It was in Middletown, a small town in Ohio to the disaster-based industry, in the middle of a “rust belt”, that the American vice-president grew up. A book, then its election made this name famous, but some inhabitants deplore caricatural miserability.
On this Tuesday, December 3, 2024, in the rotunda with subdued lighting where the Middletown Municipal Council meets twice a month, a small woman, with rectangular glasses and a dull gray hair, advances to the microphone. Beverly Aikins, most of whose inhabitants of this locality of the Rust Belt (“Rust belt”) know the history well, came to formulate a « humble » request. A month earlier, his son JD Vance was elected vice-president of the United States. “It seems to me that it would be good if we could recognize that he grew up in this city by installing some panels there”she pleads in a guaranteed voice, stressing that“He has always considered Middletown as his house” and that it comes back to it regularly to “(Him) visit and () take dinner”.
Around her, elected officials and the public seem to be shared. Some read in the journey of the child of the country which has risen to the highest …