On paper, there are a lot of similarities between the two vice presidential candidates.  They are both Midwesterners and military veterans from humble backgrounds.  Both were chosen over more moderate alternatives to the approval of the more online portions of their party’s base.  There is one crucial difference between the two, though, that points to a larger issue in the dynamics of the race.

The system worked for Tim Walz.  He held two public-sector jobs, advancing far in at least one of them (I don’t know enough to comment on the stolen valor accusations, but being on the verge of making sergeant major at forty is impressive).  He then made a mid-career switch to an even more impressive public-sector job, and has been advancing in it ever since.  When it came out that Gov. Walz and his wife don’t have any investments, some criticized them for poor money management, but why dabble with real estate or stocks when you’re already set to receive three risk-free pensions?

So if the system has worked out so well for you, why not go along with it?  Sure, as you keep advancing, it might start to ask strange things of you.  You might be asked to make your state a sanctuary for gender transitions, or impose a draconian lockdown on everything except Black Lives Matter protests.  You don’t always know why the experts are advising these things, but when has following their advice steered you wrong?

On a personal level, J.D. Vance has been quite successful as a venture capitalist, author, and politician.  Perhaps, if he were Walz’s age, a full twenty years older, he would be more favorable to the establishment.  As it is, Vance has had a front-row seat to some of the worst failures of the system over the past few decades.  He came of age during the Great Recession and the dismal job market under the Obama administration.  He has maintained ties to Appalachia, the hardest-hit region by the opioid crisis, where anything its residents manage to scratch together is condemned as “white privilege”.  He comes from a background—which he has made the foundation of his political persona—where the failures of the system are readily apparent.

Two Midwestern veterans are running for vice president.  One has seen the best the system can do; the other one has seen the worst.  The differences between the two tell much of the story of the campaign.