
J. D. Vance’s Sad, Strange Politics of Family
In 1946, Bonnie Blanton was just thirteen years old when she became pregnant by her soon-to-be husband, Jim Vance, who was three years her senior. The couple lived in Jackson, a struggling Appalachian town in Kentucky. Fearing retaliation from Bonnie’s family and seeking better opportunities, they relocated to Middletown, Ohio—a booming steel town where Jim…