NeverVance Critics Are Recycled NeverTrumpers Seeking to Reclaim the GOP
Source: John Daniel Davidson. "NeverVance Is The New NeverTrump. And It's Just As Dishonest." August 19, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author argues that people criticizing Vice President Vance for suggesting the government should help with affordability problems are the same establishment Republicans who hated Trump back in 2016, and they're using the same tired 'socialist' label now to try to take back control of the party once Trump is gone. He says these critics aren't making real arguments about economics—they're just using buzzwords to express dislike, while ignoring that everyday Americans are genuinely struggling and that today's markets aren't really 'free' anyway.
Conclusion
The 'NeverVance' attacks on J.D. Vance (labeling him a socialist or 'woke right') are dishonest and politically motivated attempts by the same establishment/neocon figures who opposed Trump in 2016 to reclaim control of the GOP after Trump leaves office.
Premises
- The critics attacking Vance (Ben Shapiro, Erick Erickson, etc.) are the same people who attacked Trump in 2016 with similar labels (socialist, isolationist, fascist).
- Vance's actual statements—acknowledging affordability problems and suggesting government action—do not constitute socialism but are being mislabeled as such.
- The critics fail to make substantive arguments about free markets or socialism; they use these terms as vague pejoratives to express dislike of Vance.
- The current American economy is not a genuine free market but a 'rigged market' with overregulation and manufactured scarcity in key sectors like housing, healthcare, education, and childcare.
- Real economic hardship exists (majority of under-50 Americans believe the American Dream is unreachable; half of 18-29 year-olds live with parents), which validates concern about affordability rather than indicating socialist sympathies.
- Other Trump administration officials (e.g., Marco Rubio) hold similar populist/common-good positions to Vance but are not attacked, suggesting the attacks are targeted at Vance specifically for political reasons rather than principled ideological disagreement.
- Mass legal immigration (e.g., H-1B visas) has contributed to economic strain on American workers, another factor critics ignore while focusing on labeling Vance a socialist.
Assumptions
- The motivations of Vance's critics can be accurately inferred as primarily about reclaiming the GOP rather than genuine ideological or policy disagreement.
- Concern for affordability and government intervention in specific market failures does not constitute socialism, and the line between the two is clear and uncontested.
- The 2016 NeverTrump movement and current NeverVance critics share not just some tactics but the same core motivation and coordination.
- Vance is accurately understood as Trump's 'proxy and likely successor,' making attacks on him equivalent to attacks on Trump's political legacy.
- The current economic conditions described (rigged markets, immigration effects) are accurately characterized and are the primary drivers of the affordability crisis, rather than other factors critics might cite.