Vance In Front of Firefighters’ Union in Boston

J. D. Vance went into hostile territory to speak at a meeting of the International Association of Fire Fighters in Boston. He was greeted with loud boos from the crowd. But it’s not true to say, as the New Republic did, that it was a dumpster-fire speech or that he was universally heckled throughout it.

In fact, as in the clip above, Vance occasionally got applause — some of it grudging, or studded with jeers. Pointing out that unionized labor had universally supported Democrats for 70 years and had only declined as an electoral and political force, he appealed to their self-interest in regulating immigration and in terminating Covid-19 vaccine requirements that led to the firing of public-service workers, many of whom had already contracted Covid-19 and did not need a vaccine. And he repeated Trump’s line, “What do you have to lose?”

I don’t know why commentators think the savvy thing for politicians to do is to never speak to potentially hostile audiences, or to mixed audiences. There’s something disrespectful about hiding from real feedback. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is still cowering at the prospect of facing friendly press interviews.