{"id":19730,"date":"2023-08-30T17:02:29","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T00:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=19730"},"modified":"2023-08-30T17:02:29","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T00:02:29","slug":"vivek-ramaswamy-as-prototypical-republican-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2023\/08\/30\/vivek-ramaswamy-as-prototypical-republican-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":"Vivek Ramaswamy as Prototypical Republican Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><em>Vox&#8217;s<\/em> Andrew Prokop on how Vivek would &#8220;simply just solve American&#8217;s tough problems&#8221;;<\/li>\n<li><em>NYT&#8217;s<\/em> Michelle Goldeberg on why that some people find Vivek insufferable is exactly why his fans are drawn to him;<\/li>\n<li><em>WaPo&#8217;s<\/em> Paul Waldman on how Republicans are attracted to candidates with no political experience;<\/li>\n<li><em>LGBTQNation&#8217;s<\/em> John Gallagher on how Vivek is willing to say anything to close a deal, and of course how he&#8217;s very anti-gay.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I was going to drop the subject, but the more commentaries I read about Vivek Ramaswamy, the more I see him as a perfect example of trends in conservative voting. Trends I&#8217;ve noticed for decades. Conservatives (Republicans) like simple-minded solutions to everything; they like celebrities and hucksters.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/MoYAonOxIqKNX-AHrea3aCCi9co=\/0x0:5900x3933\/920x613\/filters:focal(2368x830:3312x1774):format(webp)\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_image\/image\/72588791\/GettyImages_1619656311.0.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Vox, Andrew Prokop, 29 Aug 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/2023\/8\/29\/23843885\/vivek-ramaswamy-pence-january-6-taiwan-china\">The \u201cI would simply &#8230;\u201d candidate<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Vivek Ramaswamy says he would simply just solve America\u2019s tough problems.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->The last three paragraphs:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Throughout his campaign, Ramaswamy has made proposals of dubious legality and practicality. For instance, he\u2019s said he\u2019ll simply fire \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2024-elections\/23720391\/vivek-ramaswamy-affirmative-action-woke-capitalism-ideas\">at least half<\/a>\u201d of federal employees in violation of the law and that he\u2019ll just make broad claims of presidential power and hope the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/scotus\" data-source=\"encore\">Supreme Court<\/a> declines to stop him. On foreign policy, he\u2019s said he would simply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/vivek-ramaswamy-gop-debate-foreign-policy-ukraine-russia-china-taiwan-9714aa99\">turn Russia against China<\/a> (despite the two nations\u2019 claims of a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/moscow-beijing-partnership-has-no-limits-2022-02-04\/\">no limits\u201d partnership<\/a>). To deal with Chinese designs on Taiwan, he\u2019s said he\u2019ll guarantee a US military response only until America is no longer reliant on Taiwan to manufacture semiconductors \u2014 which he says he\u2019ll accomplish by 2028. Simple!<\/p>\n<p id=\"cJQPwA\">In response, experts pull their hair out, established politicians (like his debate stage rivals) complain it\u2019s not so simple, and journalists write tut-tutting fact-checks. But so long as all this sounds enough like \u201ccommon sense\u201d to GOP primary voters, Ramaswamy won\u2019t be hurt in the polls and may even be helped, since many of those voters wouldn\u2019t trust experts or journalists anyway.<\/p>\n<p id=\"JUzOE2\">All of that surely sounds familiar, since Trump has long followed a similar playbook of promising big with little regard to what was plausible or made sense. But where Trump\u2019s talk often came off <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2016\/09\/trump-makes-his-case-in-pittsburgh\/501335\/\">as half-serious showman bluster<\/a>, Ramaswamy is more the high-achieving millennial who\u2019s crammed for the test and come up with a superficially smart-sounding but ultimately vapid answer. Both have the same goal: to try to get one over on you.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2023\/08\/30\/multimedia\/28goldberg-wkbt\/28goldberg-wkbt-superJumbo.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, Michelle Goldberg, 28 Aug 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/28\/opinion\/columnists\/vivek-ramaswamy-surging-polls.html\">Opinion: Vivek Ramaswamy Is Very Annoying. It\u2019s Why He\u2019s Surging in the Polls.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;I suspect that Ramaswamy\u2019s fans are drawn to him for all the reasons his critics find him insufferable. Conservatives love being championed by representatives of groups that they think disdain them. Despite the right\u2019s deep resentment of the entertainment industry, Republicans tend to adore celebrity candidates, from Ronald Reagan to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<br \/>\nPeople who care about the basic workings of government are gobsmacked by Ramaswamy\u2019s apparent ignorance \u2014 on Sunday, for example, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/2024-election\/vivek-ramaswamy-says-ve-certified-2020-election-results-rcna102010\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he said<\/a> that if he\u2019d been in Vice President Mike Pence\u2019s shoes on Jan. 6, 2021, he would have pushed through election reform \u201cin my capacity as president of the Senate.