9·11 테러의 동기

Motives for 9/11 Attacks - Google Gemini

9·11 테러의 동기와 그 역사적 맥락에 대한 해설과 비평입니다.

<명분과 실제 전략의 괴리> 오사마 빈 라덴과 알카에다가 대외적으로 내세운 명분은 사우디아라비아 내 미군 주둔, 팔레스타인에 대한 억압, 이라크 제재 등 이슬람 세계가 겪는 집단적 고통에 대한 응징이었다. 그러나 내부적인 핵심 목표는 훨씬 전략적이고 냉혹했다. 알카에다는 중동 내 친미 세속 독재 정권인 <가까운 적(Near Enemy)>을 직접 무너뜨릴 역량이 부족하자, 이들을 떠받치는 패권국인 미국이라는 <먼 적(Far Enemy)>을 타격해 판 전체를 뒤흔들고자 했다. 즉, 팔레스타인 이슈나 종교적 거룩함은 대중적 분노를 결집하고 테러의 정당성을 날조하기 위한 선동 도구의 성격이 짙었다.

<비대칭 덫과 미국의 과민 반응> 빈 라덴의 가장 본질적인 계산은 미국의 거대한 군사적 반격을 유도하는 것이었다. 아프가니스탄에서 소련의 패퇴를 직접 경험했던 그는, 미국을 중동이라는 수렁으로 끌어들여 군사적·경제적 소모전을 강제하면 제국이 스스로 붕괴할 것이라 보았다. 비극적이게도 미국은 이 덫에 걸려들었다. 9·11 이후 조지 W. 부시 행정부는 테러와의 전쟁을 선포하고 아프가니스탄 침공을 넘어 무리하게 이라크 전쟁을 강행했다. 이는 천문학적인 재정 적자, 수많은 인명 손실, 미국의 도덕적 정당성 훼손으로 이어졌으며, 결과적으로 오사마 빈 라덴의 경제적 고갈 전략은 일정 부분 의도대로 실현되었다.

<지정학적 역설과 의도치 않은 결과> 그러나 알카에다의 전략은 또 다른 차원에서 치명적인 역설을 낳았다. 첫째, 범이슬람주의 칼리프 국가를 재건하겠다는 이상과 달리, 이라크 침공으로 사담 후세인 정권이 무너지면서 수니파-시아파 간의 극심한 종파 갈등이 폭발했다. 둘째, 수니파 극단주의의 최대 숙적인 시아파 맹주 이란이 중동의 실질적인 패권 세력으로 부상하는 계기를 마련했다. 셋째, 알카에다 내부에서 파생된 알자르카위 세력은 이후 이슬람국가(IS)로 진화하며 알카에다조차 통제할 수 없는 맹목적이고 무차별적인 학살 기구로 변질되었다.

결국 9·11 테러는 미국의 제국적 개입주의가 지닌 한계를 여실히 드러낸 사건인 동시에, 종교적 근본주의와 테러리즘이 결코 지배 질서의 대안이 될 수 없으며 단지 끝없는 혼돈과 파괴만을 양산한다는 점을 증명한 역사적 참극이었다.

====

9·11 테러의 동기와 그에 대한 평론

2001년 9월 11일의 테러를 단순히 “이슬람이 서구의 자유를 증오했기 때문”이라고 설명하는 것은 부정확하다. 반대로 “미국의 중동정책이 나빴기 때문에 일어난 저항”이라고만 말하는 것도 테러리스트의 자기변호를 그대로 받아들이는 오류다. 9·11은 실제 정치적 원한, 이슬람주의적 세계관, 알카에다의 조직적 야심, 미국의 과잉반응을 유도하려는 전략이 결합한 사건이었다.

1. 알카에다가 공개적으로 내세운 동기

오사마 빈 라덴은 1996년과 1998년의 선언, 2002년의 <미국인에게 보내는 편지>, 2004년 영상 등을 통해 공격 이유를 반복해서 밝혔다.

사우디아라비아의 미군 주둔

1990년 이라크가 쿠웨이트를 침공하자 사우디 왕실은 미군을 받아들였다. 빈 라덴은 메카와 메디나가 있는 사우디아라비아에 비무슬림 군대가 주둔하는 것을 ‘성지에 대한 점령’으로 규정했다. 그는 자신의 아프가니스탄 무자헤딘을 동원해 사우디를 방어하겠다고 제안했으나 왕실이 이를 거절하고 미국을 선택하자, 사우디 왕실과 미국을 동시에 배신자로 여기기 시작했다.

이는 빈 라덴 개인에게 특히 중요한 계기였다. 그는 사우디의 부유한 엘리트 출신이었지만 국적을 박탈당하고 추방되면서 자신을 ‘타락한 왕정과 서구 제국주의에 맞서는 이슬람의 전사’로 재구성했다. 9·11 조사위원회도 그의 반미 투쟁이 사우디 내 미군 주둔 문제에서 본격화되었다고 설명한다. 미국 9·11 조사위원회 보고서 제2장

미국의 이스라엘 지원

빈 라덴은 미국의 이스라엘 군사·외교 지원을 핵심 명분으로 내세웠다. 그는 2004년 영상에서 1982년 이스라엘의 레바논 침공과 베이루트 폭격을 보면서 미국의 건물도 파괴해야겠다고 생각했다고 주장했다.

팔레스타인 문제는 나중에 첨가된 구실만은 아니었다. 알카에다의 선언들에서 반복적으로 등장하며, 미국에 대한 아랍·이슬람권의 광범위한 분노와 연결되는 가장 강력한 동원 언어였다. 그러나 빈 라덴의 궁극적 목표가 팔레스타인 독립이나 이스라엘과 팔레스타인의 공존은 아니었다. 그는 이 문제를 미국과 이슬람 세계 사이의 문명적 전쟁을 선포하는 재료로 사용했다.

이라크 제재와 중동의 친미 정권

1991년 걸프전쟁 이후 미국이 주도한 대이라크 제재로 이라크 민간인이 심각한 고통을 겪었다. 알카에다는 이를 “미국이 무슬림 어린이를 죽이고 있다”는 선전의 중요한 근거로 사용했다. 동시에 사우디아라비아·이집트 등 권위주의 정부를 미국이 지탱한다고 비난했다.

이 비판에는 사실적 기반이 있었다. 미국은 석유, 안보, 이스라엘과의 관계를 중시하여 중동의 비민주적 정권들을 지원했고, 이라크 제재가 민간인에게 준 피해를 과소평가했다. 그러나 알카에다는 그 책임을 미국 민간인 전체에게 돌렸다. 미국인이 세금을 내고 정부를 선출하므로 모두 합법적인 공격 대상이라는 논리를 만들었다. 이것은 정치적 책임을 무차별적 집단유죄로 바꾸는 결정적인 도덕적 비약이었다.

2. 종교는 동기의 전부가 아니지만 부수적인 것도 아니었다

알카에다는 이슬람 전체를 대표하지 않았다. 빈 라덴과 아이만 알자와히리는 정식 이슬람 법학자가 아니었으며, 1998년의 이른바 ‘파트와’도 권위 있는 종교적 판결이라기보다 정치적 전쟁선언이었다. 그들은 민간인과 군인을 구분하지 않고 미국인 살해를 개인적 의무라고 선언했다. 1998년 ‘유대인과 십자군에 대한 지하드’ 선언 전문

그들의 사상적 배경에는 이븐 타이미야의 일부 주장, 와하비즘적 엄격주의, 사이드 쿠트브의 혁명적 이슬람주의가 있었다. 쿠트브는 현대 세속사회를 신의 주권을 거부하는 ‘자힐리야’, 곧 무지와 야만의 상태로 보았다. 알카에다는 이 이분법을 극단화하여 세상을 신의 진영과 악의 진영으로 나누고, 자신과 다른 무슬림까지 배교자로 규정했다.

따라서 9·11은 종교와 무관한 순수한 반제국주의 운동이 아니었다. 미국이 중동정책을 모두 바꾸었다고 해도 빈 라덴이 요구한 것은 미국의 철수만이 아니라 세속주의와 민주주의의 거부, 이슬람 율법에 따른 사회질서, 자신들이 이상화한 칼리프 국가의 회복이었다. 정치적 원한은 실제였지만, 그 원한을 민간인 대량살해로 전환한 것은 극단주의적 종교 해석이었다.

동시에 이를 ‘이슬람의 본질’이라고 일반화해서도 안 된다. 알카에다는 다양한 이슬람 전통을 제거하고 특정 문구만 선별하여 폭력을 신성화했다. 실제로 대다수 무슬림은 무차별 살해를 거부했고, 9·11 희생자 가운데에도 무슬림이 있었다. 9·11 조사위원회 역시 빈 라덴의 운동을 이슬람 전체가 아니라 정치·사회적 혼란 위에 자라난 극단적 분파로 설명한다.

3. 9·11은 보복인 동시에 계산된 도발이었다

알카에다의 목적은 단지 미국인에게 고통을 주는 데 있지 않았다. 더 중요한 전략적 목표가 있었다.

첫째, 미국이 무적이 아니라는 것을 보여주려 했다. 빈 라덴은 소련이 아프가니스탄에서 철수하고 미국이 1993년 소말리아에서 철수한 것을 보며, 강대국도 충분한 인명과 비용을 부담하게 하면 물러난다고 판단했다.

둘째, 미국을 중동 전쟁으로 끌어들이려 했다. 미국이 무슬림 국가를 침공하면 민간인 피해가 발생하고, 그 결과 더 많은 무슬림이 급진화되어 알카에다에 합류할 것이라고 예상했다.

셋째, 이슬람 세계의 기존 정치세력을 무력화하려 했다. 알카에다는 미국을 ‘먼 적’이라고 불렀다. 미국이라는 후원자를 공격하면 사우디와 이집트 같은 ‘가까운 적’, 즉 친미 정권도 무너뜨릴 수 있다고 생각했다.

넷째, 세계를 두 진영으로 나누려 했다. 무슬림이 미국과 알카에다 사이에서 중립을 지키지 못하도록 거대한 충돌을 일으키는 것이었다. 이런 의미에서 9·11은 미국을 응징하는 공격이면서 미국의 과잉반응을 필요로 하는 함정이었다.

4. 평론: 원인을 인정하되 정당성으로 혼동하지 않아야 한다

9·11을 제대로 이해하려면 세 가지 명제를 동시에 인정해야 한다.

첫째, 미국의 중동정책은 알카에다의 분노가 자라난 현실적 조건이었다. 이스라엘에 대한 거의 무조건적인 지원, 중동 독재정권과의 동맹, 이라크 제재가 낳은 민간인 고통을 무시하고 “그들은 우리의 자유를 미워했다”고만 말하는 것은 역사적 자기성찰을 회피하는 설명이다.

둘째, 그렇다고 미국의 잘못이 9·11을 필연적으로 낳은 것은 아니다. 동일한 정책에 분노한 수많은 무슬림과 팔레스타인인이 민간항공기를 납치해 민간인을 살해하지 않았다. 불의의 경험은 저항의 이유가 될 수 있지만, 저항의 방법까지 자동으로 정당화하지 않는다. 알카에다는 억압받는 사람들을 해방한 것이 아니라 그들의 고통을 자기 조직의 종말론적 전쟁을 위한 자원으로 이용했다.

셋째, 미국의 대응도 평가해야 한다. 아프가니스탄의 알카에다 기지를 제거하려는 초기 행동과 달리, 알카에다와 직접 관계가 없었던 이라크를 침공한 것은 9·11에 대한 대응 범위를 크게 벗어났다. 장기 전쟁, 민간인 희생, 고문, 관타나모 수용소는 미국이 내세운 법치와 인권의 신뢰성을 훼손했다. 특히 이라크전쟁은 알카에다의 “미국은 이슬람 세계를 침략한다”는 선전에 새로운 생명을 주었다. 미국은 알카에다 지도부를 제거했지만, 어떤 면에서는 알카에다가 원했던 거대한 문명충돌의 무대에 스스로 들어갔다.

결론

9·11의 직접적인 책임은 공격을 계획하고 실행한 알카에다에 있다. 미국의 중동정책을 비판한다고 해서 이 책임이 줄어드는 것은 아니다. 그러나 책임과 원인은 다르다. 알카에다가 전적으로 책임을 진다고 해서 미국의 정책이 만들어낸 분노와 절망을 분석하지 않아도 되는 것은 아니다.

가장 균형 잡힌 결론은 다음과 같다. 9·11은 미국의 중동 개입이 자동적으로 발생시킨 사건도 아니고, 이슬람이라는 종교가 필연적으로 낳은 사건도 아니다. 그것은 실제 정치적 불의와 집단적 상처를 빈 라덴의 극단주의적 세계관이 흡수하고, 이를 알카에다의 권력 확대와 세계적 양극화를 위해 민간인 대량살해로 전환한 사건이었다.

그러므로 9·11이 주는 교훈은 테러를 군사력으로만 제거할 수 없다는 데 있다. 테러의 명분이 되는 불의한 정책을 교정하는 동시에, 어떤 대의도 무고한 사람의 생명을 수단으로 삼을 수 없다는 원칙을 지켜야 한다. 평화와 화해는 가해자의 폭력을 용서하거나 피해자의 책임을 묻는 일이 아니다. 폭력을 낳은 구조를 직시하면서도 복수와 집단유죄의 논리를 단호하게 거부하는 데서 시작한다.

===

Israel and Palestine: House of Commons debates - TheyWorkForYou

Israel and Palestine: 8 Sep 2026: House of Commons debates - TheyWorkForYou

Israel and Palestine

– in the House of Commons at 1:19 pm on 8 September 2026.

« Previous debate All Commons debates on 8 Sep 2026 Next debate »

Photo of Ed MilibandEd Miliband Foreign Secretary, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office  1:19, 8 September 2026

====

With permission, I would like to make a statement on Israel and Palestine. I do so as a proud British Jew, someone with the deepest gratitude to the state of Israel for giving a home to my grandmother after she lost her husband, my grandfather, and 60 other family members at the hands of the Nazis. I remember visiting her in the 1970s in Tel Aviv and seeing the life and sanctuary Israel had provided. Indeed, some of my most joyful childhood memories are of picking oranges as a kid on the kibbutz where my cousins lived.

My personal story and that of thousands of British Jews is one of the many reasons why I say to anyone here or around the world who questions Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people: you are wrong, and we will call you out whenever you engage in that attempt at the erasure of Israel.

I know what the trauma of Hamas’s terrorist atrocity of 7 October meant and still means to people across Israel and to Jews across the world. It was a murderous act by a murderous terrorist organisation designed to massacre and instil fear across a whole population. The events of 7 October make plain the grave threats that Israel faces, and it has every right to defend itself. We should not only condemn those threats but act against those who carry them out.

Iran continues to threaten Israel and Jews across the world. We have already designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and we will do more on Iran’s proxy groups. Today I can announce that we are sanctioning Lebanese Hezbollah’s financing arm, Al-Qard Al-Hassan. Iran must never have a nuclear weapon, so we are also acting this week, alongside our allies, to report Iran to the UN Security Council for its nuclear violations, and I can announce today that we are reimposing major economic sanctions on Iran in line with the European Union and the United States. Tackling those threats is just one of the important shared national security interests we have with Israel, on which we will continue to co-operate.

I know, too, that so many members of the Jewish community now live in fear in the face of rising antisemitism, including here in the UK. Last week we commemorated the anniversary of the Heaton Park attack, when Jews were murdered at their place of worship simply for their religion—an outrage that was followed by antisemitic attacks in Golders Green, including on the Hatzola ambulances. The everyday life of Jews in Britain is deeply affected by the climate that such hate creates. When I went to school in the 1980s, I did so without fear. Today we need to face the truth: that is not the case for thousands of Jewish children across the UK—children who have to go to a school with security guards outside it. No child should have to go to school facing that, and no teacher should face antisemitism either.

Whether it happens in our schools, universities or workplaces, online or on our streets, antisemitism is a scourge and an evil. We are rightly putting in place an additional investment of £250 million for community security, but we all have a responsibility to do more. As part of this, I will in October host representatives of the J7—the countries across the world with the largest Jewish populations. We will meet in the UK to discuss the different ways we can work across borders to tackle antisemitism, including tackling online hate.

I am proud of my Jewishness and unwavering in my support for the state of Israel, and there is absolutely no contradiction between that and my support for the state of Palestine—indeed, quite the opposite. The two-state solution is based on an explicit belief that the only route to security for both peoples is to live side by side in peaceful co-existence, with freedom, security and self-determination. Securing the two-state solution in its fullest form is the north star of this Government’s policy and, indeed, of successive British Governments over decades.

