In former President Donald Trump’s choice of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his vice presidential candidate, I hear echoes of history.

As others have pointed out, Vance’s selection makes little sense in the short term. He brings little experience in government — 18 months in the Senate — and was a desultory vote-getter in his home state of Ohio, which is no longer a target state anyway. Nor is Vance likely to inspire unity from those whose first instinct when Trump was shot Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, was to blame the former president’s own rhetoric.