\u201d But he\u2019s good at sounding like he knows what he\u2019s talking about. Sarah Longwell, a political strategist who has conducted extensive focus groups with Republican primary voters, said that people who like Ramaswamy inevitably say, \u201cI think he\u2019s really smart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<br \/>\nMany older white conservatives, after all, feel threatened by multiethnic younger generations that largely reject their most fundamental values about faith, gender and patriotism. Ramaswamy is part of this menacing cohort, and he\u2019s telling Republicans that their suspicions about it are correct. \u201cMore than anything, he has portrayed his generation and younger ones as empty souls living meaningless lives,\u201d Jonathan Weisman <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/26\/us\/politics\/ramaswamy-millennial-republican.html?action=click&amp;module=Well&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;section=US%20News\">wrote<\/a> in The Times. He\u2019s a young man running an anti-youth campaign; a centerpiece of Ramaswamy\u2019s platform is a call to strip the franchise from most people under 25 unless they pass a civics test. And he\u2019s a person of color who <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/ny1.com\/nyc\/all-boroughs\/news\/2023\/08\/27\/after-racist-jacksonville-shooting--ramaswamy-defends-denying-existence-of-white-supremacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">argues<\/a>, even in the wake of another white supremacist mass shooting, that most American racism comes from the left. If he annoys those who find him most familiar, that\u2019s surely part of the point.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/WPNOGQTBS22WP5NI2WIMXPM5XU.JPG&amp;w=691\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Washington Post, Paul Waldman, 29 Aug 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2023\/08\/29\/republicans-experience-primaries-ramaswamy-trump\/\">Opinion | Why Republicans love candidates like Vivek Ramaswamy<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In 1984, the classic comic strip \u201cBloom County\u201d featured a presidential campaign by <a href=\"https:\/\/bloomcounty.fandom.com\/wiki\/Bill_the_Cat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bill the Cat<\/a>, a scraggly and ill-tempered feline whose sole utterance was \u201cAck!,\u201d and his penguin running mate, the hapless Opus. Their slogan was \u201cThis Time, Why Not the Worst?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Republicans haven\u2019t quite asked themselves that question (or maybe they did with Donald Trump), the emergence of <a class=\"contextual_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/elections\/candidates\/vivek-ramaswamy-2024\/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vivek Ramaswamy<\/a> as the 2024 presidential race\u2019s current object of fascination makes clear that once again, many GOP voters are asking, \u201cThis time, why not the guy with the <i>least <\/i>experience?\u201d It\u2019s not how you\u2019d hire someone for any imaginable job, and it flows from a combination of frustration and delusion about politics.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve seen this scenario in every recent Republican nominating contest: Voters suddenly become taken with a candidate who has never held office, might have had only the barest contact with the political world, and, when it comes to the office they\u2019re running for, has little or no idea what they\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve seen this scenario in every recent Republican nominating contest: Voters suddenly become taken with a candidate who has never held office, might have had only the barest contact with the political world, and, when it comes to the office they\u2019re running for, has little or no idea what they\u2019re talking about.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Waldman then recalls Ben Carson, Herman Cain, Steve Forbes, and&#8230; Trump.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>As with his predecessors, Ramaswamy\u2019s understanding of issues never goes deeper than the most glib sloganeering. In <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2023\/08\/24\/transcript-gop-presidential-hopefuls-debate-in-milwaukee\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the debate<\/a>, he said that \u201cfamily, faith, patriotism, hard work have all disappeared,\u201d so the country requires \u201ca tonal reset from the top,\u201d which apparently involves eliminating the IRS, the FBI, the Education Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Asked what he would have done in Mike Pence\u2019s place on <a class=\"contextual_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/january-6-capitol-riot\/?itid=lk_inline_manual_13\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jan. 6<\/a>, 2021, Ramaswamy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/2024-election\/vivek-ramaswamy-says-ve-certified-2020-election-results-rcna102010\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">suggested<\/a> that Pence could have wielded powers the vice president does not possess to reform the entire U.S. system of elections in a single day.<\/p>\n<p>Why do candidates offering this kind of drivel find such a receptive audience? The roots of the attraction might lie in people\u2019s disgust with politics. A huckster such as Ramaswamy implicitly suggests you can sweep away whatever you don\u2019t like about politics by electing a leader with sufficient confidence and a willingness to break things.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<br \/>\nThe belief in the candidate who claims they can bring about that transformation is naive, even childlike.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<br \/>\nWere it not for Trump, the Republican electorate might look at Ramaswamy and say they\u2019ve heard this before. But Trump convinced them that, in fact, you don\u2019t need to know anything about politics or policy to be president. Many of his failures \u2014 including his inability to achieve much of what conservatives wanted \u2014 did stem directly from his ignorance and inexperience, as well as his titanic character flaws. But all those primary voters believe is that he won, he stuck it to the libs and he had an election stolen from him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>These are the trends that have been evident for decades. Ramaswamy offers simplistic solutions that appeal to simple-minded people, the ones for whom every issue is about good vs. evil and black vs. white and can be solved by being tough. And these seem to be the same people who are inclined to choose celebrities, and\/or hucksters, for office, rather than anyone with actual government experience.