It is precisely this belief in the rights and freedoms of the Israeli and Palestinian people that leads many, including me, to a deep sense of shame about what has unfolded in Palestine under the eyes of the international community. In Gaza, we have seen the most unimaginable trauma and suffering in the last three years—death, destruction and dehumanisation on an appalling scale; a stain on the conscience of the world and of this country too. And in the west bank, we have seen the clear attempt to, in the words of Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich,

“bury the idea of a Palestinian state”.

There is a deeply painful contrast between our professed commitment to a two-state solution and the reality on the ground in Gaza and the west bank. I pay tribute to my predecessors, my right hon. Friends Yvette Cooper and for Tottenham (Mr Lammy), for their tireless efforts on this issue, as well as to the Minister for Intergovernmental Relations and European Relations, my right hon. Friend Mr Falconer.

We should always be proud that it was a Labour Government who took the historic step of recognising the state of Palestine, but the Prime Minister is right to say that the Labour Government have not done enough in the face of what is happening, so today marks the beginning of a new approach—an approach that not only calls out injustice and suffering, but acts. In taking this stance, I make a very clear distinction that is crucial for us all in this debate: our argument is not with the people of Israel, with whom the UK has unshakeable bonds; our argument is with the conduct of its Government. I also want to say emphatically to people in Britain and across the world: holding British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli Government is antisemitism, plain and simple.

What we seek today is to salvage the only course for peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians: the two-state solution. Let me start with the situation in the west bank. At the time of the Oslo peace accords in 1993, around 270,000 settlers lived in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Today it is some 770,000. More settlements have been approved under the four years of this Israeli Government than in the previous 20 years. Let us spell out what that has meant for Palestinian communities: houses bulldozed; roads and public infrastructure destroyed; families displaced from their homes, community by community, family by family, person by person. Sixty-five Palestinian communities have been completely expelled since 2023—a total of over 4,000 Palestinians have been evicted from their homes due to settler violence and state actions.

In August, we saw the crossing of a long-standing red line: the issuing of E1 tenders for over 1,200 homes. I visited a community in the area covered by E1 in 2014. The Bedouin communities I met in Khan al-Ahmar had lived on that land for generations. E1 proposals would evict them and place settlements directly between East Jerusalem and the west bank, cutting through the heart of Palestine. Let us be absolutely clear what this means: the creation of a set of facts on the ground to make the two-state solution unviable.

On top of official state policy, settler terrorism is rampant. The UN reports an average of six violent settler attacks against Palestinians per day this year—the highest on record. Let us take one example: in al-Mughayyir, 20 miles north of Jerusalem, settlers have encircled the village and mounted a campaign of intimidation, largely under the protection of the Israeli military. Families in the village are increasingly cut off from accessing their land, squeezed into ever smaller areas, and have olive trees uprooted and livestock stolen. In the same community, just last week, two teenagers were shot when settlers entered the village under police and military escort. Both died before reaching hospital. Five teenagers from their school have now been killed this year.

Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli Prime Minister, has described what is happening as

“A violent and criminal effort…to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank.”

The former Minister of Health and retired brigadier general from the Israel Defence Forces, Ephraim Sneh, has said:

“This is ethnic cleansing, to put it simply.”

Ethnic cleansing is defined by the UN as

“a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”

The British Government agree that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the west bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists. All too often, the Israeli Government have turned a blind eye to that—and, worse, members of that Government have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians. I recognise the gravity of saying this, but the truth is that it is the least the people who face such suffering deserve, and it should be the prelude to justice.

For a long time, the British Government have rightly said that settlements are illegal, but we have remained silent on the question of the legality of the occupation as a whole, which in 2024 the International Court of Justice concluded was unlawful. Today, I announce that the official view of the British Government is that the occupation is unlawful, because of Israel’s entrenchment of its control, its intention to extend permanent sovereignty and its expansionist agenda via illegal settlements.

Our position is not just an overdue statement of reality; the Government believe that the unlawfulness of the occupation should be reflected in the economic relationships we choose to have with the occupied territories. I do not believe that the British people want us supporting the occupation by accepting products from settlements in our shops and supermarkets, so I can announce today that we will introduce an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

To do so, we will introduce a new comprehensive sanctions regime, working with my right hon. Friend the Business Secretary, with appropriate religious exemptions. As part of this regime, we will go further. We will take action against specific companies and individuals who provide services such as construction, infrastructure, financing or real estate for settlement expansion. To those who finance or facilitate illegal settlements, let me say this: you will face the full force of UK sanctions.

Settlements are illegal. They should not be promoted in our country. Earlier this year, shamefully, just a few miles from here, we saw an expo advertising illegal settlement land. We must and we will ensure that that never happens again, so we will ban the advertising in the UK of illegal settlements.

The sanctions regime will target illegal settlements and settlement expansion, not Israel. We will continue to support important and valued trade with green-line Israel precisely because we support the two-state solution, including security and prosperity for Israel. For that reason, I wholeheartedly oppose the BDS—boycott, divestment, sanctions—campaign.

The legislation I have announced today will be in place within six to nine months, and we will also take more immediate steps. Today, we are sanctioning a further set of extremist settlers who have supported or incited acts of violence against Palestinian communities. I can also announce that we are extending the existing global human rights regime such that it will enable swifter action to deter settlement expansion, including—crucially—seeking to prevent the development of E1.

I also want to address the question of arms sales. We have already suspended over 30 arms licences used by the IDF in Gaza. That suspension remains fully in place. We will now also refuse all licence applications for arms and other exports that materially contribute to the occupation—in effect, a double lock against arms sales. That means the ban on such exports will now remain in place for as long as the occupation persists.

To advance the two-state solution, we also need viable and effective Palestinian governance, so I urge the Palestinian Authority to accelerate reform, and I urge Israel to lift its withholding of revenues, which is frankly financially crippling the provision of essential services in the west bank. The set of measures I have announced represents a clear message to the Government of Israel, to the Palestinians in the occupied territories and to the world that we will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution.

I turn now to Gaza. The horror of 7 October appalled the world and had terrible echoes of the centuries of persecution of the Jewish people: men, women, children and babies killed, mutilated and tortured by Hamas terrorists; people murdered while seeking to protect their families; young people massacred at a music festival; and people abducted from their homes. As the 20-point peace plan for Gaza sets out, that is one of many reasons why Hamas can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. They must decommission their weapons and dismantle their terrorist infrastructure.

Israel has the right not to live in fear of vile terrorism, and the Israeli state has the right to protect its people and defend its territory, but that cannot justify what has happened in Gaza. Over 70,000 people have been killed, at least 20,000 of them children—20,000. The vast Majority of the population is displaced—nearly 2 million people—and they are now penned into just one third of the territory. Lifesaving humanitarian aid and access has been routinely blocked. Hospitals and clinics have been destroyed. Over 60% of homes are in ruins.

International humanitarian law imposes clear rules for states fighting wars, including to ensure access to food and medical supplies, to avoid mass displacement of civilians and to avoid the targeting of civilians. Serious and intentional violations of that law, if proven, amount to war crimes. What has occurred, including the actions of the IDF, has been examined in depth by a number of organisations, including the UN independent international commission of inquiry. The conclusions of these reports represent increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed, and we support legal processes to determine that.

On the question of genocide, the UK has always supported full, robust and fair judicial processes to consider allegations, with final determinations made by competent courts before the British Government reach a conclusion. That has been the case for all of the genocides since the 1948 genocide convention: Rwanda, Srebrenica, Cambodia and acts against the Yazidi people. That will remain our policy. It is right that this issue has been brought before the ICJ, and I want to make it clear that we support the court in coming to its determination.

Accountability for what has happened in Gaza matters, but even more urgent is action to address the ongoing crisis, because today in Gaza the death and suffering continue. Nearly a year ago, a ceasefire was declared, yet over 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since, and the people of Gaza are experiencing a totally avoidable humanitarian catastrophe that I am afraid is driven by the decisions of the Israeli Government.

Last week, I talked to courageous doctors and humanitarian aid workers who have served in Gaza. It was a heartbreaking conversation. They recounted children dying waiting for medical treatment, people forced to live next to open sewage and without shelter, and food insecurity rampant. I am sure the whole House agrees that that is unconscionable, so I pledge that we will continue to do everything we can to provide all the humanitarian support possible to help the people of Gaza.

UK-supported hospitals in Gaza will enable around 800,000 medical consultations this year and essential health services for patients. UK expertise will deliver care to over 1,000 child amputees. We recently welcomed another wave of students from Gaza coming to study in Britain, and we will welcome more. But in truth, unless Israel changes course, the situation will remain dire, so we are taking further steps both by ourselves and with others.

Our extension of the global human rights sanctions regime will enable us to target those responsible for violations of international humanitarian law, whether in Gaza or anywhere else in the world. At the UN General Assembly in New York later this month, we will shine the clearest and harshest spotlight on what is happening and what must change. With Jordan, we will convene countries across the world to lead a call for action on health and humanitarian access. We will also lend the UK’s voice to the growing global alliance of countries, led by Arab partners in the region, calling for the full implementation of the US-led 20-point plan, the rejection of extremism and a lasting end to the cycles of violence. As we implement the policy measures I have announced today, we will continue to assess the Government of Israel by their actions. We want to see a new approach in both Gaza and the west bank.

Today we refuse to be bystanders to further suffering and to the destruction of the two-state solution. We call out what is unlawful. We act on the import of goods from illegal settlements. We ban advertising of illegal settlements. We act on services to prevent new settlement expansion. We act on settler violence. We support accountability for what has happened in Gaza, and we pledge to galvanise the international community to confront the ongoing and urgent humanitarian crisis. Above all, we say: Britain is not silent in the face of deep injustice, nor is it powerless.

Today we act in concert with others in a broad international coalition. I can tell the House that today, France and Canada are announcing, alongside Britain, that they will ban the import of goods from illegal settlements, joining the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway, which have either banned goods or are in the process of doing so. Many other countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden—are pledging today that they will support further action. That is what Britain can achieve, leading with others, and it is in our fundamental national interest, because if there is one lesson of recent decades, it is that we will never have stability in the middle east without a two-state solution. It is also the case that if we fail to stand up for the values that this country has long held and fought for, we lose credibility and influence in the world.

My parents came to this country as Jewish refugees, and found sanctuary and a country that stood up for the rule of law, freedom and self-determination. Those are the values this Government are standing up for today, and I truly believe that the vast majority of the British people, including in our communities with ties to the region, are united in their desire to see humanitarian suffering end and all sides commit to a durable peace process. Just as we want Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side, we have to live out those values in Britain. Jews in Britain, Muslims in Britain, and people of all faiths and none have a right to live without prejudice or fear. We need a Britain that upholds its values at home and around the world, a Britain that fights against oppression and suffering wherever they occur, and a Britain that stands up for what is right.

I commend this statement to the House.

===

세진님, 제시해주신 가상의 2026년 9월 8일 영국 의회 연설문 전문에 대한 요약과 비평적 분석입니다.

<핵심 요약: 영국의 대(對)이스라엘·팔레스타인 정책 대전환>

제시된 연설문은 영국 노동당 정부(외무장관 에드 밀리밴드 명의)가 팔레스타인 서안지구와 가자지구 상황을 두고 취한 외교·경제적 정책 전환을 담고 있다.

< 서안지구 점령의 불법화 규정과 제재>

• ICJ(국제사법재판소)의 권고 의견을 공식 수용하여 서안지구 점령 전체를 <불법(unlawful)>으로 규정한다.

• 정착촌 건설을 통한 팔레스타인 주민 강제 추방을 유엔 정의에 부합하는 <인종청소(ethnic cleansing)>로 명시한다.

• 불법 정착촌에서 생산된 제품의 영국 내 수입을 전면 금지하고, 정착촌 부동산 광고를 불허한다.

• 정착촌 확장에 관여한 금융, 건설 기업 및 극렬 정착민 폭력 가담자에 대한 표적 제재를 단행한다.

< 무기 수출 금지 및 군사적 분리>

• 기존 가자지구 작전용 무기 수출 허가 정지 조치에 더해, 서안지구 점령 유지에 실질적으로 기여하는 모든 무기 및 관련 물자의 수출 면허 발급을 영구 거부하는 <이중 잠금(double lock)>을 적용한다.

< 가자지구 인도주의 참사와 전쟁범죄 문책>

• 가자지구 내 사망자 7만 명 및 아동 2만 명 사망, 의료 붕괴를 지적하며 이스라엘 정부의 책임을 직시한다.

• 민간인 보호 실패와 인도적 지원 차단에 대한 국제기구의 조사를 지지하며, 국제사법 절차를 통한 전쟁범죄 책임 규명을 약속한다.

< 유대인 정체성과 이스라엘 비판의 분리>

• 연설자 개인의 유대계 배경과 홀로코스트 피해 가족사를 전면에 내세워 하마스의 10·7 테러를 단죄하고 이스라엘의 생존권을 확고히 보장한다.

• 이스라엘 정부의 극우 정책 비판이 곧 반유대주의나 이스라엘 국가 자체의 부정은 아님을 정밀하게 분리해 제시한다.

<평론: 도덕적 명분과 외교적 현실 사이의 정밀한 줄타기>

제시된 연설문은 서구 중견 강국이 중동 분쟁에서 취할 수 있는 현실적 균형점을 정치·외교적 언어로 구축한 모범적인 사례다.

<1. 정치적 면책권(Immunity)의 영리한 구축> 외무장관이 자신의 뿌리(홀로코스트 유가족, 텔아비브에서의 유년 시절)를 서두에 장황할 정도로 강조한 것은 감상적 접근이 아니다. 이는 이스라엘 정부나 강경파가 흔히 서구 비판자들에게 씌우는 <반유대주의> 프레임을 원천 봉쇄하기 위한 고도의 방어 기제다. 유대인으로서의 자부심을 먼저 천명함으로써, 뒤이어 나오는 <인종청소>나 <불법 점령>이라는 가장 강력한 비판의 수위를 견뎌낼 정당성을 획득했다.

<2. 전면 보이콧(BDS)과의 명확한 선 긋기> 연설은 그린라인(1967년 이전 이스라엘 국경) 내의 정상적인 교역은 지지하며 BDS 운동에는 공식 반대한다고 선을 긋는다. 정착촌 산출물과 정착촌 확장 기업만을 정밀 타격함으로써, 이스라엘의 파멸을 원치 않으며 오직 네타냐후 극우 연정의 <서안 합병 정책(E1 개발 등)>만을 무력화하겠다는 현실주의적 접근을 택했다. 이는 프랑스, 캐나다 등과의 연대 행동을 이끌어내는 외교적 지렛대로 작동한다.

<3. 수사의 파격성과 구조적 한계> 서안지구 정착촌 폭력을 공식적으로 <인종청소>로 명명한 것은 서방 주요국 공식 담화로서는 이례적으로 수위가 높다. 그러나 가자지구 참상에 대해서는 <집단학살(Genocide)> 판단을 ICJ 사법 절차 뒤로 유보했다. 또한 근본적인 안보 분쟁의 원인(하마스의 무장 해제 및 팔레스타인 자치정부의 부패·무능)에 대해서는 구체적인 해결책 대신 기존의 원론적인 요구를 되풀이하는 선에 그치고 있어, 이 정책이 현장의 구조적 폭력을 당장 멈추게 할 현실적 강제력은 여전히 불확실하다.

결국 이 연설문은 영국의 노동당 정부가 전통적인 친이스라엘 서방 동맹의 틀을 깨지 않으면서도, 국제법과 보편적 인권이라는 규범적 원칙을 회복하려는 의도를 드러낸 담론이다.

===

<황대권의 ‘공동체 범죄’ — 검찰 조직의 자기보호 메커니즘과 실제 사례>

황대권의 이 글에서 말하는 <공동체 범죄>는 법률상의 정식 개념이라기보다 사회학적 은유입니다. 요지는 “몇몇 악한 개인이 범죄를 저지른다”는 것이 아니라, 조직 구성원들이 서로를 보호하고 침묵하며 책임을 분산시키는 과정에서 조직 전체가 잘못을 지속시키는 구조가 만들어진다는 주장입니다.

제가 보기에는 이 글은 상당히 중요한 문제를 건드리지만, 동시에 <검찰 전체를 범죄 공동체라고 단정하는 부분>에서는 사실과 해석을 구별할 필요가 있습니다.

