“No one either supports or opposes chainsaws; it all depends on what they are being used for”
IF Vice President Vance had a brain trust, Oren Cass would be an indispensable member. Vance wrote of Cass’s book, The Once and Future Worker, “Oren Cass has accomplished the rare feat of… saying something truly new and innovative about our society… A brilliant book. And among the most important I’ve read.”
Any search for Oren Cass and J.D. Vance will turn up numerous entries about Cass as the leading thinker behind Vance’s “economic populism,” focused on providing more well-paying jobs for American workers. A July Politico headline read: “A JD Vance-aligned think tank is stirring the pot with conservatives,” a reference to Cass’s American Compass think tank.
But the thing about brain-trusters is that they are likely to have minds of their own. In a highly partisan world, in which so many are either totally supportive of whatever President Trump does or totally dismissive, Cass is still capable of calling balls and strikes as he sees them.
In a February 24 Unherd piece, “Why DOGE will fail: There isn’t an easy solution for anything,” Cass summarizes what is good and what is not. He begins with the metaphor of chainsaws. Chainsaws are great for cutting up trees; less so for brain surgery. Thus, no one either supports or opposes chainsaws; it all depends on what they are being used for.
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