We are all guilty of a little hypocrisy from time to time, usually when we contradict ourselves or when we are caught saying one thing and doing another. But every now and then someone commits grand hypocrisy, so complete and abrupt that it’s breathtaking.

And J.D. Vance, the best-selling author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” has done just that.

In the 2016 presidential race, in a series of tweets unearthed by CNN, Vance hammered Donald Trump. Here’s what Vance said about Trump then:

“Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us.”

“Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us.”

“Trump’s actual policy proposals, such as they are, range from immoral to absurd.”

“In 4 years, I hope people remember that it was those of us who empathized with Trump’s voters who fought him the most aggressively.”

Well, it is four years later, and Vance suddenly doesn’t want anybody to remember that he fought Trump aggressively. He has deleted those tweets and joined the Republican primary fight to replace Ohio’s retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman.

Nothing would give Vance or any of the Republican hopefuls a bigger boost than Trump’s endorsement. Trump carried Ohio in 2016 and 2020, growing in popularity over four years in office, and a nod from Trump could secure the party’s nomination.

As Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has described the Republican primary so far, it is “five kids on a playground sticking their tongues out at each other saying, ‘Donald Trump likes me more than he likes you.’ ”

Vance apologized on Fox News for being a Trump-bashing Never- Trumper, and he’s singing a different tune now. “Like a lot of people, I criticized Trump back in 2016. And I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said in 2016, because I’ve been very open that I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy,” he said.

Ohio voters will have to decide if Vance had a lightning-strike religious conversion or if he is doing a 180 on Trump just to trick them into voting for him. But if you believe him now, you must question his judgment a mere four years ago. And if you believed him then, it must be tough to trust what he is saying now.

An Olympic-worthy flip-flop to get Trump’s endorsement might seem worth it to Vance, but especially now, we citizens need consistent and steady leaders. Nothing beats worthy opponents who are armed with their honest beliefs and who square-off in the public arena and fight for our support. We shouldn’t have to worry that they will become someone else after the election.

Beyond Ohio, this whole thing is about a lot more than J.D. Vance and his shot at gaining a political advantage. When he announced his run for the Republican nomination, Vance said, “We need a new politics for a new generation. The old way of doing things ain’t working.”

But we sure don’t need “new politics for a new generation” if that means that nobody really stands for anything anymore.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)