'Make them pay': JD Vance says 'destroy' those who oppose values that make America great

15 August 2024

In a fascistic, nationalistic, and anti-“woke” speech to a right-wing pro-MAGA think tank in 2021, JD Vance decreed the conservative movement should destroy those who are “fighting the values and virtues that make this country great.”

Vance’s remarks to the Claremont Institute were unearthed Thursday by The Christian Science Monitor, which reported on his views about Amazon supporting Black Lives Matter, and companies that are pro-choice.

But his full 21-minute speech (video below, full published text here), which he delivered just two months before launching his successful U.S. Senate campaign, is much more broad and ideologically-driven. In it, he attacks globalization, Critical Race Theory (CRT), the Black Lives Matter movement, and the “digitalization of the American economy.”

In it, Vance, now the Republican Party’s vice-presidential nominee, alleges ideas that progressive institutions promote are the cause of America’s ills, and decrees the power those institutions have over society should be negated – or they should be destroyed.

“One of the biggest capital allocators in the world is that woke social justice hedge fund known as Harvard University, which has over $120 billion under management, which funds some of the most destructive ideologies all across our country, which literally trains the next generation of priests in the woke seminary that’s dominating our professional class,” Vance told the audience listening to his speech, “Fighting Woke Capital.”

After targeting institutions that he says are “woke social justice hedge fund[s],” like Harvard University, and the Ford Foundation, which allocate “woke capital,” Vance says, “I think there are some obvious solutions, and it should start from a fundamental premise that if you are fighting the American nation state, if you are fighting the values and virtues that make this country great, the conservative movement should be about nothing if not reducing your power, and if necessary, destroying you.”

In his remarks Vance does not appear to differentiate between institutions and the people who run them.

“We cannot let the people who are driving this country into the ground continue to benefit from special benefits,” Vance says, “from tax breaks, from subsidies, or from liability protections. That is the simple rule that we should follow. Harvard University’s $120 billion endowment is ammunition for our enemies, and we can’t let the enemy have that much ammunition or we’re going to lose. It’s that simple. This principle should guide all of our policies. If you cannot go after the pocketbook of these people, if you cannot make them pay, then you are accepting defeat. It’s that simple. We’re never going to beat them unless we go after them.”

“We should eliminate all of the special privileges that exist for our non-profit foundation class,” Vance, who ran an unsuccessful nonprofit, adds. “If you’re spending all your money to teach racism to our children in their schools, why do we give you special tax breaks instead of taxing you more? When Biden raises taxes, the rich won’t pay the brunt of this. They’ll give money to their foundations, which will use it to push their progressive agenda. They’ll be saved from the consequence of the tax increase even as it will empower institutions that hate us. We need to stop that. The decision to give those foundations and those organizations special privileges is a decision made by public policy. We need better public policy, and a willingness to actually go after the institutions that are trying to destroy the American way of life.”

Commenting on Vance’s speech in 2021, Esquire’s Charles P. Pierce warned: “Fascism doesn’t die just because it loses an election here and there. Here it comes, America. Be ready. Because J.D. Vance knows what’s good for you.”

Watch Vance’s full speech below or at this link.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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