Writes Benjamin Wallace-Wells in "In Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republicans Have Something New/The thirty-eight-year-old 'anti-woke' polemicist and political novice has become one of Trump’s main rivals" (The New Yorker).
August 18, 2023
"Of all the ways in which Trump broke the political model, a basic one was in the biography of a Presidential contender."
"Could anyone—at least anyone able to fund his own campaign—be President now? That idea, prevalent during the populist spring of 2016, has faded since. Fewer progressive outsiders have won national office than many on the left might have hoped, and the Republican Party has largely absorbed the MAGA movement, avoiding being displaced by it. The novice-candidate model hasn’t really been tested since 2016.... Watching Ramaswamy on the stump reminded me that Biden, who campaigned against Trump’s extremism in 2020 as a pragmatist and a steady hand, has not yet had to defend his investments in climate transformation and the Ukraine war, and made me wonder how effectively he would do so.
For now, Ramaswamy’s rise is demonstrating that conservative populist energy hasn’t fully been tapped...."
Writes Benjamin Wallace-Wells in "In Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republicans Have Something New/The thirty-eight-year-old 'anti-woke' polemicist and political novice has become one of Trump’s main rivals" (The New Yorker).
Writes Benjamin Wallace-Wells in "In Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republicans Have Something New/The thirty-eight-year-old 'anti-woke' polemicist and political novice has become one of Trump’s main rivals" (The New Yorker).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
42 comments:
As long as they keep talking about "woke," and not the New Age movement, I couldn't be bothered: They are missing the forest for the trees
"Fewer progressive outsiders have won national office than many on the left might have hoped"
Can I get a duh
Make it a large.
For now, Ramaswamy’s rise is demonstrating that conservative populist energy hasn’t fully been tapped...."
And it won't be as long as the Washington D.C. uniparty exists. There's a reason trump increased his vote by 11 million votes over 2016 and got more votes than anyone in history. (Except, we are supposed to believe, Biden)
i just watched Tucker Carlson's interview with Vivek.. and i just want to be the 1st to say:
Vivek did NOT commit suicide!!
lefties say (used to say), that they wanted someone that 'spoke truth to power!'
Of course, that was Never true; and it's Sure not true Now.. Otherwise They'd be for Vivek.
Biden, who campaigned against Trump’s extremism in 2020 as a pragmatist and a steady hand,
...against available evidence, either that he was actually campaigning or that he was a pragmatist and a steady hand, fat....
has not yet had to defend his investments in climate transformation and the Ukraine war
... and his full-throated support for the transing of kids, the re-racialization of public discourse, and the destruction of the US's urban centers. Among other things.
The fact that the New Yorker is impressed by this guy automatically disqualifies him.
If the media are pushing a Republican candidate you can be assured he is not one.
Both the NYT and the New Yorker attacking Vivek. No surprise.
Just watch the debates next week. Vivek will shine.
In my dreams, I want Bobby Kennedy as his VP candidate. Unity!
One of Trump's main rivals? LOL. He's Trump's wingman. He's Trump if Trump knew how to string words into sentences into paragraphs.
Is there a position he holds now that isn't contrary to what he held three years ago?
Only in America
Can a guy from anywhere
Go to sleep a pauper and wake up a millionaire
Only in America
Can a kid without a cent
Get a break and maybe grow up to be President
Jay and the Americans 1965
This is what democracy really looks like. Our founders thought political parties "factions" deleterious. A couple hundred years has proven them right.
Not deleterious for Party members and their grifters of course. But for the states, the state and American citizens in general
John Henry
John Henry
"Fewer progressive outsiders have won national office than many on the left might have hoped"
What kind of a standard is that?
"and the Republican Party has largely absorbed the MAGA movement"
LIke a python choking on a pig?
"reminded me that Biden, who campaigned against Trump’s extremism in 2020 as a pragmatist and a steady hand"
It is to laugh. Wallowing in BS is part of prog privilege.
"has not yet had to defend his investments in climate transformation and the Ukraine war, and made me wonder how effectively he would do so"
LOL, as they say.
"For now, Ramaswamy’s rise is demonstrating that conservative populist energy hasn’t fully been tapped...."
That's how they're trying to frame him now, he's just "tapping conservative populist energy," you see, which we all know is deplorable. Might he be addressing real problems with real ideas and calling BS on prog nonsense? Nah. Let's just go with "populism."
I think Clinton, and later Obama, broke the biography long before Trump and Vivek came along. Both of the Democrats had thread bare experience for being a President, but they did check at least one box for the party. That box has never been a constitutional requirement. While I may not like either of their policies; they showed sufficient competence to do the job and be re-elected. Trump and Vivek checked the box of their voters, by showing their Executive skills especially when their business wasn't backed by the capability to just tax their customers more.
