The real threat to “American democracy” is not former President Donald Trump or a foreign dictator, but the fact that the American voters keep voting for less immigration and elected politicians keep “rewarding” them with more, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, said in a speech Wednesday night.
Vance addressed an audience at the annual National Conservatism Conference in the nation’s capital. The ideas that have come from those conferences, which began in 2019, have changed the Republican Party and the country.
The Ohio lawmaker said that he thinks there have been some positive changes within the GOP regarding foreign policy, noting that there’s now a stronger focus on having a realistic outlook toward the limits of American power.
He said military power is “fundamentally downstream” from industrial power.
“The important lesson from World War II is not that if you thump your chest and pretend you are the good guy, you can win a conflict,” he said. “The most important lesson of World War II is that if the homefront is strong, we can win and project power overseas.”
Vance said the war in Ukraine continues to drag on with billions of dollars being spent by the United States without a clear vision or strategy for victory. He said he thinks an increasing number of Republicans understand this problem.
Another major problem, Vance said, is that some policymakers and media outlets think a war with China could be won while being dependent on China for vital goods.
You can’t have “unlimited free trade” with countries that “hate you,” the Ohio senator said.
Even more important than the shifting ideas about trade, Vance spoke about the increasing opposition to the idea that all immigration is good for America and other Western countries.
Vance said he speaks to conservatives in other Western nations and their constant complaint is that they insist on reducing the amount of immigration to their countries, but politicians ignore them.
He said the reasons for that are that ruling elites desire cheap labor from other countries and that they don’t particularly like “the populations of their own countries.”
“They seem to not really like their own fellow citizens, even though the wars that they want are, of course, going to be fought by people in the heartland, not by the people who are walking down the streets of Washington, D.C.,” Vance said.
The explosion in immigration in recent years has caused an increase in home prices, Vance said. The communities with the highest numbers of immigrants are seeing higher home prices as a result of simple supply and demand.
He cited Springfield, Ohio, as an example of what happens when a city has a massive increase in immigration in a short time.
Vance said this small city has seen its population nearly double, with mostly Haitian illegal aliens, and that has caused housing prices to skyrocket.
“Now go to Springfield, go to Clark County, Ohio, and ask the people there whether they have been enriched by 20,000 newcomers in four years,” he said. “[The price of housing] is through the roof.”
Middle-class people who have lived in the city for generations can’t afford a place to live, Vance said.
“A third of the local county health budget is tied up in giving free benefits to illegal immigrants,” he said.
Vance noted that these people aren’t technically illegal aliens, because President Joe Biden’s administration has essentially made sure that nobody is counted as illegal.
There needs to be a fundamental shift in thinking from leaders, Vance said, in that they must give priority to the people living in their own country. He said the national conservatism movement is changing the debate on that front.
Vance concluded his remarks by saying that America is not simply an idea—though it was founded on great ideas. Instead, it’s a nation with a common history and a common future.
One of the positive things about this country is that America allows for newcomers, he said, “but we allow them on our terms.”
Vance said his family is originally from central Kentucky, deep in Appalachia. He said the people from there are very poor, but they love America—not because it’s a great idea, but because this is their home.
He pointed out that there is a cemetery there where the remains of many of his family members and ancestors rest.
“In that cemetery, there are people who were born around the time of the American Civil War and if, as I hope, my wife and I are eventually laid to rest there and our kids follow us, there will be seven generations just in that small, mountain cemetery in Kentucky,” the freshman senator said.
There would be seven generations there who would have “fought for this country, who have built this country, who have made things in this country, and who would fight and die protecting this country if they were asked to.”
“That is not just an idea. That is not just a set of principles. That is a homeland,” Vance said.