Last week, Vice President JD Vance clashed with Conservative Minister and TY Presenter Rory Stewart. The disagreement started when the Brit reacted to a clip of Vance speaking to Fox’s Sean Hannity. After the snarky comment, Vance opened up on Stewart and shut him down to widespread applause. Stewart, despite being a member of the conservative party, is progressive and has often clashed with American politicians.
“There’s this old school, and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the way, that you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world,” Vance said. “A lot of the far left has completely inverted that they seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside their own borders.”
“That is no way to run a society. And I think the profound difference that Donald Trump brings to the leadership of this country is that the simple concept America first,” he added. It doesn’t mean you hate anybody else. It means that you have leadership, and President Trump has been very clear about this that puts the interests of American citizens first.”
Vance went on to say, “In the same way that the British Prime Minister should care about Brits and the French should care about the French, we have an American president who cares primarily about Americans, and that’s a very welcome change.” In response to this quote, Rory Stewart responded snarkily to Vice President Vance’s well-reasoned post.
He posted, “A bizarre take on John 15:12-13 – less Christian and more pagan tribal. We should start worrying when politicians become theologians, assume to speak for Jesus, and tell us in which order to love…” While the post gathered a large number of likes, he was completely demolished by JD Vance. He quoted Stewarts response with an epic takedown.
“Just google “ordo amoris.” Aside from that, the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense. Does Rory really think his moral duties to his own children are the same as his duties to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away? Does anyone?” he responded. This refers to Christian Theologian St. Augustine, who wrote that virtue was determined by how you organize what you love. In Latin, ‘ordo amoris’ means ordered love.
“I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again: the problem with Rory and people like him is that he has an IQ of 110 and thinks he has an IQ of 130. This false arrogance drives so much elite failure over the last 40 years,” he said in a second post. These two responses gathered a massive audience. There are over 75 thousand likes on each of his posts.
Stewart fired back: “I’m so impressed by your IQ + Latin. And your ability to measure other’s IQ so instantly and confidently. But I hope your big genius is not making you patronizing towards people with an IQ of 110 – since that is 75 % of the US population. And perhaps even 1 or 2 of your voters.” His final response ended the interaction between the two politicians.