JD Vance

Eager Puppy of The Oligarchy

If Trump was Putin’s unwitting blunt instrument, J.D. Vance is Peter Thiel’s eager puppy, tail wagging at the slightest cue. He didn’t fall into this role. He gravitated toward it and now performs on command.

1. The “Hillbilly Elegy” Brand

Vance sells a story: Appalachian roots, working-class struggle, redemption in motion. Hillbilly Elegy made him a media darling and a symbol of white working-class aspiration (or despair)  .

But that myth is overlaid on a foundation built by Silicon Valley capitalist power. The real storyline isn’t resiliency—it’s operability.

2. Who Holds the Leash

Peter Thiel hasn’t just funded Vance; he minted him. From a chance lecture at Yale to joint ventures in venture capital, Thiel’s fingerprints are all over Vance’s rise. In 2022, Thiel poured $15 million into Vance’s Senate campaign and helped engineer his entrance into the Trump orbit  .

Narya Capital, the Tolkien-named fund Vance co-founded, was bankrolled by Thiel and his inner circle—notably luxury networks, not grassroots support  .

It was a contract signed in silent ink: Vance’s path to power would follow Thiel’s design.

3. Populist Rhetoric Wedding Oligarchy

Vance rails against elites—until you trace where his paychecks and network come from. His populist preaching about “America’s working people” begins to ring hollow in venues like Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by the beneficiaries of his political influence.

His mythology of authenticity is in tension with his practical dependency on oligarch funding. He’s marketing “grit,” while backstage he’s being groomed and guided.

4. Oligarchy’s Most Tractable Servant

Thiel doesn’t need Vance to be brilliant. He needs him to be obedient and useful. Vance serves as the polished face of radical deregulation, libertarian vision, and the high-tech overhaul of the GOP—but carefully framed for broader middle America.

This is more dangerous than Trump’s sound-and-fury performance art. Vance isn’t erratic; he’s choreographed. He doesn’t fracture institutions; he systematically remakes them.

5. The Stakes of This Puppetry

When politicians dance for billionaire donors, the audience pays. Vance’s audition is for a role that dilutes democratic deliberation and elevates technocratic oligarchy. The concern isn’t chaos—it’s quiet efficiency in the capture of state.

We must see the leash. And call it out, not with moralizing, but with clarity: He isn’t authentic. He’s assigned.

Finale

Trump crashed through institutions; Vance is building a new one that fits the donors while wearing the costume of the cast-off. He isn’t a loose cannon; he’s the polished flint in the back pocket of plutocracy.

Remember the metaphor. Puppies are obedient until they’re not. But in this case, there’s nothing left to train—and everything to unmask.

• Financial Times. How Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley funded the sudden rise of JD Vance. (2022). Retrieved from ft.com
• CBS News. Peter Thiel pours millions into J.D. Vance’s Senate campaign. (2022). Retrieved from cbsnews.com
• The Guardian. JD Vance is the handpicked leader of the anti-democracy movement in the US. (2024). Retrieved from theguardian.com
• Wikipedia. Hillbilly Elegy. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org