So many potential candidates to attack! Daunting.
Yes, I believe we have reached the point where a completely unknown, and also non-politician, candidate can become President. Vivek, not Trump (who was well-known), illustrates how and why. He's smart, very well-spoken, and telegenic, exerting positive energy that has been notably missing for years. And now the distrust and shift from network TV and MSM to vast, distributed Internet sources creates the potential for the "overnight candidate." And the contrast with the current top contenders only accentuates and accelerates the phenomenon.
There are certainly inherent dangers in the lack of time to fully vet such a candidate. As we've already seen, it's not enough to see that he's a "clean, articulate guy" if we don't know what he really believes (despite what he publicly says), who his real backers are, and where he really wants to take the country. But the reality is that the conditions now are such that it could happen.
Buckwheathikes said...
"The fact that the New Yorker is impressed by this guy automatically disqualifies him. If the media are pushing a Republican candidate you can be assured he is not one."
If he was white, sure. But he's dark-skinned, bright, & articulate; and probably has a sharp crease in his pants. So they'll swoon. For now. Eventually they will notice he has an (R) after his name. Especially if he has staying power. Then he'll become the next "Worse than Hitler". And "White Adjacent".
Biden did NOT campaign as a "Pragmatist". He didn't campaign at all. The MSM just attacked Trump 365/24/7, like they'd be doing for 4 years, and called Trump a racist, an extremist, an incompetent, etc. etc. etc. Anyone who thought Biden, one of the most leftwing Senators for 30 years was going to be a "Centrist" was a moron.
THe only interesting thing is why is the MSM suddenly pushing this guy? Well, simple. he's an open borders globalist, who says he likes lower taxes and takes some meaningless shots at "Wokeness" - whatever the hell that means. IOW, he's GOPe, but talks Trumpism.
They tried to push DeSantis and he's a non-starter. So they're pushing Mr. V. At least this guy was smart enough to attack the Biden Stalinist DoJ prosecution of Trump. De Santis was too stupid to do that. I'm not voting for some GOP clown that wont fight. Goodbye Ron, it was good to know you.
Biden in 2020 was senile old man who couldn't read from a telepromter or answer a tough question. Biden was protected by the MSM who only wrote nice things about him. The 2 debates were shams, since the moderators refused to talk about Trump's best issues and were helping Biden at every turn.
everyone know Biden isn't running the White House. His Chief of Staff and Dr. Jill are. Unlike the R's, the D's work together as a team and push the party line. So, Biden can just do photo-ops and and make an occassional speech. He's the zombie POTUS - dead man walking.
The Crack Emcee wrote:
As long as they keep talking about "woke," and not the New Age movement, I couldn't be bothered: They are missing the forest for the trees.
But at least within academia and associated cultural areas, all the New Age crap has been so assimilated under "woke"--mostly by explicitly politicizing the fake "spirituality" stuff--that even people who describe themselves as "woke" don't recognize that the majority of the stuff they're believing in is repackaged New Age (Remember the "Obama the 'light-bringer'" idiocy? That was an early sign of the hybridization). Now "woke" is the poisonous wrapper and the New Age the contaminated filling.
So when someone goes after "woke" they ARE going after New Age even if they don't know it. And people who embrace "wokeness" are going to find themselves just a perpetually miserable as those who followed New Age.
The story by the hypen guy was accurate and fair until he got to this, "For now, Ramaswamy’s rise is demonstrating that conservative populist energy hasn’t fully been tapped. During the Q. & A. session in Rochester, the woman standing next to me shouted out that Kiev had been persecuting Christians, and Ramaswamy quickly added this to the list of Zelensky’s alleged crimes. When someone else implied that China was responsible for covid, he nodded eagerly. “Yes!” Ramaswamy said. “I’m not O.K. with releasing man-made viruses from a bioterrorism lab in Wuhan.” He asked for audience members’ names and agreed with what they said, even when it pulled him nearer to conspiracy; in response, the crowd rose and applauded, and moved nearer to him, too."
The liberal elite still won't accept the fact that the ChiComs released covid on the world. And I'm of the firm belief it was intentional. Why is that so hard to believe? With Covid, the ChiComs got rid of Trump, crippled our economy and got Joe installed. Who cares if one million Chinese died?
And what shame of a failed Alzhemeier's drug? That's a tough cookie to crack. And it didn't wreck his company. Liar.
the Republican Party has largely absorbed the MAGA movement
It would seem they have that backwards.
The successors of Trump might be mainstreamed into the Republican Party. Or there might be one or more who actually are a reincarnation of Hitler, much to the chagrin of the Republican Party and the doom of the Left. The effect on the country will be interesting.
