J.D. Vance And Youth Energy In World Politics

JAKARTA - The decision of the US Presidential candidate, Donald Trump to carry James David Vance or JD Vance as a vice presidential candidate in the upcoming 2024 5 US Presidential Election in November invites a surprise. Apart from Vance previously known as a figure who is against Trump, he is also young.

If Trump was re-elected as the leader of the United States, as deputy Vance would be 40 years and 5 months old when he was sworn in on January 20, 2025. He would be the third youngest vice president in the country of Adi Daya after John Cabell Breckinridge, who became deputy of 15th US President James Buchanan (1857-1861), and Richard Nixon when he was vice president of the 36th US Eisenhower in 1953-1961.

Breckinridge was 36 years and 47 days old when he was sworn in as Vice President of the US, while Nixon was 40 years and 11 days old when he officially served as Vice President Buchanan.

"After a long consideration and thought, Vance is the best person who is most suitable to occupy the position of Vice President of the United States," Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

The reason Trump chose Vance, who is now a Ohio State Senator, is because the young politician is considered to represent Trump's right-wing populist movement. Vance is seen as more sat-set than senior figures who tend to be conservative. Trump is still glorifying his creator: MAGA or Make America Great Again.

Trump needs to attract votes from MAGA fanatical supporters, spread across the Rust Belt area. This is a term for countries in the United States that are experiencing economic degradation due to the 'oldul' model industry that has begun to be abandoned, such as: coal mining, automotive, manufacturing, and steel factories.

Trump is indeed popular with these areas, such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. But the MAGA kredo he carries also has a lot of support in information technology-based industries, which are controlled by new rich people in Silicon Valley.

Vance is right to describe an economic revival. He grew up in a messy family in Mideletown, Ohio. His parents divorced when Vance was a toddler. He grew up with his grandparents, because his mother was a drug addict.

The environment where he lives is less socially and economically conducive, but Vance is able to escape the shackles. He graduated Summa cum laude as a scholar in political philosophy from Ohio State University, then took legal education at Yale Law School. He has also devoted himself to being a Marine with a copral rank, and served in the Iraqi War.

In the early days of political emergence, Vance said he was anti Trump. He stated this at the launch of his best-selling biography, Hillbilly Elegy, in 2016. The biography was filmed the same title, and aired on Netflix.

"I'm not Trump, and I never liked him. In my opinion, he's an impression and despicable," Vance said in an interview with the BBC.

But not long after, his views turned 180 degrees. To a Facebook friend, Vance wrote this: "My mind is adrift, between judging Trump to be an storesman or his Hitler America."

After several years, Vance has openly confirmed that he is a loyal ally of Trump. And the US Presidential candidate also supported Vance's candidacy for Senator Ohio.

Vance's metamorphosis from an opposing figure turned into a supporter of Trump's militants into a hot issue in the media. Vance is very aggressively against US aid to Ukraine against Russia, and that's when the Trump clan became interested in him.

Vance's outspoken attitude made Trump prefer him, rather than other vice presidential candidates such as Doug Burgum (Governor of North Dakota), Glenn Youngkin (Governor of Dakota), Marco Rubio (Senator of Florida) who is popular among hispanics, and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina who is popular with black voters.

Inevitably, the progress of young politicians is currently getting hotter. Apart from Vance in the United States, another example is Gabriel Attal, the 35-year-old French PM. There is also Ibrahim Traore, President of Burkina Faso who is 36 years old, Daniel Noboa (36 years old) President of Ecuador, Milojko Spajic (36 years old) PM Montenegro, or Gabriel Boric (38 years old) who has served as President of Chile since 2022.

Another example that is closest to the Indonesian people is of course Gibran Rakabuming Raka. When inaugurated on October 22, the Vice President of Elect President Prabowo Subianto was 37 years old.

The openness and outspoken attitude are one indicator of the actions of young politicians. Check out what Vance said, just two days after the Trump shooting incident in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.

The shooting was not an incident in itself. The main premise of Biden's campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped in any way. The rhetoric led directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump, Vance said via platform X on July 14.

Or watch Noboa's speech on November 16, 2023, after being elected President of Ecuador.

I have the characteristics of a little talking, but meaningful. I've always been given a long time to make speeches, but I always finish them in just three or four minutes. The road to the highest peak, being president is indeed full of deception. But that's the original nature of humans," said Noboa.

Or Spajic who put forward the idea of establishing an anti-corruption court in Montenegro. The idea was intended to get rid of pro-B Serbia politicians, who tried to prevent Montenegro from joining the European Union and remain inclined towards Russia.

J.D. Vance is indeed the most aggressive in pursuing ambitions compared to its competitors. That was also what Noboa and other young world leaders did. Their energy is passionate, full of enthusiasm, and that should also be shown by Gibran when he officially serves as Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia later.