1. 황대권이 직접 말하고 있는 사건은 무엇인가

글은 2025년 9월 10일에 쓰였습니다. 불과 닷새 전인 9월 5일 국회 법사위 검찰개혁 청문회에서 서울남부지검 김정민·남경민 수사관이 출석했습니다. 핵심은 <건진법사 전성배의 집에서 압수된 관봉권 5천만원의 띠지와 스티커가 사라진 사건>이었습니다.

이 띠지는 그냥 포장지가 아니었습니다. 돈의 검수일, 처리 부서, 담당자 등의 정보가 들어 있어 자금 출처를 추적할 중요한 단서가 될 가능성이 있었습니다. 그런데 검찰이 압수한 뒤 그것이 없어졌습니다.

청문회에서 의원들이

• 누가 돈을 셌는가
• 누가 띠지를 제거했는가
• 왜 보관하지 않았는가
• 띠지가 어디로 갔는가

등을 질문했는데 수사관들은 여러 질문에 “기억나지 않는다”고 답했습니다. 더구나 두 수사관이 청문회 전에 만나 예상 질문과 답변을 함께 준비한 사실도 알려졌습니다. 이것이 황대권에게 매우 강한 인상을 준 것입니다.

그가 <이끼>를 떠올린 이유도 여기에 있습니다.

잘못을 저지른 한 사람이 있고 다른 사람들이 그것을 숨긴다는 것이 아니라, “나는 모른다”, “기억이 안 난다”, “내 업무가 아니었다”가 연결되면서 결국 아무도 책임지지 않는 구조가 만들어진다.

황대권은 바로 이것을 <공동체>라고 부른 것입니다.

---

2. 그런데 이 사건을 지금 시점에서 보면 중요한 반전이 있습니다

황대권의 글은 2025년 9월 당시의 인상을 바탕으로 한 글입니다. 이후 실제로 수사가 계속되었습니다.

경찰에 두 수사관을 위증 혐의로 수사해 달라는 고발이 접수됐고, 결국 관봉권 사건 자체가 상설특검 수사로까지 확대됐습니다. 특검은 2026년 1~3월 대검·서울남부지검 등을 압수수색하고 당시 검사와 수사관, 지휘부를 조사했습니다.

그런데 결론은 황대권의 추측과 달랐습니다.

2026년 3월 상설특검은 압수물 관리에 문제가 있었고 실무상 과오가 있었던 것은 인정하면서도, <윗선이 띠지를 없애라고 지시했다거나 조직적으로 증거를 은폐했다는 증거는 찾지 못했다>고 밝혔습니다. 이후 2026년 6월 서울남부지검도 관련자들을 혐의없음 처분했습니다.

따라서 지금은 이렇게 표현하는 것이 정확합니다.

<“두 수사관이 검찰을 보호하기 위해 의도적으로 거짓말했다”는 황대권의 주장은 입증된 사실이 아니다.>

반면

<“중요한 증거물이 검찰 내부에서 사라졌고, 그 경위를 명확히 설명하지 못했다”는 사실은 그대로 남아 있다.>

두 가지를 구별해야 합니다.

---

3. 그렇다면 황대권의 <공동체 범죄>라는 생각에는 근거가 전혀 없는가?

그렇지는 않습니다. 한국 검찰 역사에는 그가 말하는 <조직적 자기보호>라는 문제의식을 이해할 만한 실제 사례가 있습니다.

가장 강력한 예가 <유우성 서울시 공무원 간첩조작 사건>입니다.

사례 1 — 유우성 간첩조작 사건

유우성은 간첩 혐의로 기소됐습니다. 그런데 재판 중 중국 출입경 기록 등 검찰이 제출한 핵심 자료가 위조된 사실이 밝혀졌습니다.

수사 결과 국정원 직원들과 협조자가 증거를 조작했다는 것이 드러났고, 유우성의 간첩 혐의는 2015년 대법원에서 최종 무죄가 됐습니다.

여기서 더 중요한 일이 일어났습니다.

검찰은 유우성이 간첩사건에서 무죄를 받게 되자, 이미 2010년에 기소유예했던 별도의 대북송금 사건을 다시 꺼내 2014년 기소했습니다.

대법원은 2021년 이 기소에 대해 매우 이례적으로

<검사가 공소권을 자의적으로 행사한 것으로서 위법하다>

고 판단하여 공소를 기각했습니다. 한국 대법원이 검찰의 <공소권 남용>을 인정해 확정한 최초의 사건이었습니다.

이 사례는 황대권의 주장에 상당히 가까운 실제 사례입니다.

잘못이 한 단계에서 끝나지 않았기 때문입니다.

국정원의 잘못된 수사
→ 위조 증거
→ 검찰의 기소
→ 간첩혐의 무죄
→ 이미 기소유예했던 다른 사건 재기소
→ 대법원의 공소권 남용 판정

이라는 기관들의 연쇄가 존재했습니다.

여기서는 단순히 “나쁜 검사 한 명”이라고 설명하기 어렵습니다.

---

4. 사례 2 — <라임 검사 술접대>와 ‘96만원’ 문제

2020년 라임 사건에서도 검찰 조직의 자기보호 문제가 크게 논란이 되었습니다.

검찰 수사 결과 현직 검사들이 김봉현 전 스타모빌리티 회장에게 술접대를 받은 사실 자체는 인정됐습니다.

그런데 참석 검사 가운데 두 사람은 접대액을 계산한 결과 1인당 약 96만2천원으로 산정되어 형사기소에서 제외됐습니다. 청탁금지법의 당시 1회 100만원 기준에 미달한다는 이유였습니다.

그래서 한국 사회에서 유명한 풍자가 나왔습니다.

<“검사님들을 위한 99만9천원 불기소 세트”>

입니다.

중요한 것은 실제 법률상 계산이 가능했느냐 여부만이 아닙니다. 국민 입장에서는

“검찰이 일반 시민 사건에서도 이런 정도로 피의자에게 유리하게 계산해 주는가?”

라는 의문이 생겼습니다.

이것이 바로 조직 신뢰의 문제입니다.

즉 황대권이 말하는 <공동체 범죄>는 반드시 사람들이 회의실에 모여 “우리끼리 범죄를 은폐하자”고 합의해야 성립하는 현상을 뜻하지 않습니다.

오히려 더 흔한 모습은

<조직원에게 가장 유리한 해석 → 가장 유리한 절차 → 책임 최소화 → 법적으로 처벌할 수 없는 결론>

이 반복되는 것입니다.

사회학에서는 이것을 <조직적 일탈 organizational deviance>이나 <부패의 정상화 normalization of corruption>라는 개념으로 분석하는 편이 더 정확합니다.

---

5. 사례 3 — 2026년 쿠팡 퇴직금 수사외압 사건

흥미롭게도 황대권의 글 이후 실제로 검찰 내부에서 또 하나의 사례가 등장했습니다.

부천지청에서 쿠팡 퇴직금 미지급 사건을 수사하던 문지석 부장검사가 “상급자들이 쿠팡 사건을 무혐의 처리하도록 압력을 행사했다”고 공개적으로 주장했습니다.

상설특검은 수사 끝에 2026년 2월 엄희준 전 부천지청장과 김동희 전 차장검사를 직권남용 혐의로 기소했습니다. 엄 검사에게는 국회 위증 혐의도 적용했습니다.

다만 이것 역시 현재는 <기소> 단계이므로 유죄가 확정됐다고 말해서는 안 됩니다. 피고인들은 혐의를 부인하고 있습니다.

그러나 황대권의 문제의식을 이해하는 데는 좋은 사례입니다.

왜냐하면 그의 관심은 단순한 금품수수보다

<위계적인 조직에서 하급자가 상급자의 요구를 거절할 수 있는가?>

에 있기 때문입니다.

---

6. 그래서 황대권이 두 젊은 수사관에게 오히려 동정적인 것입니다

글에서 아주 흥미로운 부분은 이것입니다.

그는 두 수사관을 악인으로 그리지 않습니다.

한 사람을 개인적으로 알고 있으며

<“아주 명랑하고 평범한 아가씨”>

라고 말합니다.

그 다음 문장이 핵심입니다.

<“그녀에게 죄가 있다면 대한민국에서 가장 강력한 ‘범죄 조직’에 취직한 것이다.”>

여기에는 상당히 사회학적인 인간관이 들어 있습니다.

악한 조직이 악한 사람들로 구성되는 것이 아니라,

<평범한 사람이 조직 안에서 조직의 규칙에 적응하면서 잘못된 행동을 하게 된다>

는 생각입니다.

한나 아렌트의 <악의 평범성>과도 부분적으로 통합니다.

예를 들어 신입 수사관에게 다음과 같은 상황을 상상할 수 있습니다.

상사가 사건을 이렇게 처리한다.
→ 선배들도 아무 말 하지 않는다.
→ 자신만 문제를 제기하면 조직에서 고립된다.
→ 승진·전보·근무평정에 영향을 받을 수 있다.
→ “내가 결정한 것도 아닌데 굳이 나설 필요가 있나”라고 생각한다.
→ 국회에 불려가도 최소한으로 답한다.

이 과정에서 처음부터 범죄의도가 없는 사람도 <조직적 침묵>의 일부가 될 수 있습니다.

황대권이 정말 문제 삼는 것은 바로 이것입니다.

---

7. <이끼>와 검찰의 차이도 분명히 해야 합니다

그러나 여기에서 황대권의 비유는 지나치게 강해집니다.

영화 <이끼>에서는 마을이 실제로 살인과 범죄를 조직적으로 은폐합니다.

반면 대한민국 검찰 조직 전체가 하나의 범죄단체라는 것은 입증할 수도 없고, 실제로 그렇다고 볼 근거도 없습니다.

오히려 검찰 내부에서도

• 상급자를 고발하는 검사
• 부당한 지시를 거부하는 검사
• 내부 문제를 증언하는 직원

들이 계속 등장합니다.

앞서 <쿠팡 사건> 자체도 검찰 내부의 문지석 검사가 문제를 공개했기 때문에 외부에 알려졌습니다. 이것은 역설적으로 검찰이 <이끼>의 마을과 완전히 같지는 않다는 증거이기도 합니다.

---

8. 문재인 → 윤석열 부분도 사실과 평가를 구별해야 합니다

황대권은

<“문재인은 … 그 공동체 두목에게 정권을 넘겨주는 용서할 수 없는 죄를 저질렀다.”>

라고 합니다.

이것은 사실 서술이라기보다 황대권의 정치적·도덕적 평가입니다.

문재인 대통령이 윤석열을 검찰총장으로 발탁한 것은 사실이고, 윤석열이 이후 대통령이 된 것도 사실입니다.

그러나 문재인이 윤석열에게 <정권을 넘겨주었다>고 표현하는 것은 인과관계를 매우 압축한 정치적 수사입니다. 윤석열은 대통령선거에서 유권자의 선택을 받아 집권했습니다.

그리고 <검찰 공동체의 두목>이라는 말 역시 법률적·객관적 기술이 아니라 황대권의 가치판단입니다.

이 구별은 상당히 중요합니다.

---

9. 댓글들은 증거가 아니라 <집단적 공감>입니다

뒤의 댓글도 흥미롭습니다.

김창규의 “제가 경험했습니다”라는 말은 개인적 증언이지만 구체적인 사건·날짜·자료가 없으므로 사실 검증의 근거로 사용하기 어렵습니다.

“아주 중요한 지적입니다”, “정확히 맞습니다” 같은 댓글 역시 황대권의 주장을 뒷받침하는 증거가 아닙니다.

오히려 이 댓글들이 보여주는 것은 다른 것입니다.

<많은 사람들이 자신이 겪은 관료제·경찰·검찰·공무원 조직에서 비슷한 ‘제 식구 보호’를 경험했다고 느끼고 있다는 것>

입니다.

이는 법적 사실이라기보다 <사회적 불신>이라는 중요한 사회학적 현상입니다.

---

10. 제가 황대권의 글에서 가장 주목하는 부분

저는 이 글의 가장 중요한 문장은 “검찰이 범죄조직이다”가 아니라고 봅니다.

오히려 이것입니다.

<“그들의 자장 안에서 이득을 챙기려는 보통사람들이 주위를 둘러싼 일종의 공동체를 형성하고 있다.”>

여기서 <공동체>의 범위가 검찰을 넘어갑니다.

황대권이 상상하는 구조는 대략 이렇습니다.

권력자·대기업·재산가
↓
검사·고위공무원
↓
전관 변호사·법조인
↓
수사관·실무관료
↓
이들과 거래하는 기업·언론·지역 유지
↓
조직에 순응하는 평범한 사람

즉 <범죄조직>이라기보다는 <권력 생태계>에 가깝습니다.

그래서 이 글을 좀 더 정확한 사회학적 언어로 다시 표현한다면 저는 이렇게 바꾸겠습니다.

<한국 사회의 문제는 ‘악한 몇 사람’보다, 조직에 대한 충성·인사권·정보의 독점·책임의 분산·엘리트 간 네트워크가 결합하면서 잘못이 있어도 스스로 교정하기 어려워지는 ‘제도적 자기보호 구조’에 있다.>

이렇게 표현하면 황대권이 말하려는 핵심은 살리면서도 <대한민국 검찰 전체가 범죄 공동체>라는 입증하기 어려운 단정을 피할 수 있습니다.

그리고 실제 사례 가운데 황대권의 주장을 가장 강하게 뒷받침하는 것은 2025년의 관봉권 사건보다 오히려 <유우성 사건>이라고 생각합니다. 관봉권 사건은 2026년 수사 결과 조직적 은폐가 입증되지 않았지만, 유우성 사건에서는 대법원이 실제로 검찰의 <자의적인 공소권 행사·공소권 남용>을 인정했기 때문입니다.

결국 황대권의 글은 <사실보고>로 읽으면 상당히 과격하지만, <조직사회학적 문제 제기>로 읽으면 매우 흥미로운 글입니다. 핵심 질문은 “검찰이 범죄조직인가?”라기보다는 <“왜 정상적인 개인들이 조직에 들어가면 조직의 잘못을 알고도 말하지 못하게 되는가?”>입니다. 저는 이 질문이 이 글을 읽는 가장 생산적인 방법이라고 봅니다.

===

===

Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History : Lee, Margaret Juhae

Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History : Lee, Margaret Juhae: Amazon.com.au: Books





Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History
by Margaret Juhae Lee (Author) Format: Hardcover
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (29)

This poignant memoir traces 4 generations of family trauma against the backdrop of Korea's modern history for readers who love a sweeping intergenerational story like Pachinko and The Return.

Journalist and critic Margaret Juhae Lee tells the story of her search for the truth about the life and early death of her grandfather, Lee Chul Ha, a student revolutionary who was jailed for protesting the Japanese colonization of Korea in 1929.

At the end of her life, her grandmother, Halmani, opens up about Margaret's grandfather, the "criminal" who was imprisoned and a source of shame for the family. What Margaret unearths is a trove of extraordinary material concerning the life of her grandfather, information that both affirms and explodes what she had always believed about herself, her father, and their legacy.

Combining investigative journalism, oral history, and archival research, Starry Field weaves together the stories of Margaret's grandparents, parents, and herself against the backdrop of Korea's tumultuous modern history, from the colonial era to its technological boom.

The moving memoir is told in a series of short chapters anchored by 3 long-form interviews Margaret conducted with Halmani before her death. Though she initially sets out to uncover the secrecy around her grandfather's life, what she finds instead is a deep bond between her and her grandmother--2 women, 2 generations apart, living on opposite sides of the world, with the shared desire to start a family and find something called home.