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/abuwjaawap.cloudimg.io\/v7\/_lgbtqnation-assets_\/assets\/2023\/08\/screen-shot-2023-08-23-at-10.59.20-am.png?auto=format&amp;auto=compress&amp;fit=crop&amp;gravity=face&amp;w=1200&amp;h=805\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>LGBTQ Nation, John Gallagher commentary, 29 Aug 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lgbtqnation.com\/2023\/08\/vivek-ramaswamy-is-the-kind-of-anti-lgbtq-used-car-salesman-the-gop-loves\/\">Vivek Ramaswamy is the kind of anti-LGBTQ used-car salesman the GOP loves<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The biotech entrepreneur is enchanting GOP voters by copying Trump&#8217;s trademark tactics: be entertaining and say anything to close the deal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Following his performance in last week\u2019s Republican presidential debate, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lgbtqnation.com\/2023\/08\/who-is-vivek-ramaswamy-where-does-he-stand-on-lgbtq-rights\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Vivek Ramaswamy<\/a> has emerged as this latest bright shiny object fascinating the mainstream media and GOP voters alike. Ramaswamy, a biotech executive who compensates for his lack of elected experience with overabundant confidence in himself, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/23\/us\/vivek-ramaswamy-debate-obama.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">stood out in the debate with his crisp language and sharp elbows. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>He also stood out because he knows exactly what to say to pander to the GOP audience. No wonder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2023\/08\/12\/vivek-ramaswamy-polls-rise-00110937\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">he is rising in the polls.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And, oh by the way, how he&#8217;s the latest example of how conservatives find everything LGBTQ upsetting as violations of their black and white view of the world. (Never mind individual freedom.)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Of course, the main thing that Ramaswamy shares with Trump is the vision that we live in a dystopian world, where the \u201cfaith, patriotism, hard work, family\u201d are being sacrificed on the altar of Woke Inc., (the title of Ramaswamy\u2019s book).<\/p>\n<p>Chief among these is what Ramaswamy describes as the \u201ccult\u201d of the LGBTQ+ movement. \u201cIn the name of rights, what they\u2019ve actually done is created a new culture of oppression in the opposite direction, imposing that on kids,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/vivek-ramaswamy-lgbtqia-movement-cult-not-about-logic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">he said in the same <em>Meet the Press<\/em> interview.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ramaswamy has been particularly vicious about trans rights. He said on <em>Meet the Press <\/em>that affirming the gender identities of teens is \u201ccruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen a kid is crying out for help,\u201d Ramaswamy said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to ask the question of what else is going wrong at home? What else is going wrong at school? Let\u2019s be compassionate and get to the heart of that rather than playing this game as though we are actually changing our medical understanding for the last hundred years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not surprisingly, Ramaswamy has said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wmur.com\/article\/new-hampshire-vivek-ramaswamy-transgender-children\/43878851#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">he would ban gender-affirming care for minors. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>His other positions on LGBTQ+ issues are equally right-wing. He complained that<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/05\/25\/target-spit-in-the-face-of-customers-with-pride-merch-vivek-ramaswamy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"> Target \u201cspit in the face\u201d of customers <\/a>with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lgbtqnation.com\/2023\/05\/target-glsen-receive-violent-death-threats-over-pride-merchandise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">its Pride merchandise<\/a>. Overall, he thinks the LGBTQ+ movement seeks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonblade.com\/2023\/08\/23\/ramaswamy-cult-like-lgbtq-community-threatens-modern-order\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener external\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">\u201ccreate an us-versus-them destruction of modern order.\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Us-versus-them; black and white thinking; and projection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vox&#8217;s Andrew Prokop on how Vivek would &#8220;simply just solve American&#8217;s tough problems&#8221;; NYT&#8217;s Michelle Goldeberg on why that some people find Vivek insufferable is exactly why his fans are drawn to him; WaPo&#8217;s Paul Waldman on how Republicans are &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2023\/08\/30\/vivek-ramaswamy-as-prototypical-republican-candidate\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,16,54,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-resistance","category-culture","category-politics","category-the-gays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19730"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19742,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19730\/revisions\/19742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}