'What They Say When They're Scared': Vance Offers 'Brain-Dead' Definition of Socialism

As Republicans struggle to convince Americans to vote for the party whose policies have made workers' lives more difficult and expensive, they've increasingly invoked the tried-and-true bogeyman of socialism—a word for which Vice President JD Vance offered a bizarrely inaccurate definition during a Thursday press conference.

Asked at the White House how he defines socialism "personally" and why he thinks "socialist candidates are popping up everywhere across the country," Vance replied, "Oh man, you know, I guess, it's honestly, it's a hard term to define these days."

"Because very often socialism, you know, classically, you would think socialism is about prioritizing workers, and yet in reality I guarantee that most of the self-described socialists running across the United States of America are going to howl about this announcement today, which is prioritizing American workers over foreign workers," the vice president said, referring to President Donald Trump's new actions targeting alleged fraud and abuse in the H-1B/J-1 visa system.

"So I don't know what the term means anymore," Vance added. "I think in reality what it actually means in the American context is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers and you want boys to play in girls' sports. That's what unites the socialists that I see running across the United States of America today."

Vance's apparent inability to define socialism, whose fundamental characteristic is collective ownership and control of the means of production—something very few, if any, Democrats are openly advocating—drew ridicule from across the political spectrum.

The vice president's comments came after multiple democratic socialist and other progressive congressional candidates—running on issues including Medicare for All, imposing higher taxes on the rich, and ending US support for military violence in the Middle East—won primary races to face off against Republicans in the November midterm elections.

"This is what they say when they're scared of people learning the real definition, when they're scared of people demanding more from their government and an economy that actually works for everybody," the nonprofit progressive news organization More Perfect Union said on social media.

New Republic writer Malcolm Ferguson said: "Vice President JD Vance was asked to define socialism on Thursday. Instead of even trying to sincerely engage with the concept, the [Yale]-educated lawyer and author offered a brain-dead, tailored-for Fox News answer."

"Regardless of what you think socialism means, it is certainly not 'replacing American workers with foreign workers and wanting boys to play girls’ sports," he added. "This was a confusing, unintelligent answer from a man who’s supposed to be quite smart."

Ryan Knight, better known as "Proud Socialist" on social media, said that Vance "almost told the truth (socialism is about prioritizing workers and more specifically about workers, not billionaires, owning the means of production), but then quickly remembered he serves the billionaires so started lying and fearmongering about foreigners."

Right-wing policy expert Jessica Riedl said that "JD Vance defines 'socialism' as... the free movement of labor and capital across borders, and transgender girls playing on girls' sports teams."

"In other words, anything he personally finds icky," Riedl added. "And he's supposed to represent the highly educated, intellectual wing of MAGA."

Billy Binion, a reporter at the libertarian site Reason, called Vance's comments "laughably dishonest," invoking an ethos that former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich once described as "socialism for the rich, brutal capitalism for the rest of us."

"The Trump administration," Binion said, "would like to change the definition of socialism because it's *engaging in it* and has bought stakes in dozens of private companies."

Heather Parton, who publishes the progressive blog "Digby's Hullabaloo," wrote:b "First of all, you don’t get to 'personally' define socialism. It has a definition, and that ain’t it."

"Second, forgetting his fatuous suck-up to MAGA culture war nonsense in that comment, it must be noted that his Dear Leader is strong-arming one corporation into another into giving up pieces of their companies to the government," she continued, referring to Trump.

"JD is the most irritating of Trump’s acolytes because he spouts absurd MAGA bullshit, knowing full well how stupid it is," Parton added.

Reich also weighed in on the vice president's remarks, writing on social media that "Trump, Vance, and Republicans are terrified of policies that curb their own wealth and power, and the wealth and power of the oligarchs that bankroll them."

"That's why they're amping up the fearmongering about 'socialism,'" he added. "They've run out of cards to play."