20 memorable photographs will be included.
Read less

====

---

From the Publisher

TopAbout this itemSimilarFrom the BrandFrom the AuthorQuestionsReviewsStarry Field: A Memoir of Lost History


Product description

Review
Electric Lit 75 Books By Women of Color to Read in 2024

"Her poignant memoir describes their shared journey of knowledge and healing." - New York Times Book Review

"In this immersive, erudite memoir, Margaret Juhae Lee unspools her long- buried family history; centrally, her grandfather's imprisonment in Japanese- occupied Korea." - Vanity Fair

"An international yet intimate account of a family member whose life would have been lost in a sea of forgetfulness were it not for her diligent dedication to discovering the truth --- a truth that brings honor and hope to those remaining...STARRY FIELD will attract a wide readership --- those who feel deprived of a true home and may be inspired like Lee to seek emotional refuge, and those who will admire and share the tale of one woman's courageous sentiments and her willingness to act upon them." - The Bookreporter

"this winding investigation of long-buried family secrets succeeds" -- Publishers Weekly

"Engaging, intriguing...[Starry Field is] a poignant reclamation of a hidden history, leavened by a sense of personal growth and understanding." --Kirkus Reviews

"A gallery of photos and documents richly illustrates the scope of the historical setting of the memoir. The narrative threads back and forth in time (with some fanciful embroidering of events), stitching a vivid account of a country, a family, and individuals grappling with the past in order to make sense of the future. While many in power in Korea today would rather leave the past unexcavated, Margaret Juhae Lee demonstrates that looking back can be a way to move forward." - Washington Independent Review of Books

"Lee's memoir stands uniquely as an inspiring dedicated journey worth reading." - The Daily Texan

"This reconstruction of the lives of Lee's paternal grandparents is absorbing as much for what is discovered as for what remains undiscoverable. Almost three quarters of a century ago, on the eve of the invasion of her nation, a mother burned every trace she held of her children's dead father, explaining to her son, "you never know what will happen: history is the proof." Starry Field reminds us that even knowing where we came from won't tell us where we're going - but it will help along the way." -- Susan Choi, National Book Award winning author of Trust Exercise

"With the propulsive force of a mystery, Margaret Juhae Lee guides us through the maze of her family's lost histories, revealing secrets, shaping narratives, and, as she tracks into the past, pulling her present into sharp focus. Starry Field is a probing, companionable tale about the search for self and home by a fiercely observant, funny, and important writer." -- Sabina Murray, PEN/Faulkner-winning author of Valiant Gentlemen

"In this heartbreaking memoir, the power of a single, searing curiosity about an ancestor's refusal to be silenced by colonial powers unlatches the lockbox to reveal a trove of long-buried family mysteries and reminds us of the courage it takes to strip away the scaffolding of our stories in the service of truth. Starry Field is memoir at its purest--the quest nested in the question becomes the story and the journey is one you don't want to miss." -- Putsata Reang, award-winning author of Ma and Me: A Memoir

"Starry Field is a magnificent tapestry of memory, testimonial, and family history woven with a deft hand and abounding care. Lee's work is the most precious gift a writer has to offer." -- Joseph Han, author of Nuclear Family

"Clear-eyed and heartfelt, Starry Field is an important story from an urgent and necessary voice." --Matthew Salesses, author of The Sense of Wonder

"Gorgeously written and meticulously researched, Starry Field is at once a detective story and an coming-of-age memoir. Lee shows us that the heroes in our family stories are not always who we think they are." --Carol Smith, author of Crossing the River: Seven Stories That Saved My Life

"Deftly weaving extensive research with her own emotional journey, Lee resurrects the severed threads of her grandfather's past. Starry Field is an act of devotion, a testament to how the present can be healed by addressing the ruptures of history." -- Tessa Hulls, author of Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir

A mesmerizing memoir, Margaret Juhae Lee's Starry Field charts the course of her family's storied past. With the propulsive narrative of a mystery novel, illuminated by meticulous research and captivating prose, Lee explores the love, loss, and resilience of hidden heritage and familial bonds. Gorgeously written and emotionally resonant, Starry Field is more than a memoir--it's a celebration of the enduring strength found in unexpected places. -- Rose Andersen, author of The Heart and Other Monsters: A Memoir

About the Author
Margaret Juhae Lee is an Oakland-based writer and a former literary editor of The Nation magazine. She has been the recipient of a Bunting Fellowship from Harvard University, and a Korean Studies Fellowship from the Korean Foundation. She is also a Tin House scholar, and has been awarded residencies at the Mesa Refuge, the Anderson Center, and Mineral School. In 2020, she was named "Person of the Year" by the Sangcheol Cultural Welfare Foundation in Kongju, South Korea, for her work in honouring her grandfather, Patriot Lee Chul Ha. Her articles, reviews, and interviews have been published in The Nation, Newsday, Elle, ARTnews, The Advocate, The Progressive and The Rumpus.

Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ MELVILLE HOUSE
Publication date ‏ : ‎ 9 April 2024
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1685890938
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1685890933
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 kg
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.9 x 1.96 x 23.57 cm
Customer Reviews:
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (29)



Margaret Juhae Lee


About the author


Margaret Juhae Lee is the author of Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History. She received a Bunting Fellowship from Harvard University and a Korean Studies Fellowship from the Korean Foundation in support of research for her book. Previously, she was an editor for the Books and the Arts section at The Nation magazine. Her articles, interviews and book reviews have been published in The Nation, Newsday, Elle, ARTnews, The Advocate, The Progressive and most recently in The Rumpus and Ploughshares Blog . She was a contributing writer at Oakland Magazine, where she covered the local maker community. Her article, “Seoul’s Celluloid Soul,” originally published in The Nation, was anthologized in Readings in Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture.

Margaret has an M.A. in Journalism from NYU’s Cultural Reporting & Criticism Program and an M.A. in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin. She has attended the Writer’s Hotel, Lit Camp and Tin House writing workshops and was awarded residencies at the Mesa Refuge, Anderson Center and Mineral School, where she received a fellowship from the Sustainable Arts Foundation for parents who are writers.

In 2020, she was named “Person of the Year” by the Sangcheol Cultural Welfare Foundation in Kongju, South Korea, for her work in honoring her grandfather, Patriot Lee Chul Ha, with a gift from her family to his alma mater, Kongju High School.

A former college radio DJ, Margaret spends her free time listening to New Wave and indie rock while driving her extremely sporty children to soccer practices. She and her family survived the pandemic with the help of Brownie, a rescue dog from Korea. ===

From other countries

C.N.

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read- put on your reading list

Reviewed in the United States on 30 May 2025

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Excellent! Reading for a second time; I gifted my copy to a relative. Am picking up a few details I didn’t catch the first time.( I also re watch good films), Beautifully written, well- organized (includes a family tree and timeline). Starry Field takes the reader through time and history traveling between continents and in the U.S. This book has sparked readers to think and learn oral histories from living relatives. Since reading this book I was drawn to reading other memoirs noted by the author and look forward to reading more from this writer.

Report

TK

5.0 out of 5 stars An important story about family history and healing

Reviewed in Canada on 16 May 2024

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is a moving account about how important stories about ourselves, our family and our heritage are. Margaret traces the mystery of her grandfather’s life, which was hidden in a shroud of shame and secrecy, until she was able to unearth his heroism and tell a different story for herself, her father and her children. The importance of stories and heritage is clear when she helps her father heal from his internalized shame through knowledge and recognition of who his father really was. I love the way Margaret weaves together vignettes of family and scholar interviews, and how she offers a close account of her search for elusive documents. This book is filled with tenderness and humour. A pleasure to read, and a much-needed story for us all.

Report

Kevin Tuerff

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing! Sometimes finding truth about family history sets you free

Reviewed in the United States on 15 March 2024

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Margaret Juhae Lee’s memoir, a work 20 years in the making, is well worth the wait. As a fellow Gen-Xer, I also knew very little about Korea’s history and occupation by Japan.

Margaret tells a beautiful story how she fell into an investigative research study about her unknown deceased grandfather, simply to help her father look for answers when he fell ill.

Lee’s background in journalism came in handy as she traveled to Korea to interview her living grandmother. She skillfully found a way to get her to open a vault of stories the widow wanted to keep hidden.

As years went by, Lee discovered the journey of writing this memoir was linked to many unanswered questions in her personal life.

There is so much to learn here for non-Koreans about Korean history and culture. And there are added layers of insights about the AAPI community in America and the struggles they face.

I’m normally a slow book reader but this is a page-turner. I didn’t want to put down the book. Buy it and enjoy!

Customer image

Report

Kevin Burns

5.0 out of 5 stars loved this book, a page-turner

Reviewed in the United States on 18 March 2024

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I loved this book, and it surprised me in many ways. I’m usually not a fan of non-linear arrangements, but here I found it worked incredibly well as the author wove together the pieces of her grandfather’s story with her own story into an effective narrative. One of the things that surprised me was how suspenseful the book was. Throughout I was captivated in the mystery of figuring out two things: 1) what is the real story of the author’s grandfather, and 2) what will happen to the author as a result of this discovery. Because of this, I found the book hard to put down. Secondly, I was surprised how much the book resonated with me. I’m not Korean or Korean-America; yet I identified with the underlying theme of family and the sometimes unspoken things that are part of what makes us family. This book stirred up a lot of thoughts and emotions in me that will stick with me for a while. I highly recommend this book!

Report

Brian Kimmel

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Work of Art

Reviewed in the United States on 16 October 2024

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Starry Field was my start to a renewed interest in memoir and its place in storytelling of historical events. What I searched for most throughout my journey reading Starry Field, was some semblance of myself through the pages. Originally interested as it pertains to Japan's occupation in Asia during a period of tumult that resembles my own family's experience during WWII. The beauty of Starry Field is its intense journalistic style merged with personal narrative. It speaks to historical accounts, interviews, and brief history lessons in an approachable and humanistic fashion. I was drawn to the author's own story in writing the story, a book about writing a book, and a journey of discovery that filled the pages and compelled me to want to know more. Thoughtful design including cover and interior with photographs helped me to be in that journey with the author as she engaged in this soulful, investigative work.

Report

techie511

5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous

Reviewed in the United States on 4 May 2024

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I found this book to be incredibly interesting and well written - full of humor, poignant reflections, and beautiful imagery. Driven by missing information about her grandfather, the author's investigation leads to an understanding about so much more and an opportunity for healing for some. I had initially assumed that the authors search would be presented chronologically. However I was pleasantly surprised that the story was Instead organized around the interviews she did with her grandmother to learn about her family. I found that this served to help the reader experience for themselves the authors own journey of discovery (her memoir), as that journey wasn’t linear and took decades to piece together. I learned so much from this book, enjoyed it immensely, and am so glad I read it.

Report

LTS68

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful memoir and important era in Korean history

Reviewed in the United States on 13 April 2024

Format: KindleVerified Purchase

Wonderful memoir and fascinating introduction (for me!) to early 20th century Korean history told through the lens of the author's family saga. I loved the way she wove together a beautiful memoir about her own experience growing up in the United States, as well as her trips to Korea over the years -- both to visit family and to research their history. An inspiring story of her Communist grandfather's resistance to the Japanese occupation and oppression of Korean culture, as well as his granddaughter's gift to her family -- past, present and future --by telling not just his forgotten story but her own as well. Highly recommend!

Report

Peggy Collins

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful memoir

Reviewed in the United States on 18 March 2024

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Born of Korean parents and growing up in Houston, Texas in the 70's and 80's Margaret Juhae Lee didn't look (and she certainly didn't think) like the young people around her. By the time she was an adult crisscrossing the country she was starting to realize that "home" had a great deal to do with the family who came before her, specifically her paternal grandfather, Lee Chul Ha, who died in Korea when he was 27. Very little was spoken about him until Margaret, using her journalism skills, starts a years-long quest to uncover who this man was and, more importantly, how his very DNA influenced so much of the person she became. Join her in the search for Lee Chul Ha's incredible story. It is a story that, thanks to Margaret, will be remembered.

Report

HM

5.0 out of 5 stars Intimate and interesting history telling

Reviewed in the United States on 12 March 2025

Format: KindleVerified Purchase

As a Japanese, it took me determination to read story on Japanese colonialism written by Korean American writer.

Unexpectedly the story gave very personal intimate perspective of the author.

I could feel the Korean people at the time and nowadays.

Report

Kindle Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book on so many levels....

Reviewed in the United States on 5 April 2024

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I loved this book as a mother, writer, and daughter. So much of it is about the search for self-compassion and the steps one person needed to take to tell her family's story. And holy cow. What an ending and what a female role model--both in the grandmother and in the writer. Don't want to give anything away, but I love it when one story turns about to be about something/someone completely different than I expected as a reader. Highly recommend!

Report

Susan

5.0 out of 5 stars An enlightening book

Reviewed in the United States on 21 March 2024

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Growing up in the 70s, my knowledge of Korea and the conflict of the 1950s was limited to watching M*A*S*H on TV. Reading this book opened my eyes to a whole other point of view. Where we were told that the Communists were terrible people during the War, we learn that they were a response to even worse conditions, under Japanese control. I highly recommend this book.

Report

Judith Long

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating

Reviewed in the United States on 7 April 2024

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Starry Field is a spellbinding tale of recovered family history, how it feels to be an American child of Korean parents, and the evolving of the self. Margaret Lee doggedly persists until the lost story of her Korean grandfather is brought to light. Page turner.

—Judith Long

Report

Kris Patterson

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Memoir

Reviewed in the United States on 10 April 2024

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I absolutely loved this memoir about recovering lost family history, living life feeling like an outsider and being able to connect to one’s roots. This is a very touching book - I highly recommend it.

Report

C.F.

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and engrossing!

Reviewed in the United States on 10 March 2024

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

A deeply moving family history that pulls you in and covers so much more.

Report

To see more,  search 

JD 밴스: 트럼프 비판자에서 부통령으로 | DW Documentary - YouTube

JD Vance: From Trump critic to vice president | DW Documentary - YouTube

JD Vance: From Trump critic to vice president | DW Documentary

DW Documentary

128,303 views  Aug 9, 2026

From hillbilly to the White House: JD Vance’s rise to become Trump’s vice president is seen by many as symbolic of a worrying trend in the US that’s further polarizing society.

JD Vance’s story is the story of an America that has long felt overlooked. An America of the white working class, marked by economic decline, the opioid crisis and the aftermath of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. An America that fears losing even the little that it still holds on to, through migration and social upheaval.

JD Vance has undergone a remarkable transformation: from a fierce critic of Donald Trump to a loyal supporter of the MAGA movement and, ultimately, Trump’s vice president. As far as his supporters are concerned, it is a career trajectory that gives him credibility. Critics, on the other hand, see in his politics a dynamic that could upset the political balance in the US and endanger democracy. Some already regard him as a potential contender for the presidency.

===

<JD 밴스: 트럼프 비판자에서 부통령으로>에 대한 요약과 평론입니다.

<핵심 요약>

<1. 성장 배경과 회고록 출간>

• 오하이오주 미들타운의 쇠락한 러스트 벨트 지역 출신으로, 마약 중독에 시달리던 어머니 대신 조부모의 보살핌 속에서 자랐다.

• 고등학교 졸업 후 해병대에 입대해 이라크 파병을 거치며 미국의 네오콘 대외 개입주의와 정치 엘리트 계층에 깊은 회의감을 품게 되었다.

• 제대 후 오하이오 주립대와 예일대 로스쿨을 졸업했으며, 백인 노동자 계층의 절망과 가족사를 다룬 자서전 <힐빌리의 노래>(Hillbilly Elegy)를 출간해 전국적인 명성을 얻었다.

<2. 정치적 전향과 권력 핵심부 진입>

• 2016년 트럼프의 등장 초기에는 그를 '도덕적으로 비난받을 인물', '미국의 히틀러 후보', '정치적 헤로인'이라 부르며 강하게 비판했다.

• 피터 틸(Peter Thiel)을 비롯한 후원자들의 지원과 가톨릭 개종, 그리고 포스트자유주의(Post-liberalism) 사상 수용을 거치며 트럼프 지지 성향으로 급선회했다.

• 2022년 오하이오주 연방 상원의원에 당선되었고, 트럼프 주니어와 찰리 커크 등의 전폭적인 지지를 받아 2024년 트럼프의 러닝메이트로 낙점되어 40세의 나이로 부통령에 취임했다.

<3. 대외 정책 및 정치적 행보>

• 뮌헨 안보회의 등 국제 외교 무대에서 유럽 지도자들을 향해 대규모 이민과 포퓰리즘 배제를 지적하며 유럽 내부의 위험을 직접 경고했다.

• 젤렌스키 우크라이나 대통령과의 백악관 회담에서 공격적인 태도를 취하는 등 트럼프의 '미국 우선주의'(America First)와 고립주의 기조를 앞장서서 집행했다.

• 정치적 동지였던 찰리 커크의 피격 사망 이후 이를 좌파의 폭력성으로 규정하며 우파 진영 내 분노를 결집했고, 차기 대선(2028년 등)의 가장 유력한 계승자로 자리매김했다.

• 동시에 닉 푸엔테스로 대표되는 극우 백인 우월주의 세력의 비난과 당내 급진 세력 관리라는 과제에 직면해 있다.

<평론: 카멜레온적 권력 추구와 포스트자유주의 우파의 완성>

<1. 엘리트주의에 맞선 '힐빌리' 서사의 권력화> 

밴스의 가장 강력한 무기는 자신의 불우한 유년 시절과 러스트 벨트 노동자 계층의 정서를 대변하는 자전적 서사다. 그는 아이비리그와 실리콘밸리를 거쳐 기득권 엘리트층에 편입되었음에도, 오히려 대학과 주류 언론을 사회적 질병으로 규정하며 내부 고발자 행세를 취한다. 이러한 배경은 그가 엘리트와 기존 체제를 공격할 때 대중적 정당성과 설득력을 동시에 확보해 주는 전략적 자산으로 기능한다.

