Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance called for revitalizing America’s industry and infrastructure during his debate with Tim Walz, but his words weren’t empty platitudes meant only to capture the attention of swing voters. Like his running mate, Donald Trump, Vance has long condemned globalization, positioning himself as the only candidate on the stage offering genuine hope to Americans.

During a 2023 taping of American Moment’s podcast “Moment of Truth,” I asked Vance why the U.S. no longer makes many crucial weapons of war here at home. His response reflected an understanding of the difficult path ahead for policymakers, but he also made it clear that reviving American manufacturing is one of his top priorities.

As Vance said during the debate, Democrats may be the party of “Dick Cheney and Taylor Swift,” but Republicans stand for “every American, whether they’re rich or poor.”

“Even if you design a really cool missile in the United States of America, it’s really hard to design it with components we control in our own industrial supply chain. That requires a lot of rejiggering,” he said. “It would require a massive investment. It would require us to completely cast aside the green energy fanatics to invest in our own energy supplies, first of all, and then to really commit ourselves to bringing parts of the industrial supply chain back.”

Even though Joe Biden has paid lip service to the idea of reshoring American manufacturing, manufacturing employment hit its lowest share of the U.S. workforce — less than 10% — on his watch. During Tuesday’s debate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz mirrored the inadequacies of the Biden administration over the past three years. Walz left the stage without addressing the actual problems facing voters. That’s why the realignment of working-class voters to the GOP is occurring in places like northeastern Pennsylvania — and these voters could be the key to a Trump victory in 2024.

A Harris-Walz administration sees the nation’s future as a service economy and forgets that we need to make things to be not only strong but safe. Will it take another pandemic to remind us of the national security implications of shipping manufacturing jobs overseas?

Surprisingly, the question of climate policy highlighted the difference between the two tickets’ visions for the nation during Tuesday’s debate. How can we prevent natural disasters? What options do we have to power our nation responsibly? Walz’s solution: Purchase solar panels created by Chinese coal.

While the moderators looked on smugly, expecting that any Republican would immediately become tongue-tied at the mention of “climate change,” Vance delivered a message that all of his GOP colleagues would be smart to adopt.

“What have Kamala Harris's policies actually led to?” he asked. “More energy production in China, more manufacturing overseas, more doing business in some of the dirtiest parts of the entire world. When I say that, I mean the amount of carbon emissions they’re doing per unit of economic output. So if we actually care about getting cleaner air and cleaner water, the best thing to do is to double down and invest in American workers and the American people.”

Nuclear energy and natural gas are the future, but Harris and Walz prefer to smuggle the Green New Deal through the back door, leaving Americans to foot the bill. While high-paying manufacturing jobs have been outsourced and illegal aliens continue to flood the southern border, economic security remains the top concern for Americans. It's not about the right to abortion or a president’s tweets — jobs need to come back to America so that our children can have a future.

“The cost to American manufacturing is not just the direct and obvious stuff,” Vance told my co-host, Saurabh Sharma, and me in 2023. “It’s not just the jobs lost in northeast or southwest Ohio. It’s not just the opioid problem that moved in when the jobs moved away. It’s that we’ve done incredibly damaging, dynamic things to our economy.”

Voters are realizing that due to globalism, America may not hold its position as the world’s top economy much longer. Walz and Democratic leaders remain out of touch, offering little more than empty platitudes. As the election draws near, it’s crucial to consider which candidate truly prioritizes the well-being of the people. As Vance said during the debate, Democrats may be the party of “Dick Cheney and Taylor Swift,” but Republicans stand for “every American, whether they’re rich or poor.”