For all his faults and evils, Vance is not a narcissist who pathologically seeks the approval of those he sees as high status, which is what has compelled Trump to try so hard to be buddies with dictators. Vance is more cunning than Trump and would need to have a profit motive beyond just an ego stroking before putting his position at risk (even if the risk is evidently slight, but his relatively low popularity / lack of cult following makes me think/hope he’d have a harder time getting away with stuff than Trump). I suspect most dictators don’t have much to offer Vance in the way of profit that he couldn’t just as easily secure for himself as president without the personal risks of selling out the country to foreign adversaries, and the most salacious scandal we’ve heard about him has to do with a couch rather than Epstein so the kompromat is probably minimal or nil.
Don’t get me wrong, a President Vance would be awful in a lot of ways, and arguably worse than Trump in some ways. It’s just that I don’t imagine him as being quite as much of a national security risk.
The one benefit of Vance replacing Trump is that he doesn’t have a cult like Trump does.
I suspect (naively hope?) Vance would be less inclined to just hand over national security information to Putin, so … maybe two benefits?
What about his behavior to date makes you think that? I feel like that sounds snarky but I don’t intend it that way.
For all his faults and evils, Vance is not a narcissist who pathologically seeks the approval of those he sees as high status, which is what has compelled Trump to try so hard to be buddies with dictators. Vance is more cunning than Trump and would need to have a profit motive beyond just an ego stroking before putting his position at risk (even if the risk is evidently slight, but his relatively low popularity / lack of cult following makes me think/hope he’d have a harder time getting away with stuff than Trump). I suspect most dictators don’t have much to offer Vance in the way of profit that he couldn’t just as easily secure for himself as president without the personal risks of selling out the country to foreign adversaries, and the most salacious scandal we’ve heard about him has to do with a couch rather than Epstein so the kompromat is probably minimal or nil.
Don’t get me wrong, a President Vance would be awful in a lot of ways, and arguably worse than Trump in some ways. It’s just that I don’t imagine him as being quite as much of a national security risk.
That’s just naieve hope. He would sell out his country for a bean.