<2. 기회주의적 전향인가, 사상적 진화인가> 

과거 트럼프를 맹렬히 비난하던 비판자에서 가장 강경한 옹호자로 변신한 점은 그에게 늘 '카멜레온'이라는 꼬리표를 붙게 만든다. 그러나 다큐멘터리가 짚듯 그의 변화를 단순한 보신주의로만 보기는 어렵다. 자유주의 질서와 세계화에 대한 피로감, 가톨릭 개종을 매개로 한 포스트자유주의적 사회보수주의로의 사상적 이동, 피터 틸의 반민주주의적 엘리트주의가 결합한 결과물에 가깝다. 밴스는 트럼프가 촉발한 MAGA 포퓰리즘에 지적이고 이념적인 정교함을 덧입힌 인물이다.

<3. 트럼피즘의 소프트웨어 업데이트와 그 한계> 

밴스는 본능과 카리스마에 의존하는 트럼프의 원형을 체계적인 논리와 젊은 에너지로 계승한 '트럼프 2.0' 내지 '소프트웨어 업데이트 버전'으로 작동한다. 분노와 대립을 정치적 자산으로 활용하는 전술은 우파 코어 지지층을 장악하는 데는 탁월한 위력을 보이지만, 극단주의 세력의 거센 반발과 사회적 양극화 심화라는 위험성을 고스란히 동반한다. 결국 그가 차기 대권으로 나아가기 위해서는 자신이 조장해 온 분노의 정치를 넘어 실질적인 경제적 해법을 제시하고, 억제하기 힘든 급진 우파 진영을 스스로 통제할 수 있는가를 증명해야 할 것이다.

===

<JD 밴스: 트럼프 비판자에서 부통령으로> 요약 평론

DW Documentary, 2026

DW의 다큐멘터리 <JD Vance: From Trump critic to vice president>는 JD 밴스의 개인적 성공담을 다루는 전기물이 아니다. 오히려 “어떻게 2016년 도널드 트럼프를 ‘미국의 히틀러’에 비유할 정도로 혐오했던 젊은 보수 지식인이 불과 몇 년 만에 MAGA 운동의 핵심 인물이 되고 미국 부통령까지 되었는가”라는 정치적 변신의 문제를 추적한다. 이 다큐의 핵심 주제는 밴스 개인의 기회주의 여부를 넘어, 지난 20년 동안 미국 보수주의 자체가 어떻게 변했는가에 있다.

1. 러스트벨트의 아이

다큐는 2025년 뮌헨안보회의에서 시작한다. 밴스는 유럽 지도자들에게 “유럽의 가장 큰 위협은 러시아나 중국이 아니라 내부에서 오는 위협”이라고 말하며, 표현의 자유와 민주주의를 억압하는 유럽 엘리트를 비판한다. 이 장면은 현재의 밴스를 먼저 보여준 뒤 그의 고향 오하이오주 미들타운으로 거슬러 올라가는 구성이다.

미들타운은 한때 철강산업으로 번영했지만 탈산업화, 실업, 약물중독, 가정 해체를 겪은 전형적인 미국 러스트벨트 도시로 묘사된다. 밴스 자신도 안정된 중산층 가정의 아이가 아니었다. 어머니 베브는 약물중독에 시달렸고 남자관계가 끊임없이 바뀌었다. 밴스가 의지했던 사람은 조부모, 특히 강인한 외할머니 “Mamaw”였다.

여기서 다큐는 <힐빌리의 노래(Hillbilly Elegy)>의 핵심 이야기를 그대로 밴스의 정치적 정체성의 출발점으로 사용한다.

가난, 가족 해체, 약물중독, 폭력, 공동체 붕괴가 밴스에게 “미국 사회에는 엘리트들이 이해하지 못하는 깊은 위기가 존재한다”는 감각을 심어주었다는 것이다.

그러나 중요한 것은 밴스가 그 환경에서 탈출했다는 사실이다. 그는 해병대에 입대하고 이라크에서 복무한 뒤 오하이오주립대를 거쳐 예일 로스쿨에 진학한다.

이것이 밴스 정치사상의 첫 번째 역설이다.

그는 엘리트를 비판하는 정치인이지만, 실제로는 미국 최고의 엘리트 교육기관을 통해 정치·경제 권력의 중심으로 들어간 사람이다.

---

2. 이라크 전쟁이 만든 보수주의에 대한 회의

다큐가 흥미롭게 강조하는 부분은 밴스의 이라크전 경험이다.

젊은 밴스는 조지 W. 부시를 지지했고 이라크전쟁도 지지했다. 그러나 해병으로 실제 이라크에 가면서 생각이 달라졌다. 미국이 군사력으로 독재자를 제거하고 자유민주주의를 만들어낼 수 있다는 신보수주의적 믿음에 회의를 품게 되었다.

그는 이후 미국 정치 엘리트가 “거짓말과 미디어 서사를 만들어 자신들이 원하는 정책을 정당화한다”고 생각하게 된다.

이 경험은 훗날의 밴스 외교정책을 이해하는 중요한 열쇠다.

그가 우크라이나 지원에 회의적이고, NATO와 유럽에 냉담하며, “America First”를 주장하는 것은 단순한 트럼프 추종이라기보다 이라크전쟁 이후 형성된 미국의 해외개입에 대한 불신과 연결되어 있다고 다큐는 해석한다.

즉,

부시 시대의 신보수주의 → 이라크전쟁에 대한 환멸 → 비개입주의·America First

라는 사상적 이동이 있었다는 것이다.

이 부분은 이 다큐에서 상당히 설득력이 있다.

---

3. 예일과 Peter Thiel

밴스 인생에서 결정적인 두 번째 환경은 예일 로스쿨이다.

그는 예일에서 미래의 아내 우샤 칠루쿠리를 만나고 미국 최상층 엘리트 세계에 진입한다. 동시에 자신이 출신계급 때문에 문화적으로 낯선 사람이라는 느낌을 받는다.

다큐는 여기서 하나의 중요한 모순을 발견한다.

밴스는 예일 엘리트 문화에 들어가면서 동시에 엘리트에 대한 반감을 키웠다는 것이다.

그리고 그의 인생에서 가장 중요한 인물 중 하나인 Peter Thiel이 등장한다.

페이팔 공동창업자이자 실리콘밸리의 보수·자유지상주의 사상가인 틸은 예일에서 강연했고 밴스에게 깊은 영향을 미친다. 다큐는 틸의 민주주의에 대한 회의와 기술·기업가 정신을 통한 기존 정치질서 탈출이라는 사상이 밴스에게 중요한 지적 자극을 주었다고 본다.

졸업 후 밴스는 틸의 세계로 들어가 벤처캐피털 활동을 시작한다.

따라서 “가난한 애팔래치아 출신 청년이 홀로 자수성가했다”는 <힐빌리의 노래>식 이야기는 완전한 설명이 아니다.

밴스의 상승에는

미 해병대 → 오하이오주립대 → 예일 → Peter Thiel → 벤처캐피털 → 미디어

라는 매우 강력한 엘리트 네트워크가 존재했다.

이 점을 보여주는 것이 다큐의 중요한 장점이다.

---

4. <힐빌리의 노래>와 반트럼프 밴스

2016년 <Hillbilly Elegy>가 베스트셀러가 되면서 밴스는 전국적 인물이 된다.

흥미로운 것은 당시 밴스가 MAGA의 대변인이 아니라 오히려 트럼프를 설명하는 “합리적인 보수주의자”였다는 사실이다.

그는 자유주의적 언론과 방송에 자주 출연해 러스트벨트 백인 노동계급의 분노를 설명했다.

그러면서 트럼프를 매우 강하게 비판했다.

다큐에 따르면 그는 트럼프를

• “도덕적으로 비난받아 마땅한 인간”
• “완전한 사기꾼”
• “미국의 히틀러”
• 백인 노동자의 문제를 해결하지 않고 오히려 이용하는 정치인

이라고까지 표현했다.

당시 밴스의 논리는 분명했다.

트럼프는 백인 노동계급이 겪는 실제 문제를 발견했지만 해결책을 주지 못하고 그들의 분노를 정치적으로 이용한다는 것이었다.

따라서 2016년 밴스와 2026년 밴스 사이의 거리는 실로 크다.

---

5. 그렇다면 왜 트럼프로 돌아섰는가

이 다큐의 가장 중요한 질문이다.

밴스 자신은 “트럼프에 대해 틀렸다는 것을 깨달았다”고 설명한다. 트럼프 집권 이후 무역, 이민, 외교 등에서 자신과 생각이 상당히 비슷하다는 사실을 발견했다는 것이다.

하지만 다큐는 그것만으로 설명하지 않는다.

세 가지 변화가 동시에 일어났다고 본다.

첫째는 미국 공화당 자체의 변화다.

부시 시대의 공화당은 자유무역, 기업, 군사개입, 작은 정부를 중시했다. 트럼프 이후의 공화당은 보호무역, 이민 제한, 문화전쟁, 국가주의, 노동계급 포퓰리즘으로 이동했다.

밴스가 공화당에 맞춘 것만이 아니라 공화당도 밴스가 생각하던 방향으로 이동한 것이다.

둘째는 정치적 야망이다.

오하이오에서 상원의원이 되려면 트럼프의 지지를 얻지 않고서는 거의 불가능했다. 과거의 반트럼프 발언을 사과하고 MAGA에 들어가는 것은 정치적 현실이기도 했다.

셋째는 종교적 변화다.

---

6. 가톨릭 개종과 정치적 세계관

밴스는 2019년 가톨릭으로 개종한다.

다큐는 이를 단순한 개인 종교생활이 아니라 정치사상 변화와 연결한다.

밴스에게 가톨릭은 개인주의에 대한 대안이었다. 가족, 공동체, 전통, 생명의 신성함, 사회적 의무 등을 강조하는 가톨릭 사회사상이 그의 보수주의와 결합했다.

그 결과 밴스는

낙태 반대,
전통적 가족,
성혁명 비판,
반(反)워키즘,
공동체주의,
국가의 역할 확대

등을 더욱 적극적으로 주장하게 된다.

흥미롭게도 이것은 전통적인 미국 자유지상주의 보수주의와는 상당히 다르다.

“국가는 작을수록 좋다”가 아니라,

“건전한 가족과 공동체를 보호하기 위해 국가는 적극적으로 개입할 수 있다”

는 새로운 보수주의이다.

다큐는 이것을 미국 보수주의 내부의 “가톨릭적 전환” 또는 post-liberal conservatism의 일부로 바라본다.

---

7. 상원의원에서 트럼프 후계자로

2022년 오하이오 상원의원 선거에서 밴스는 트럼프의 지지를 받으면서 결정적으로 MAGA 정치인으로 변신한다.

그 과정에서 과거 트럼프 비판은 사실상 청산된다.

트럼프도 밴스의 과거 발언을 알고 있었지만 그를 받아들인다.

다큐가 보여주는 흥미로운 장면 가운데 하나는 밴스가 트럼프를 단순한 정치적 동맹 이상으로 받아들이는 과정이다.

밴스 주변 사람들은 트럼프 지지를 그의 가톨릭 개종과 연결시키기도 한다.

즉 정치적 “conversion”과 종교적 “conversion”이 거의 동시에 일어났다는 것이다.

그리고 2024년 트럼프는 밴스를 부통령 후보로 선택한다.

여기서 Peter Thiel, Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump Jr. 등이 밴스를 밀었다는 점도 다큐가 강조한다.

이는 밴스가 우연히 부통령이 된 것이 아니라 새로운 미국 우파의 여러 흐름이 만나는 지점에 위치했다는 것을 보여준다.

---

8. 밴스와 유럽: 새로운 국제 우파

후반부는 특히 DW다운 시각이 강하다.

밴스는 유럽연합의 자유주의 정치 엘리트보다는 유럽의 민족주의·우파 정치인들에게 더 친근감을 느낀다.

그는 유럽 정치에서 가장 큰 위험을 러시아가 아니라

엘리트주의,
대량이민,
표현의 자유 억압,
민주적 선택을 제한하는 제도

에서 찾는다.

그리고 유럽의 새로운 우파들과 자신 사이에 공통점이 있다고 말한다.

이것은 단순한 미국 고립주의와는 조금 다르다.

밴스가 추구하는 것은 국제주의의 종말이라기보다는 새로운 형태의 “국제적 민족주의 연대”에 가깝다.

즉

미국 MAGA
↔ 유럽 민족주의 우파
↔ 반이민
↔ 반글로벌리즘
↔ 반엘리트주의

가 하나의 국제적 정치 흐름을 형성한다.

이 점은 현재 밴스를 이해하는 데 매우 중요하다.

---

9. Charlie Kirk 이후와 “포스트 트럼프”

다큐 후반에는 Charlie Kirk의 죽음과 그 이후 밴스의 역할이 상당히 중요하게 등장한다.

다큐의 서술에 따르면 밴스는 커크 추도 프로그램을 직접 진행하고, 그의 죽음을 미국 보수운동이 직면한 정치·문화적 갈등과 연결한다.

이 부분부터 다큐의 질문은 더 이상

“왜 밴스가 변했는가?”

가 아니다.

오히려

“트럼프 이후 누가 MAGA를 계승할 것인가?”

로 바뀐다.

그리고 밴스가 가장 강력한 후보 가운데 하나라는 것이 다큐의 결론이다.

하지만 오른쪽에도 경쟁자가 있다.

Nick Fuentes와 같은 훨씬 급진적인 우파가 등장하고 있기 때문이다.

따라서 밴스는 두 방향에서 압력을 받는다.

자유주의 미국 ← 밴스 → 극우 민족주의

다큐는 이 위치가 앞으로 그의 가장 큰 정치적 시험이 될 것이라고 본다.

---

평론

이 다큐의 가장 좋은 점은 밴스의 변화를 단순히 “기회주의자의 변절”로 설명하지 않는다는 데 있다.

물론 정치적 계산은 분명 존재한다. 그러나 다큐를 끝까지 보면 더 큰 그림이 보인다.

실제로 변한 것은 밴스 한 사람이 아니라 미국 보수주의 전체이다.

2004년의 보수주의:

자유시장 + 자유무역 + 세계화 + 이라크전쟁 + 민주주의 확산

에서

2026년의 보수주의:

보호무역 + 국경 + 가족 + 민족 + 문화전쟁 + 비개입주의

로 중심축이 이동했다.

따라서 밴스는 이 변화를 타고난 정치인이면서 동시에 그 변화를 가장 선명하게 구현하는 정치인이다.

그러나 다큐가 좀 더 깊게 파고들었으면 하는 부분도 있다.

첫째, 밴스의 “노동계급 정치”와 실제 경제정책 사이의 관계가 충분히 분석되지 않는다. 노동계급을 말하는 것과 노동계급에게 실제로 유리한 정책을 시행하는 것은 다른 문제다.

둘째, 밴스의 가장 흥미로운 모순인 “반엘리트 엘리트” 문제도 더 깊이 다룰 수 있었다.

그는 예일 출신이며 Peter Thiel의 후원을 받아 정치에 입문했다. 그러면서 대학, 언론, 워싱턴 엘리트를 공격한다.

그러므로 밴스가 반대하는 것은 엘리트 그 자체라기보다 “자신과 다른 가치관을 가진 엘리트”라고 보는 것이 더 정확할 수 있다.

셋째, DW의 유럽 자유주의적 시선 역시 염두에 둘 필요가 있다. 다큐는 밴스를 “극우화되는 미국 보수주의”라는 틀 안에서 해석하는 경향이 강하다. 이것은 어느 정도 타당하지만, 미국 보수층이 왜 이 메시지에 매력을 느끼는지에 대한 내부적 논리를 때로는 충분히 인정하지 않는다.

그들의 시각에서 문제는 단순히 “민주주의를 싫어하는 우익”이 아니다.

그들은 오히려

“선출되지 않은 관료·대학·언론·법원·국제기관이 민주적 다수의 선택을 막고 있다”

고 주장한다.

밴스의 민주주의 비판을 이해하려면 이 점까지 들어가야 한다.

---

결론

이 다큐가 보여주는 JD 밴스의 가장 중요한 특징은 “트럼프의 충실한 부통령”이라는 사실이 아니다.

그는 오히려 트럼프 이후의 미국 우파가 어떤 모습이 될 가능성이 있는지를 보여주는 인물이다.

