war in Iraq against a video released by WikiLeaks showing an Apache helicopter firing upon and killing at least 10 Iraqis. (Vance wrote: “Of all the things I can’t stand about politics, the tendency to emotionalize a difficult topic is probably the worst.”) In the course of writing about the Supreme Court, he conceded his support for race-conscious affirmative action.Ī fifth essay defended the U.S. A third endorsed cuts to the future growth of Medicare and Social Security. One Vance essay for FrumForum praised former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman as a truer conservative than Texas Governor Rick Perry. All of that has been left behind by Senate candidate Vance. FrumForum Vance scorned culture-warring, valued expertise, endorsed social inclusion, rejected partisan rancor, and supported America’s important role in world security. Both are deeply concerned about the deteriorating prospects for working-class white America both are immigration skeptics. In some ways, there are continuities between the FrumForum Vance and candidate Vance. Now the record is out there, not by my doing. I also felt that the substance of what he wrote, while revealing, didn’t at the time rise to the level of urgent public interest. So, even as my former contributor’s career has lurched in disturbing directions, I’ve felt honor-bound to maintain confidentiality about the pieces.

Vance wrote for FrumForum under a pseudonym. Yet it attracted dozens of young writers who subsequently advanced to important careers and high reputations. The project proved unsuccessful, to put it mildly. From 2009 to 2012, it tried to imagine a reformed Republican Party: more economically inclusive, more culturally modern, more environmentally aware. Politico found the super PAC’s report and posted a link to it. The super PAC discovered that a decade ago, the now staunchly pro-Trump Vance had written a half dozen articles for a website run by a future anti-Trumper: me. A super PAC supporting the Ohio Republican-who won the party’s nomination for Senate on May 3-had commissioned opposition research to help Vance defend against his vulnerabilities. Last week, Politico reported on a strange leak from the J.

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