only believe the Republicans have greatly exacerbated their daily financial struggles but are simultaneously telling them to stop whining for the good of the nation. It’s not a winning strategy in the voting booth.

Working-class Americans don’t need lectures from privileged politicians, pundits and academics. They need a champion, preferably one who lived in and escaped their world into a position of leadership, where they can actually do something about it.

Fortunately for Trump and the Republican leadership, literally right down the hall from the Oval Office sits a man who has a veritable Ph.D. in “working class American.” That person is Vice President JD Vance.

If there is one person in the Trump administration whose life story can deeply resonate with the working class of our nation, it is Vance’s. As he described in his best-selling novel “Hillbilly Elegy,” our vice president grew up a child of divorce in the Rust Belt, as his mother struggled against addiction and alcohol abuse. Vance served in the Marines and put himself through college and law school. He rose quickly in politics, from the Senate to the White House —a life story that speaks to virtually every demographic in one way or another.

In our increasingly polarized and siloed country, many Americans may have forgotten or never learned of Vance’s remarkable story. Now might be a good time for Vance to not only remind voters that he is “one of them,” but the Republican leadership as well.

Years ago, I had the honor to work in the White House for two presidents. If memory serves, there is a very nice auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building where the privileged leadership of the Trump administration can be gathered so the vice president can give them a crash course in the increasingly harsh realities faced by the working class of our nation on a daily basis.

Let’s not lecture the working class, Vance should emphasize. Let’s not speak down to them. Let’s not blame them or insult them. Rather, let us listen to them, empathize with them and seek to help them.

If the Republicans want to have any hope of not being drowned by a growing blue wave come Nov. 3, they would do tell to listen and learn.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.