트럼프의 정치가 본능적이고 개인적이라면 밴스의 정치는 훨씬 이념적이다.

트럼프가 말한다면

“그들이 우리를 속였다.”

밴스는 거기에 이론을 붙인다.

“왜 엘리트 지배체제가 그렇게 작동하며, 어떤 국가·가족·공동체 질서로 그것을 대체해야 하는가.”

그래서 장기적으로 보면 밴스는 트럼프보다 오히려 더 중요한 인물이 될 수도 있다.

이 다큐의 진짜 제목을 조금 바꾼다면 나는 이렇게 부르고 싶다.

<JD Vance: From Trump Critic to the Ideologue of Post-Trump America>

즉 <트럼프 비판자에서 포스트-트럼프 미국의 이론가로>이다.

이것이 DW 다큐가 약 57분 동안 추적한 밴스의 변신을 가장 정확하게 압축하는 표현이라고 생각한다

===

Transcript

===

0:055 secondsThe 61st Munich Security Conference is set to kick off today as is the… Leaders from around the world gathering to discuss pressing security issues. Key figures like the U. S. Vice President JD Vance…

0:3737 secondsPlease welcome Vice President JD Vance.

0:4848 secondsI hope that's not the last bit of applause that I get, but we gather at this conference of course to discuss security…

0:5555 secondsJD Vance, at the age of 40, was sworn in as Vice President of the United States.

1:001 minuteJust a month later, he was in Munich, taking center stage in the arena of international diplomacy.

1:071 minute, 7 secondsSpeaking to an audience of elected officials, diplomats and high ranking officers, Vance delivered a message… or rather, a warning.

1:171 minute, 17 secondsThe threat that I worry the most about, vis a vis Europe, is the threat from within.

1:251 minute, 25 secondsThe retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.

1:341 minute, 34 secondsAs Pope John Paul II once said: Do not be afraid.

1:401 minute, 40 secondsWe shouldn't be afraid of our people even when they express views that disagree with their leadership.

1:481 minute, 48 secondsThank you all. Good luck to all of you. God bless you. Vance's speech seemed to leave the room in shock.

1:591 minute, 59 secondsWho was this man who had lectured European leaders on democracy…

2:052 minutes, 5 secondswho had criticized them for supposedly excluding and suppressing populist and right wing viewpoints?

2:152 minutes, 15 secondsTo understand JD Vance and how he came to hold the nation's second highest office, one must go back to where his journey first began: Middletown, Ohio.

2:252 minutes, 25 secondsA small city nestled in the Rust Belt, marked by the memory of a lost industry.

2:322 minutes, 32 secondsA place that tells the story of a deindustrializing nation… a nation in crisis.

3:053 minutes, 5 secondsI was born here in 1956. Family been living here for a long time.

3:133 minutes, 13 secondsIt was a good place to live. Middletown has always been a good place to live.

3:243 minutes, 24 secondsHis mother, Bev, was one, two… the third house down from me. The tan house now has been freshly re… you know…

3:383 minutes, 38 secondsRight there where Dale's setting down on Joyce's. That's Joyce's house now.

3:493 minutes, 49 secondsJD, he was born in 1984. And I was laid off and went back to work right after he was born.

4:014 minutes, 1 secondLaid off for two years. It wasn't an easy time.

4:164 minutes, 16 secondsThis is where JD Vance grew up… where his grandparents came to build a better life, find work in the steel industry and fulfill their American Dream.

4:284 minutes, 28 secondsBut for many, the American Dream was a promise that could not be fulfilled. I came from a southern Ohio steel town.

4:394 minutes, 39 secondsAnd it's a town that's really struggling in a lot of ways, in ways that are indicative of the broader struggles of America's working class.

4:524 minutes, 52 secondsHeroin has moved in, killing a lot of people, people I know. Family violence, domestic violence and divorce have torn apart families.

5:015 minutes, 1 secondAnd there's a very unique sense of pessimism that's moved in.

5:055 minutes, 5 secondsThink about rising mortality rates in these communities and recognize that… for a lot of these folks…

5:105 minutes, 10 secondsthe problems that they're seeing are actually causing rising death rates in their own communities. So, there's a very real sense of struggle.

5:215 minutes, 21 secondsNow I had a very front row seat to that struggle.

5:245 minutes, 24 secondsMy family has been part of that struggle for a very long time.

5:305 minutes, 30 secondsI come from a family that doesn't have a whole lot of money.

5:355 minutes, 35 secondsThe addiction that plagued my community also plagued my family and even sadly, my own mom.

5:455 minutes, 45 secondsI wasn't able to think.

5:485 minutes, 48 secondsYou know, my mind was drug addled, and I didn't think about anything except just getting high. That's all I thought about for years.

5:595 minutes, 59 secondsI've only been clean 10 and a half years, so 15 years ago, I was spiraling down.

6:076 minutes, 7 secondsHe was a good kid. He was a very well behaved kid. I think he was actually kind of shy as a kid.

6:186 minutes, 18 secondsBut he was a good kid.

6:216 minutes, 21 secondsHe never let me down. There were several years that my kids didn't speak to me though in my later addiction. I think it was just too painful.

6:296 minutes, 29 secondsAnd they've said since then they thought I was going to die.

6:336 minutes, 33 secondsSo, I mean I didn't realize how bad my addiction was, but that's what they've told me is: They thought I was going to die.

6:476 minutes, 47 secondsThis is JD Vance's grandmother's house: This one right here: 313.

6:546 minutes, 54 secondsI could hear Bonnie easy. Talked to her a lot.

7:027 minutes, 2 secondsBonnie was a little hardcore. That's where she came from.

7:087 minutes, 8 secondsShe was a tough bird, back in the 80s. You couldn't tell what was actually happening.

7:167 minutes, 16 secondsYou knew just… nobody was having fun when they were arguing.

7:227 minutes, 22 secondsFrom my bedroom, you could hear whether there was excitement or there wasn't excitement happening two doors down.

7:337 minutes, 33 secondsMy mom was 12 when she saw my grandma set my grandfather on fire.

7:417 minutes, 41 secondsHis crime was that he came home drunk after she told him: If you come home drunk, I'm going to kill you.

7:497 minutes, 49 secondsWell, one thing that happened is that my grandparents, the same grandparents of setting someone on fire fame, they really shaped up by the time I came around.

7:577 minutes, 57 secondsThey provided me a stable home, stable family.

8:018 minutes, 1 secondThey made sure that when my parents weren't able to do the things that kids need, they stepped in and filled that role.

8:198 minutes, 19 secondsJuly 2024. Thank you, please. The Republican National Convention. Wow. Wow.

8:298 minutes, 29 secondsJD Vance was elated.

8:318 minutes, 31 secondsDonald Trump announced he'd chosen Vance as his running mate in the November presidential election.

8:378 minutes, 37 secondsNow, never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I'd be standing here tonight. That night, he gave a nod to his roots.

8:468 minutes, 46 secondsO H I O. O H I O. And about six months later, he was walking into the Oval Office.

8:558 minutes, 55 secondsCome on in, here's Margo. Hey Margo. Good to see you. Good to see you too.

9:099 minutes, 9 secondsThis is incredible. But Vance quickly settled into the role… and it soon became

9:179 minutes, 17 secondsapparent he'd be far more front and center than many of his predecessors.

9:219 minutes, 21 secondsThe new vice president stunned some observers with his confrontative style.

9:269 minutes, 26 secondsI think the best encapsulation of how JD operates as vice president is: Look at that Oval Office meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky from Ukraine.

9:379 minutes, 37 secondsWell, thank you very much. It's an honor to have President Zelensky of Ukraine…

9:439 minutes, 43 secondsThat meeting was, like, kind of going fine. And then JD comes bursting in there like the Kool Aid Man and starts berating Zelensky for like, you know, haven't you said thank you yet?

9:539 minutes, 53 secondsLike why aren't you grateful? And all this.

9:569 minutes, 56 secondsMr. President, Mr. President, with respect: I think it's disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.

10:0210 minutes, 2 secondsRight now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the frontlines because you have manpower problems.

10:0910 minutes, 9 secondsYou should be thanking the president for trying to bring it into this conversation. Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have?

10:1510 minutes, 15 secondsThat was JD taking global affairs, you know, kind of in the palm of his hand and being like, let's try this. Normally a VP would have sort of like

10:2410 minutes, 24 secondsa narrowly tailored lane for policy, and instead, JD kind of gets to be everywhere because Trump is sort of everywhere, and he's just, you know, the younger version, you know, the software update.

10:3310 minutes, 33 secondsYou're saying that, if you will speak very loudly about the war… - He's not speaking loudly. He's not speaking loudly… Your country's in big trouble.

10:4210 minutes, 42 secondsCan I answer? Can I? No, no. You've done a lot of talking. - Publicly, he likes to play attack dogs. He's sort of like presenting himself as an enforcer.

10:5110 minutes, 51 secondsLike, hey, if you come after Trump, I'm going to let you know about it, and give you a stern talking to. And the president who's trying to save your country.

11:1511 minutes, 15 secondsBehind this rhetoric were campaign promises.

11:1811 minutes, 18 secondsTrump and Vance had run on a platform of "America First" and stopping "endless wars"… like the one in Iraq, which dragged on for almost a decade.

11:2911 minutes, 29 secondsAs a U. S. Marine, JD Vance had experienced it firsthand. Operation Iraqi Freedom has begun.

11:3811 minutes, 38 secondsIn 2003, JD Vance joined the U. S. Marine Corps after graduating from high school.

11:4411 minutes, 44 secondsHe said he believed the invasion of Iraq would transform the country from a dictatorship to a democracy. In 2005, he was deployed to Iraq as a public affairs Marine.

11:5611 minutes, 56 secondsHis job was not to fight, but to write articles about what was happening.

12:0512 minutes, 5 secondsYeah, you might want to close the door or something… JD was a soldier.

12:1112 minutes, 11 secondsAnd so, he was witnessing firsthand the difficulty, if not impossibility, of simply saying: Let's put American soldiers in this place and turn it into a liberal democracy.

12:2112 minutes, 21 secondsIt's just not going to happen.

12:2312 minutes, 23 secondsRegime change in that way is very difficult. You can overthrow a government, but you can't change a culture. You can't change a way of life overnight.

12:3212 minutes, 32 secondsI'm Patrick Deneen. I'm professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.

12:3912 minutes, 39 secondsI know JD to be a person who cares deeply about the future of the country. He does want the good of this country.

12:4812 minutes, 48 secondsSo I think JD grew to be skeptical of kind of the liberal orthodoxy that governed foreign policy.

12:5512 minutes, 55 secondsThis is combined then, of course, with, at the same time, a concern with the way in which the American willingness to spend

13:0513 minutes, 5 secondsand devote massive material assistance all over the world.

13:1113 minutes, 11 secondsHe became very disillusioned while he was in Iraq about the war.

13:1613 minutes, 16 secondsAnd it sort of taught him that political elites are not always telling the truth, right?

13:2113 minutes, 21 secondsThat they lie and they generate media narratives to sell their preferred path. And you know, it sort of turned him

13:2913 minutes, 29 secondsagainst elites in general but also this neoconservative elite foreign policy that that you saw on display in the Bush administration.

13:4213 minutes, 42 secondsThe best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.

13:5213 minutes, 52 secondsRe elected and still at war in Iraq, George W. Bush continued to repeat his justification for the conflict.

13:5913 minutes, 59 secondsBut his quote unquote "Freedom Agenda" would be increasingly rejected by a new generation of conservatives…

14:0714 minutes, 7 secondsWell, the Freedom Agenda is this notion that human beings everywhere aspire to the same concept of individual liberty,

14:1414 minutes, 14 secondsand that by logical extension, it is the role of America to, if necessary, use foreign policy as one of many tools

14:2114 minutes, 21 secondsto essentially liberalize and bring freedom to people throughout the world.

14:2914 minutes, 29 secondsThe problem is that, among other things, this is not, in my opinion, a particularly conservative way of actually viewing foreign policy.

14:3714 minutes, 37 secondsIt's actually a very liberal view, like liberal properly construed. Thinking of liberalism as kind of a universalist ideology.

14:4714 minutes, 47 secondsI came out of the George W. Bush administration, broadly very supportive of the administration, its projects, and its goals.

14:5614 minutes, 56 secondsI admired and liked George W. Bush, and the fact that the Iraq war didn't go better was for me a source of pain, not a source of anger.

15:0515 minutes, 5 secondsBut I could see a lot of things going wrong.

15:0715 minutes, 7 secondsBoth the Iraq War was going wrong and the American economy was going wrong for a lot of people.

15:1415 minutes, 14 secondsBy 2008, JD Vance had left the Marines and was a college student in a crisis ridden America.

15:2015 minutes, 20 secondsAlongside mounting public fatigue with the Iraq War came the subprime mortgage crisis. The economy took a nosedive.

15:2815 minutes, 28 secondsRepublicans were accused of turning their backs on their constituents…

15:3215 minutes, 32 secondsand their unpopularity paved the way for the election of Democrat Barack Obama, the first Black president in the nation's history.

15:4115 minutes, 41 secondsHis election and new social policies sparked anger among some conservatives, and a fringe faction of Republicans… known as the "Tea Party" movement… gained traction.

15:5315 minutes, 53 secondsAt the time, JD Vance was in his mid-20s and a student at the Ohio State University: His education was funded by a program for veterans.

16:0316 minutes, 3 secondsAfter the election of 2008, I created a website to try to invite, especially younger people, to talk about what would a pragmatic governing Republican look like.

16:1316 minutes, 13 secondsIn retrospect, a waste of time because no one was interested. But it seemed, I thought in 2009, that this was the way to go. So, we had quite a lot of people who were working on the site.

16:2216 minutes, 22 secondsAnd one of them I heard from was JD Vance, who published under a different name.

16:2716 minutes, 27 secondsHe had finished his service in Iraq, he'd finished his studies in Ohio, and he was about to start at Yale Law School.

16:3416 minutes, 34 secondsHe was mostly writing about why he favored a more moderate kind of Republicanism.

16:4616 minutes, 46 secondsThey're about, as I say, about eight or 12 of these pieces. And they were thoughtful, they were considered, they were always very well written, and I was proud to publish them.

16:5616 minutes, 56 secondsIn the period from 2010 to 2017, everybody who met him recognized that they were meeting someone

17:0417 minutes, 4 secondswho would be a very important force in American life. And we all hope that that would be used for good.

17:1017 minutes, 10 secondsBut look, the story of all literature is that you don't get to be a great villain unless you have the capacity to be a great hero.

17:2917 minutes, 29 secondsIn 2010, Vance started attending Yale Law School, a prestigious Ivy League university in Connecticut.

17:4617 minutes, 46 secondsTechnically, I guess Yale is ranked number one. And a lot of Yale Law graduates go into politics.

17:5617 minutes, 56 secondsI was friends with him from, I guess, 2010 through 2020.

18:0218 minutes, 2 secondsI was openly queer and trans at that time, and I had gender affirming surgery. It was never an issue at all.

18:1118 minutes, 11 secondsIf anything he was just supportive and kind, asking me how she was doing.

18:1618 minutes, 16 secondsAnd it never crossed my mind that he had some kind of negative feeling towards LGBTQ people.

18:2618 minutes, 26 secondsThis broken culture wants to turn everybody… whether male or female…

18:3218 minutes, 32 secondsinto androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same, and act the same. We actually think God made male and female for a purpose.

18:4118 minutes, 41 secondsIt's not just LGBTQ issues, right? There's infinite areas where he's done a 180.

18:5718 minutes, 57 secondsWe both grew up in working class communities, we both went to public school.

19:0119 minutes, 1 secondNeither of us came from kind of elite backgrounds, and so we had that in common, which honestly is not the norm at Yale Law School.

19:0719 minutes, 7 secondsMost people are from the coast and have parents who are lawyers or doctors. That was true for Vance's future wife, Usha.

19:1619 minutes, 16 secondsShe grew up in California, raised by Indian immigrant parents who were both accomplished professors. She would help Vance find his footing in this new world.

19:2819 minutes, 28 secondsI think he found Yale to be both exciting, intellectually stimulating, deeply and profoundly formative.

19:3619 minutes, 36 secondsHe also met his wife at Yale.

19:3919 minutes, 39 secondsBut I think he also found it to be a place that was utterly strange to him.

19:4419 minutes, 44 secondsAnd he recognized, and I think that maybe was one of the first times he realized how much he was a product of the class he came from, the upbringing he had.

19:5919 minutes, 59 secondsHe worked harder than probably a lot of his classmates to get there, right? But he also faced some adversity in that respect.

