The Vice President Who Fears the End of Western Civilization

JD Vance seems stressed. Not the ordinary "I'm the vice president and my boss changes policy twice before breakfast" kind of stressed.

This is the look of a man who appears convinced Western civilization is being held together with duct tape, prayer, and whatever's left in the emergency bunker. Publicly defending a war he reportedly questioned in private probably doesn't help, and neither does hitching your political future to a president whose approval ratings have TANKED. But those aren't what seem to weigh on him the most. What really keeps Vance awake at night is his belief that America is locked in a civilizational battle.... and, in his view, we're losing.

That worldview sits at the heart of his new memoir, Communion. On the surface, it's the story of his personal spiritual journey, moving from evangelical Christianity to atheism before ultimately embracing Catholicism and now sharing in his wife's practice of Hinduism. He writes candidly about finding Christianity "too wishy-washy" in his younger years before concluding that he had been touched by God's grace. Personal faith stories are hardly unusual, and millions of Americans can relate to searching for purpose.

But beneath that autobiography lies a much broader political philosophy, one that sees America's biggest challenge not as inflation, healthcare, housing costs, or even foreign adversaries. Instead, Vance argues that the West is abandoning its Christian identity in favor of secular liberalism, and that nearly every major social problem flows from that transformation. :) :) :) What a fucking fruitloop!! 3 name changes.... 4 religions. The little guy simply can't find himself.

According to Vance, Christianity once provided America with a shared moral language. Without it, he argues, conservatives have become too devoted to markets while progressives have become obsessed with self-expression, leaving the country spiritually untethered.

He fears what he calls "civilizational death," not the death of individuals, but the slow collapse of the culture that gives life meaning. While the rest of us fear for starvation, homelessness, and poverty!!

It's certainly an ambitious diagnosis. Most Americans spend their mornings wondering why eggs cost six dollars a dozen or whether their insurance premium just went up again. JD Vance is wondering whether Western civilization has entered its final season.

His view of American history follows that same theme. He argues that the generation that fought World War II wasn't primarily defending democracy or freedom, but Western Christian civilization itself. IMAGINE THAT kind of deranged worldview being our PRESIDENT!! I don't really care if you're hungry as long as you're a CHRISTIAN!

It's an interesting interpretation, but it runs into a rather inconvenient historical document called the Constitution. The Declaration of Independence doesn't proclaim Christianity as the nation's defining characteristic, and the Constitution never establishes an official religion. In fact, the First Amendment goes out of its way to prevent government from doing exactly that.

Those aren't obscure footnotes. They're essentially the instruction manual for the entire country.

Vance has increasingly argued that America isn't simply an idea built upon constitutional principles but a homeland defined by a shared Christian heritage. That naturally raises uncomfortable questions. What does that mean for Jewish Americans, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, Sikhs, or the millions of Christians whose theology differs from his own?

Were they somehow absent on America's first day of class? The remarkable thing about the United States has always been that people with profoundly different beliefs have managed to live under the same Constitution. It hasn't always been graceful, but pluralism ....not religious uniformity ....has been one of America's defining strengths from the beginning.

The memoir also reveals something else about Vance: he has an unmistakable tendency to expect the worst.

When news of COVID first emerged, he describes buying a thousand rounds of ammunition, mountains of food, and enough supplies to make the cashier wonder whether he was opening a restaurant. "No," Vance replied. "But the China virus is coming."

Most Americans responded by buying toilet paper. JD apparently started preparing for the opening episode of The Walking Dead. Even political allies have described him as something of a "doomer," a "Debbie Downer", someone naturally drawn toward catastrophic possibilities. That sense of looming disaster runs throughout Communion, where he openly worries about failing as a father, failing as a husband, and even fears that no one will someday visit his grave. On that, he is probably right....except a course to piss on it. His wife offers perhaps the most memorable line in the entire book: "Therapy didn't work for you. Church does." SMH.....

Immigration becomes another chapter in what Vance sees as a larger civilizational struggle. He argues that America's increasing diversity has coincided with the decline of Christianity as the country's unifying cultural force. Yet American history tells a far more complicated story. Irish immigrants were once viewed as a threat. Italians were considered unassimilable. Jews, Chinese laborers, Eastern Europeans, Japanese Americans, Vietnamese refugees, Cubans, and countless others were all greeted at various points with warnings that they would somehow destroy the American experiment. Instead, they became part of it. Every generation seems convinced the newest arrivals are different.... until a generation passes and suddenly they're described as the "real Americans" who always belonged here. History has an almost sarcastic sense of humor.

To his credit, Vance acknowledges that Christianity calls believers to extend charity even toward undocumented immigrants. But that message becomes harder to reconcile with his role in spreading unfounded claims during the 2024 campaign that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people's pets.

It's difficult for the little makeup-wearing asshole to preach compassion while simultaneously helping create fear around people who were simply trying to build new lives.

Christianity has always asked difficult things of its followers, but "love thy neighbor... unless cable news says otherwise" has never actually made the list.

Ultimately, Communion is less a memoir than a manifesto about identity. Vance believes America's defining characteristic is Christianity and that preserving the nation requires restoring that foundation.

Many Americans .... including millions of Christians.... would disagree. They would argue that America's true strength has never rested on a single religion, ethnicity, or cultural tradition. It rests on constitutional government, equal protection under the law, freedom of conscience, and the radical idea that citizens don't have to worship alike in order to govern together.

JD Vance clearly believes America stands at the edge of a civilizational cliff. Perhaps he's right that our country faces enormous challenges. Every generation believes it lives at a crossroads, and in many ways every generation does. But history also suggests America has survived because it continually expanded the definition of who belongs instead of narrowing it.

Our greatest strength has never been perfect agreement. It's been our remarkable ability to argue with one another .... sometimes loudly, sometimes stubbornly, occasionally on Thanksgiving .... and still remain one nation.

That's a far more hopeful story than the one told by a miserable little man with no moral anchor.... blowing whichever way the winds do...

Contact

Questions or tips? Reach out anytime.

Email

contact@leeboy.us

© 2026. All rights reserved. LeeBoy.us LLC - Lee Murphy