20:0820 minutes, 8 secondsI mean, I know in our first year, there was a professor who made a comment that he felt that people who went to state schools weren't

20:1520 minutes, 15 secondsas well prepared to handle the rigors of Yale Law school, and he made a point of proving that professor wrong.

20:2620 minutes, 26 secondsBut there was a lot of ego tied up in it, and I think we see that ego on display today.

20:3720 minutes, 37 secondsVance's experiences at Yale seemed to sour his view on higher education and fuel his later convictions.

20:4920 minutes, 49 secondsWhat we want to do in this movement and in this country, I think, are fundamentally dependent on going through a set of very hostile institutions, specifically the universities

20:5820 minutes, 58 secondswhich control the knowledge in our society, which control what we call truth and what we call falsity.

21:0421 minutes, 4 secondsThe left wing indoctrination in our society, it starts somewhere. You know, it's like a cancer.

21:1021 minutes, 10 secondsUniversities are the place where the tumor is located and it's spreading all over our society.

21:1721 minutes, 17 secondsVance's scathing views on universities started taking shape while he was still at Yale.

21:2221 minutes, 22 secondsThere, at a talk in 2011, he encountered Peter Thiel: a billionaire, a leading figure in Silicon Valley, and a Christian.

21:3121 minutes, 31 secondsThiel made his fortune in the tech industry by co founding PayPal, where he worked with Elon Musk. He also went on to become one of Facebook's first investors.

21:4121 minutes, 41 secondsSoon, Thiel became Vance's mentor.

21:4421 minutes, 44 secondsVance basically says, in his recollection of events, that Thiel's speech made him realize: He didn't want to be a lawyer, he didn't want to pursue law school.

21:5221 minutes, 52 secondsHe's probably the single most important person in JD Vance's life, after maybe his wife and his parents.

21:5821 minutes, 58 secondsThiel is a brilliant man. And a very astute man, mentally well ordered man.

22:0722 minutes, 7 secondsHe's not like Elon Musk, who just seems half crazy part of the time. You could actually unilaterally change the world without having…

22:1422 minutes, 14 secondsPeter Thiel is a controversial figure who has wielded significant influence on right wing politics in the last decade.

22:2122 minutes, 21 secondsTechnology is this incredible alternative to politics.

22:2622 minutes, 26 secondsAnd you know there are a number of different technologies we can outline, but the task in this world where politics has become so broken and so dysfunctional is to find a way to escape from it.

22:3722 minutes, 37 secondsIt's not a way to fix it: It is a way to escape.

22:4022 minutes, 40 secondsThiel has a complicated relationship with democracy. He's famously said that freedom and democracy are no longer compatible.

22:4722 minutes, 47 secondsThe idea being if you achieve full economic democracy, you lose economic freedom for certain people, especially rich people.

22:5722 minutes, 57 secondsAnd so that the solution to that is to restrain democracy in the service of freedom.

23:0223 minutes, 2 secondsHe sees these two things as intention, and he opts in favor of freedom rather than democracy.

23:0823 minutes, 8 secondsAnd one of the things that has made Thiel so successful is that he has this great eye for talent.

23:1323 minutes, 13 secondsAnd he recognized JD Vance early, in the same way that others did, as someone who really had great potential.

23:3223 minutes, 32 secondsIn 2013, JD Vance graduated from Yale Law School and moved to Silicon Valley. Peter Thiel mentored him as a venture capital investor.

23:4123 minutes, 41 secondsVance had a knack for the business and started making serious money.

23:4623 minutes, 46 secondsFor Vance, Thiel was a kind of father figure and guided him in his Christian faith.

23:5123 minutes, 51 secondsAll the while, Vance started reflecting more on his personal history… and putting pen to paper.

24:0424 minutes, 4 secondsAnd we're back with JD Vance.

24:0524 minutes, 5 secondsHe's the author of the excellent book, "Hillbilly Elegy." A memoir of a family and culture in crisis.

24:1124 minutes, 11 secondsDid you have any idea when you wrote this book that it would be a huge bestseller? "Hillbilly Elegy." No I didn't. I definitely didn't expect it to have quite the response that it's had.

24:2324 minutes, 23 secondsI saw the book before it was a book. One of the things we had talked about was that Vance wanted to do a book

24:3024 minutes, 30 secondsabout creative, conservative solutions to the problems of rural poverty.

24:3624 minutes, 36 secondsAnd so, he wrote an outline and took it to an editor named Eric Nelson at HarperCollins.

24:4224 minutes, 42 secondsAnd he said to him: OK, I like this idea, but before you do it, I want you to write a short introduction about your own life.

24:5024 minutes, 50 secondsAnd JD Vance wrote a short outline about his own life, and Eric Nelson said: Fine, this is our book, this we throw out.

24:5724 minutes, 57 secondsYou know when I read this book, which I read over my husband's shoulder as an e book on a plane…

25:0225 minutes, 2 secondsIt turned Vance himself into a kind of commentator who the mainstream media brought in to explain the Trump phenomenon primarily to left leaning and liberal voters.

25:1325 minutes, 13 secondsSo, he was on talk shows, on news channels, he was writing for outlets.

25:1825 minutes, 18 secondsWell, I didn't expect it to be so politically relevant and timely in that way, but I definitely knew that there were very significant problems that would express themselves in our politics eventually…

25:2825 minutes, 28 secondsJD was just kind of a nice, fresh face to come on the sort of talk show circuit and kind of be able to speak both languages, like speak

25:3825 minutes, 38 secondsthe language of liberal coastal elite America, but also be able to teach them a little something about what it's like to grow up in a more neglected post industrial town.

25:4725 minutes, 47 secondsAnd he was kind of like a Sherpa for liberal America to like: Come with me and understand why these people are so pissed off.

25:5725 minutes, 57 secondsYou can't disconnect the fact that Trump was a very successful candidate…

26:0026 minutesWhen asked about Trump around the 2016 election, Vance did not mince his words.

26:0626 minutes, 6 secondsSome people who voted for Trump were racist, and they voted for him for racist reasons.

26:1126 minutes, 11 secondsTrump is a really bad candidate and frankly I think a really bad person.

26:1526 minutes, 15 secondsJD Vance at the time to me… and publicly… described Donald Trump as morally reprehensible as potentially America's Hitler.

26:2426 minutes, 24 secondsThese are not ambiguous terms. His opinions were very, very clear.

26:2926 minutes, 29 seconds"He's just a bad man, a morally reprehensible human being." "I'm obviously outraged at Trump's rhetoric." "I worry most of all about how welcome

26:3826 minutes, 38 secondsMuslim citizens feel in their own country." And: "There has always been demagogues willing to exploit people who believe crazy s**t."

26:4826 minutes, 48 secondsPublicly, in the pages of The Atlantic, he said that Donald Trump was to politics what heroin was to the addict's body: Something that promised an end to pain but in fact only created your problems, only intensified your problems.

26:5926 minutes, 59 secondsAnd for Vance, coming from where he came from, and with his own family history of addiction, the heroin analogy was not a glib one. It was not just words.

27:0727 minutes, 7 secondsIt was the deepest pain of his life.

27:1127 minutes, 11 secondsAnd he said that Trump is heroin for the kind of people who voted for him.

27:1827 minutes, 18 secondsWell, I read "Hillbilly Elegy" right when it came out, and I found it so unbelievably moving to the point where it made me weep.

27:2927 minutes, 29 secondsAnd I have never cried at a book before.

27:3327 minutes, 33 secondsIt's astounding that this young man at that point had already accomplished what he had in life: had been

27:4127 minutes, 41 secondsa successful United States Marine, had gone to Yale Law School, had been a real success in business… at that point, not yet into politics…

27:4927 minutes, 49 secondswas a bit of a media celebrity.

27:5127 minutes, 51 secondsThat he had accomplished all of that, given this incredibly harsh upbringing that he had to endure.

27:5927 minutes, 59 secondsMy name is Steve Cortes, and I was a spokesman and media strategist for the Vance 2022 Senate campaign….

28:0828 minutes, 8 secondsgreat, OK. Well, I'm used to being on camera. Yeah.

28:1428 minutes, 14 secondsI knew that if JD was going to make a run, that he would need help and I'm going to be part of that team. So, I contacted JD, you know on my own volition: I wasn't recruited or anything

28:2428 minutes, 24 secondslike that. And I told him: I know you're going to run for office. He said: I'm not running. I said: Yes, you are. And I said: And when you do, I want to help you.

28:3528 minutes, 35 seconds2022 was a midterm election year.

28:3928 minutes, 39 secondsTwo years prior, the Democrats had retaken the White House with Joe Biden and won razor thin control of the Senate.

28:4628 minutes, 46 secondsRepublicans wanted to take back power. We need a new politics for a new generation. The old way of doing things ain't working.

28:5828 minutes, 58 secondsWe're going to go after the multinational companies and the government leaders who are shipping our jobs overseas and making it harder for business to prosper.

29:0729 minutes, 7 secondsBecause the leaders this country, who have plundered it, have decided they're going to reward their friends with special tax breaks and not the companies right here in Middletown, Ohio. That stops now.

29:1929 minutes, 19 secondsThis road was not easy… It was definitely uphill. JD Vance!

29:2729 minutes, 27 secondsThis was a crowded primary of serious candidates, all of whom had the resumes, had the credentials, the name ID to be a United States senator.

29:3829 minutes, 38 secondsThe Ohio primaries, JD Vance.

29:4529 minutes, 45 secondsThat's what I want this campaign to be about. That's why I'm doing it. So, it was an intense competition.

29:5029 minutes, 50 secondsAnd in that Republican primary, the main lane of attack against JD Vance, from his rivals, was that he was anti Trump.

30:0730 minutes, 7 secondsYou're not going to be able to win a primary almost anywhere in the country as a Republican if you don't whole hog support Donald Trump.

30:1530 minutes, 15 secondsFor many Republican hopefuls in Ohio, aligning with MAGA was the key to success.

30:2430 minutes, 24 secondsDonald Trump won Ohio in the presidential election in 2016. In 2020, he won the state again.

30:3830 minutes, 38 secondsVance began to say things that were different from what he'd said before.

30:4330 minutes, 43 secondsAnd then, the nature of the human being is that he began to think those things.

30:4830 minutes, 48 secondsMaybe there's some difference between what he says and what he thinks, but not as much as you might imagine, because it's not human nature to have a big gap between what we say and what we think.

30:5630 minutes, 56 secondsHe started expressing very different views than I had previously heard from him, whether it was on Donald Trump or LGBT rights.

31:1131 minutes, 11 secondsHe also grew the beard, and a lot of things changed.

31:2031 minutes, 20 secondsHe was really, you know, trying to sound like Trump on immigration, on bashing whatever, COVID related things were happening,

31:3031 minutes, 30 secondsbeing very isolationist with international affairs, being very pro tariff trade protectionism.

31:3831 minutes, 38 secondsAre you a racist? Do you hate Mexicans? The media calls us racist for wanting to build Trump's wall. Joe Biden's open border is killing Ohioans.

31:4831 minutes, 48 secondsI was raised on this street, where my grandma taught me that in America, kids can dream big. But we had something then that Ohio kids don't have today.

31:5831 minutes, 58 secondsSafety.

31:5831 minutes, 58 secondsIn a span of two years you've gone from thinking that Trump is a morally reprehensible

32:0532 minutes, 5 secondshuman being who is leading, you know, a dangerous cult of personality to saying that he's the greatest president

32:1432 minutes, 14 secondsof your lifetime and people take that seriously. - You've admitted you've changed your mind on Donald Trump, but in the past you've said, quote, "I'm a never Trump guy." I've got to tip my hat to him on that one.

32:2532 minutes, 25 secondsI did change my mind about Donald Trump. He was a great president.

32:2832 minutes, 28 secondsAnd I think at the end of the day, one of the things this race presents is an opportunity.

32:3232 minutes, 32 secondsWho actually agrees with Trump on the core issues of trade, of immigration?

32:3532 minutes, 35 secondsWho's willing to fight for an America first foreign policy? I think that's clearly me. He is a chameleon... and I think ultimately a pretty talented politician.

32:5932 minutes, 59 secondsSo, I was already working for JD Vance as his media spokesman and adviser. I went down to Florida to Mar a Lago to see President Trump.

33:0633 minutes, 6 secondsAnd I asked him for the endorsement of JD Vance. He was definitely interested.

33:1133 minutes, 11 secondsHe was very intrigued with JD, very impressed with the way he was campaigning. But he was also concerned about his anti Trump past, his past statements, of course.

33:2033 minutes, 20 secondsSo, he didn't so much say "no" as "possibly," or you know, "perhaps."

33:2833 minutes, 28 secondsAnd I told him that I had spent countless hours with JD Vance, which I did campaigning. A lot of it driving in the car around Ohio.

33:3633 minutes, 36 secondsThis isn't glamorous stuff, but in those long car rides, you really get to know somebody.

33:4033 minutes, 40 secondsAnd that's what I told President Trump that I knew the heart and mind of this guy.

33:4433 minutes, 44 secondsI also told him, by the way, and I think this is important, that he'd also had not just a political conversion, but a very sincere spiritual conversion. He had become Catholic and had become ardently Catholic.

33:5633 minutes, 56 secondsAnd I think those two conversions are absolutely related. And I told President Trump was unaware of that aspect.

34:0134 minutes, 1 secondSo, I think that was helpful in trying to convince President Trump that something deep was going on and that this political conversion was part of something bigger.

34:1634 minutes, 16 secondsJD was formally received in a ritual way into the Catholic Church and given his first communion.

34:2234 minutes, 22 secondsIt's him with his wife and little boy. And I love this. It's very dramatic.

34:3434 minutes, 34 secondsHe put on a white robe of someone who was becoming Catholic. I felt this inner welling up of emotion and happiness for him.

34:4434 minutes, 44 secondsAnd I, as someone who had converted as an adult to Catholicism, I knew what a big moment this was for him.

34:5434 minutes, 54 secondsIf you're a serious Catholic, then you have to look to the teachings of the church as authority.

35:0135 minutes, 1 secondThey bind you, they tell you what you can and can't do. They give you a certain way of looking at the world. I knew his life would completely change from that point on.

35:1635 minutes, 16 secondsMy name is Rod Dreher.

35:1735 minutes, 17 secondsI'm an American writer and journalist and a friend of JD Vance.

35:2735 minutes, 27 secondsFrom now on, I'm following Jesus Christ. He is my Lord and He is my Savior.

35:3535 minutes, 35 secondsIf you come to Jesus, you're going to have to change your whole way of living.

35:4535 minutes, 45 secondsJD and I, we first met in 2016.

35:4935 minutes, 49 secondsHe wrote me to say that he's been thinking a lot about becoming Catholic and wanted my help: What should I read? Who should I talk to?

35:5735 minutes, 57 secondsHe reached out to many people to talk about what it meant to be a Catholic, what it meant politically to be a Catholic, what it meant theologically to be a Catholic.

36:0636 minutes, 6 secondsHis real interest with me was to talk about Catholic social teaching, the relationship of the faith and questions such as capitalism, socialism, how the political order should reflect Catholic beliefs.

36:2036 minutes, 20 secondsSo he, at that time, was trying to make sense of how he could think about social and political matters through a Catholic lens.

36:3236 minutes, 32 secondsAnd I knew that if he went into politics as he was considering that this would require him as a serious Catholic

36:4136 minutes, 41 secondsto take positions that people in his social class, the professional class, would not like. For example, he would have to be against abortion rights.

36:5236 minutes, 52 secondsWe march to protect the unborn.

36:5536 minutes, 55 secondsWe march to proclaim and live out the sacred truth that every single child is a miracle and a gift from God.

37:0837 minutes, 8 secondsIt changed, you know, more than just his thoughts about the eternal. It changed his thoughts, of course, as it must if it's a real faith: It changes your worldview about the temporal world, including politics.

37:1937 minutes, 19 secondsAnd part of that, I think, was his embrace of the populist nationalist cause.

37:2437 minutes, 24 secondsAnd if you look, you know, put JD aside, a lot of the leaders of this movement were Catholic and seriously Catholic. Not just nominally or culturally Catholic.

37:3437 minutes, 34 secondsIn a country where Protestants have yielded significant power, the shift to Catholicism upends the status quo.

37:4437 minutes, 44 secondsI had a Trump adviser say something that throws me up when he said it, which was that if you look at the last Trump White House the first time around,

37:5237 minutes, 52 secondsit was a lot of evangelical Christians who were in in a lot of positions of authority in there. And he's like: You look at the West Wing now, they're all Catholics.

38:0138 minutes, 1 secondNow they're not like literally all Catholics, but it is a major shift.

38:1038 minutes, 10 secondsThis new generation of Catholics in politics talks about centering faith in their platforms, crafting policies that affect many aspects of public life.

38:3338 minutes, 33 secondsThey have different visions of what kind of society to build in the aftermath of liberalism:

38:4138 minutes, 41 secondsLet's reject wokeism, let's reject the sexual revolution, let's reject the progressive racial politics of the past 20 years, and let's return to a kind of social conservatism.

38:5638 minutes, 56 secondsIn 2022, with his sights set on returning to the White House, Donald Trump seized this momentum.

39:0639 minutes, 6 secondsThere is no mountain we cannot climb because we are Americans and Americans kneel to God and to God alone.

39:2039 minutes, 20 secondsThrough Vance's conversion to Catholicism and his commitment to "post liberal" values,

39:2739 minutes, 27 secondshe became a strategic choice for Trump to capture a certain segment of the voting population.

39:4439 minutes, 44 secondsThis is a great person who I've really gotten to know.

39:4839 minutes, 48 secondsYeah, he said some bad things about me, but that was before he knew me and then he fell in love.

39:5439 minutes, 54 secondsThe term that my sources use, which is the "loyal convert," that Trump always loves a loyal convert. And that once

40:0240 minutes, 2 secondsyou've crossed that Rubicon and you've kind of swallowed that pill of like negating the things you believed and said about him before,

40:1140 minutes, 11 secondsyou're a great asset at that point. Because like: You're not going to go back… you're going to do that again? No.

40:1740 minutes, 17 secondsIt's kind of like a literal burning of the bridges, like there is no turn back for JD. God bless you.

40:2640 minutes, 26 secondsHere, CBS News projects that in the state of Ohio, JD Vance will be the next Republican senator from the state of Ohio.

40:3740 minutes, 37 secondsA victory for Republicans, a victory for them.

40:4540 minutes, 45 secondsI will never forget the great people of Ohio. Thank you for this honor to serve you. I'll fight for you every day. God bless you guys and thank you.

40:5440 minutes, 54 secondsWe are smoking cigars out of the deck in Columbus, Ohio.

40:5740 minutes, 57 secondsHe is now senator elect. And I said to him: JD, this was incredible. I said: But guess what? I said: My job's not done.

41:0641 minutes, 6 secondsHe said: What are you talking about? I said: You're going to be the president of the United States. He said: Cortes, blank, blank, blank, blank, off.

41:1441 minutes, 14 secondsI said: You are going to be the president of the United States. I said: And I'm going to help you.

41:2041 minutes, 20 secondsDo you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all..

41:2541 minutes, 25 secondsIn January 2023, JD Vance was sworn in as senator by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden's Vice President. - S o help you God.

41:3441 minutes, 34 seconds- I do. - Congratulations, senators.

41:4841 minutes, 48 secondsWith the 2022 midterms barely in the rearview mirror, Republicans started looking towards 2024.

41:5541 minutes, 55 secondsThe race for the White House was already beginning.

41:5941 minutes, 59 secondsVance had powerful allies who supported him for the vice presidency with their money, power, and influence.

42:0542 minutes, 5 secondsAmong them: Peter Thiel, who gave over 10 million dollars to fuel Vance's Senate campaign. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a powerful pundit on the right.

42:1542 minutes, 15 secondsCharlie Kirk, an important voice in the MAGA youth movement. And Donald Trump Jr.

42:2342 minutes, 23 secondsDon Jr. made the case to his father just as he had in the Senate campaign previously.

42:2842 minutes, 28 secondsHe made the case to his father that JD Vance was the right man, that he'll be a fantastic vice president, he'll be an able co pilot.

42:3542 minutes, 35 secondsAnd the pitch he made, which has been reported, is that Vance was the person who could continue on Trump's legacy.

42:4342 minutes, 43 secondsThat with a figure like Vance, Trump wasn't the end of the project. That this revolution could be carried on into the future.

42:5642 minutes, 56 secondsPlease raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, James David Vance, do solemnly swear.

43:0643 minutes, 6 secondsI, James David Vance, do solemnly swearswear...

43:0943 minutes, 9 secondsWith his hand on the bible, standing beside Donald Trump, his mother, his wife, Usha, and their three children, JD Vance was officially sworn in as Vice President of the United States of America.

43:2643 minutes, 26 seconds- So help me God. - So help me God. Congratulations, Mr. Vice President.

43:3943 minutes, 39 secondsTrump's second term began, with a more radical agenda than his first. He'd vowed to crack down on immigration.

43:4843 minutes, 48 secondsA promise that, on its face, seemed to clash with JD Vance's Catholic faith.

43:5343 minutes, 53 secondsI really do think that social solidarity is destroyed when you have too much migration too quickly. And so that's not because I hate the migrants,

44:0144 minutes, 1 secondor I'm motivated by grievance. That's because I'm trying to preserve something in my own country where we are a unified nation. And I don't think that can happen if you have too much immigration too quickly.

44:1344 minutes, 13 secondsTrump's rallying call carried into his second term: "America first," especially when it came to international politics.

44:2344 minutes, 23 secondsVance did not want the United States to keep playing the role of the world's policeman.

44:3144 minutes, 31 secondsThe administration repeatedly called decade long alliances into question, toying with the idea of withdrawing from NATO.

44:4044 minutes, 40 secondsIn Vance's view, nations must take care of their own interests, a conviction he'd held for years. There's a funny story here.

44:5044 minutes, 50 secondsBack in 2024, when he was only an American senator… Trump had not chosen him yet… JD went to the Munich Security Conference.

44:5944 minutes, 59 secondsWe have JD Vance, a senator from Ohio of the United States of America.

45:0745 minutes, 7 secondsAnd while he was there, he texted me: Do you want to come to Munich and have dinner with me? I said: Yeah, that'd be great!

45:1445 minutes, 14 secondsBut aren't you at the security conference?

45:1745 minutes, 17 secondsAnd he told me it was a miserable experience because none of the security elites would talk to him because of his view on Ukraine.

45:2645 minutes, 26 secondsHe was against NATO policy for Ukraine. He thought it was a bad idea. How would it look at European security?

45:3245 minutes, 32 secondsWould there be a withdrawal from NATO? Would there be a pull out, an abandonment of Ukraine?

45:4045 minutes, 40 secondsSo are European fears justified? They completely ignored him. They were snobs.

45:4645 minutes, 46 secondsYou could imagine how a hillbilly, as he is, took that.

45:5245 minutes, 52 secondsSo, I flew there, we had dinner, and he said: I'd rather have dinner with a friend than with these a**holes.

45:5845 minutes, 58 secondsAnd the next day, Sunday, he went to mass, I went to the Orthodox Liturgy. Then we met at an ordinary beer hall.

46:0646 minutes, 6 secondsAnd I have a photo of him.

46:0946 minutes, 9 secondsThe senator sitting there wearing a sweatshirt from his football team Ohio State and a cap, ordinary American.

46:1646 minutes, 16 secondsOne year later, he returned to the Munich Security Conference as Vice President of the United States and faced all of these a**holes and gave that speech.

46:2646 minutes, 26 secondsThe threat that I worry the most about, vis a vis Europe, is the threat from within. I believe there is nothing more urgent than mass migration.

46:3746 minutes, 37 secondsWhen he gave that speech, my smartphone started buzzing like crazy. All of my conservative European friends, all the way

46:4546 minutes, 45 secondsfrom Bucharest to Paris to London, were texting saying: Yes, finally somebody said.

46:5546 minutes, 55 secondsFor him and for many people on the European far right fit into a vision of a pan European far right movement. In that sense, I think

47:0347 minutes, 3 secondsVance is really not a nationalist. That he feels more at home with the Alternative for Germany.

47:1247 minutes, 12 secondsHe feels more at home with the far right of the British right wing, feels more at home with the French right than he does with American Democrats

47:2047 minutes, 20 secondsand as you would expect a nationalist to say: Look, I disagree with this person, but he's from my nation.

47:2647 minutes, 26 secondsVance is very clear: I have more in common with someone from the Alternative for Germany than I do with an American who disagrees with me.

47:3347 minutes, 33 secondsA lot of these nationalist populist parties prioritize the nation states and not universalism that are deeply

47:4047 minutes, 40 secondsEuro skeptical for that very reason there, that have a more sober view of foreign policy, more sober view of trade relations

47:4847 minutes, 48 secondsthere, not kind of necessarily free trade absolutists, a little bit more nationalist than the way of thinking on trade there.

48:1348 minutes, 13 secondsI appreciate our friendship both between our nations but also between us personally and certainly the President sends his best regards to you but to the people of Italy.

48:2348 minutes, 23 secondsWhat JD is tapping into, this sense of populism and anger at the post war liberal settlement, it's happening both in America and in Europe and in the UK.

48:3548 minutes, 35 secondsThe ordinary people feel shut out of the system. Brussels is so high handed.

48:4248 minutes, 42 secondsThe elites are completely out of touch in all of these European countries.

48:5148 minutes, 51 secondsAmerica has just gone through the same thing that Europe is going through right now.

48:5548 minutes, 55 secondsThere has been an effort by the ruling class in our country and in Europe to shut down political debate.

49:1149 minutes, 11 secondsWhich I fear, and I think JD was right about this, I fear in many ways Europe is no longer actually devoted to democracy.

49:1849 minutes, 18 secondsIt fears democracy. It fears the "demos." And there are reasons to fear

49:2549 minutes, 25 secondsthe demos. The demos is not the source of our wisdom, and we know from European history the demos has its dangers.

49:3249 minutes, 32 secondsBut if you shut it down, you actually invite the thing that you fear.

49:3849 minutes, 38 secondsYou invite the kind of reaction that now becomes violent and extreme and potentially real and great, great danger to the future of the nations.

50:0050 minutesSeptember 10th, 2025: Charlie Kirk, founder of the right wing youth organization, Turning Point USA, was assassinated while speaking on a college campus.

50:1450 minutes, 14 secondsJD Vance and Kirk had been friends for many years.

50:2050 minutes, 20 secondsKirk had championed Vance, helping pave the way for him to the White House.

50:2650 minutes, 26 secondsIn the wake of Kirk's killing, Vance channeled his anger and appealed directly to Kirk's young followers.

50:3850 minutes, 38 secondsOh my God. Go… run, run! We are here live at Utah Valley University.

50:4550 minutes, 45 secondsThere's been a shooting at the Charlie Kirk event, the TP USA event. Somebody just fired a firearm.

50:5250 minutes, 52 secondsBefore the investigation could even get underway, the Trump administration attributed Kirk's killing to the "radical left."

51:0151 minutes, 1 secondAfter the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Vance organized a special program of Charlie Kirk's podcast.

51:0851 minutes, 8 secondsAnd he sat in Charlie Kirk's chair and moderated the program.

51:1151 minutes, 11 secondsThis is "The Charlie Kirk Show." Hey everybody. JD Vance here, live from my office in the White House complex and filling in for somebody

51:2151 minutes, 21 secondswho cannot be filled in for, but I'm going to try to do my best, my dear friend, the great Charlie Kirk.

51:2751 minutes, 27 secondsI think that we'll look back on that visual of JD and the Charlie Kirk couch as like a pretty important moment for him, getting much more entrenched power and popularity with Republicans.

51:3851 minutes, 38 secondsI was very honored a couple of days ago on September the 11th, 2025, to fly out to Utah,

51:4551 minutes, 45 secondswhere Charlie was shot and killed, to be able to take Charlie's remains from Utah to Arizona.

51:5451 minutes, 54 secondsHaving to watch his friend shot in the neck and bleed out and bury him, and to comfort his widow… Charlie Kirk's widow… I think that gave JD a deep heart of steel.

52:0652 minutes, 6 secondsBecause Charlie was a close friend of his, and Charlie was also a top advocate with Donald Trump to have him choose JD.

52:1752 minutes, 17 secondsAnd they killed him. They killed his friend in broad daylight.

52:2152 minutes, 21 secondsYou know, I think Charlie Kirk's death and assassination can only make JD, I think, more inclined for authoritarian tendencies.

52:3352 minutes, 33 secondsPeople on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence.

52:3952 minutes, 39 secondsNormally, the classic instinct of the politician, is to say: This is tragic, but extend the olive branch. We have to come together. And JD is kinda like, f**k that s**t.

52:4952 minutes, 49 secondsThere is no unity with the people who celebrate Charlie Kirk's assassination.

52:5452 minutes, 54 secondsAnd there is no unity with the people who fund these articles, who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers,

53:0153 minutes, 1 secondwho argue that Charlie Kirk, a loving husband and father, deserved a shot to the neck.

53:0953 minutes, 9 secondsJD has confessed himself that he has a very, very hot temper.

53:1453 minutes, 14 secondsAnd so, you know, I pray as his friend and as his brother

53:1953 minutes, 19 secondsin Christ, I pray that he keeps his reason, keeps his compassion, that he does the right thing, that he acts strongly.

53:2953 minutes, 29 secondsWe're not pacifists as Christians.

53:3353 minutes, 33 secondsWe're called to defend, especially if you're a leader, we're called to defend the weak and stand up against evil, but we have to do it in an intelligent way.

53:4353 minutes, 43 secondsBecause Charlie believed that we were all children of God, he treated everyone with grace. And that is perhaps the enduring legacy of Charlie Kirk.

53:5353 minutes, 53 secondsYou know, I was telling somebody backstage that I always felt a little uncomfortable talking

54:0154 minutes, 1 secondabout my faith in public as much as I loved the Lord and as much as it was an important part of my life.

54:0854 minutes, 8 secondsI have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life.

54:2254 minutes, 22 secondsThis terrible tragedy was also an opportunity, a political opportunity for JD Vance, and he used that opportunity to do two things.

54:3154 minutes, 31 secondsThe first was to stoke anger inside the country, because anger is a resource for his kind of politics.

54:3754 minutes, 37 secondsAnd the second was to position himself as the true heir to the far right side of the spectrum. Because the far right has often had doubts about JD Vance.

54:4854 minutes, 48 secondsIs he really one of us or is he just pretending? Is he using us?

54:5254 minutes, 52 secondsAnd this terrible crime gave him an opportunity to insist, I am a true leader,

54:5954 minutes, 59 secondsI am of you, I am one of you, I am your leader, I am your next leader. And with the presidential election of 2028 impending, that's a powerful statement.

55:1155 minutes, 11 secondsThank you. Could JD Vance be the 48th president, or the 49th president, or the 50th president?

55:2155 minutes, 21 secondsLike, yeah. Even if he doesn't win the first time, I think he can be president one day.

55:2655 minutes, 26 secondsThere's a very, very real case to be made that JD Vance is the most logical inheritor of MAGA, you know,

55:3355 minutes, 33 secondscertainly the logical successor, the heir to the throne, so to speak, there.

55:3955 minutes, 39 secondsDo you agree that the heir apparent to MAGA is JD Vance? Well, I think most likely, in all fairness, he's the vice president.

55:4855 minutes, 48 secondsSo, it's too early obviously to talk about it, but certainly he's doing a great job, and he would be probably favorite at this point.

55:5755 minutes, 57 secondsHe's kind of gotten like the biggest advantage you could hope for: Trump sort of pre endorsed him. JD is popular.

56:0556 minutes, 5 secondsHe's young, he's got a beautiful family and because he came from such a difficult background and achieved the American dream, I think he could be an icon for people.

56:1856 minutes, 18 secondsBut if the economy doesn't turn around, and if he doesn't master the threat from the far right then he doesn't have a chance.

56:2756 minutes, 27 secondsResearch shows the Republican Party has become far more conservative.

56:3156 minutes, 31 secondsSo much so that even a right wing hardliner like Vance is presented by some as moderate… especially in comparison to those

56:3956 minutes, 39 secondsin the white supremacist fringe like Nick Fuentes: And now they're all in favor of a fat race mixer who's married

56:4756 minutes, 47 secondsto a j**t who named his son Vivek, who was mentored by a Jewish neocon and a gay thad, Peter Thiel, and that's your guy?

57:0057 minutesJD Is a former U. S. Marine and a hillbilly. The idea that his beloved wife could be attacked like that, it just…

57:0857 minutes, 8 secondsYou can see how angry he gets. Here's the problem.

57:1257 minutes, 12 secondsHere in Washington DC, approximately 30 to 40 percent of the young Republican conservative staffers

57:2057 minutes, 20 secondsin congressional offices, in the administration, and in the think tanks follow Nick Fuentes. And JD is going to have to figure out how to deal with that.