After the one-two punch of Obama and Trump, neither of whom had any meaningful experience in high office before running for President, I really don't think there's much of a cursus honorum in politics any more. Maybe it was a passing moment, but I don't think so.
Leland said...
I think Clinton, and later Obama, broke the biography long before Trump and Vivek came along. Both of the Democrats had thread bare experience for being a President...
So much nonsense.
Bill Clinton -- a multi-term governor self-portraying as an "outsider" -- fit perfectly what has become a modern archetype for a President.
Jimmy Carter. Ronald Reagan. George W. Bush. All governors. Bill Clinton is part of that overwhelming majority of modern presidents.
Obama came out of the Senate, which has been a surprisingly fraught pathway to the Presidency. It worked for JFK, but didn't work for Ted Kennedy, or Dole, or Kerry, or Mrs. Clinton or a two-page laundry list of candidates who were ambitious U.S. Senators but who failed to even get a nomination. Obama, coming out of the Senate (where his opponent was also a Senator) was special in a JFK kind of way. The basic way that Senators usually got to be president (or even a nominee) was after they had served as Vice President. Biden. Truman. LBJ. Mondale. Gore.
The other failure model is the "outsider businessman." I'm trying to think of any great businessmen who became great statesmen. Herbert Hoover? Donald Trump? Ross Perot? Michael Bloomberg? Warren Harding?
I really hate this businessmen-running-government-like-a-business fad. Lots of them go to the Senate, where their political careers end, thankfully.
cassandra lite said...
"Is there a position he holds now that isn't contrary to what he held three years ago?"
How about instead you finish this:
Here are some positions that are contrary to what he held three years ago...
"Progressive outsiders ... national office" made me think of Nader, John B. Anderson, and in a way Bernie Sanders who knuckled under to Hillary and therefore didn't really run as an independent.
Anderson is on Wikipedia's list of third party candidates who won at least 5% of the popular vote and/or one state in the Electoral College. He won 6.5 percent in 1980, 0 electoral votes. Reagan beat Carter/Mondale 489/49 in the Electoral College. Anderson had been a Republican Member of Congress from Illinois, but he became increasingly liberal on social issues, was a fairly early opponent of the war in Vietnam, and opposed Nixon over Watergate.
Ross Perot, not exactly on the left, won almost 19% in '92, and 8.4% in '96. The Billy Clinton elections.
To find Nader in 2000 you have to go to the list of those who won between 1% and 5% of the popular vote, but no electoral votes. Was 2.74% enough to deny Gore the election? How about Libertarians and Greens--close to 4.5% in 2016, around 1.2% in 2020. Helped Trump in the first case, but not the second?
In 1968 George Wallace, earlier defender of segregation and then opponent of mandated busing, got 13.5% of the popular vote, 46 electoral votes. One would think very few of those votes would have gone to Humphrey if Wallace were not in the race. Popular vote was close between Nixon and Humphrey, but in the Electoral College it was 301/191.
Re: Chuck:
Obama came out of the Senate, which has been a surprisingly fraught pathway to the Presidency.
Obama is different from other candidates coming out of the Senate (e.g. Kennedy) because he didn't really do anything before running for President. He is sworn in as a senator January of 2005 and formally announces he is running for President February of 2007, just over two years later (after a couple months testing the waters as an undeclared candidate).
Kennedy had done a full term in the Senate and been re-elected before running for President. Clinton II had done the same.
Have there been any “Ramaswamy is worse than Trump” op/eds yet?
Thanks Chuck for the warning of too much nonsense ahead, so I stopped reading you there.
The liberal elite still won't accept the fact that the ChiComs released covid on the world. And I'm of the firm belief it was intentional. Why is that so hard to believe? With Covid, the ChiComs got rid of Trump, crippled our economy and got Joe installed. Who cares if one million Chinese died?
Dave, I'm coming around to that theory as well.
"Trump’s extremism"
What, exactly, is Trump’s extremism?
I'm still leary of his taking a Soros scolarship, regardless of whether it was given by George or his brother. I could give him the benefit of the doubt, as far as pragmatism vs. opportunism, but there is also his celebration by the World Economic Forum as a young leader, which Vivek says was done without his participation. Odd.
I'd feel more comfortable if he would bite these two hands that have fed him. But then I'd wonder if that was his nature.
"Trump's extremism" stated without evidence.
And the war in Ukraine is now an investment?
LMFAO!
Vivek Ramaswamy is never, ever going to be President.
Corporate America debates this all the time -- are outsider CEOs better than those who come up through the ranks. Most outsider CEOs are completely ill-equipped to run the businesses they're supposed to rescue and their companies perform poorly. Outsider CEOs were seen as a last resort but are becoming increasingly popular.
Maybe something similar is happening with Trump. Trump defied the odds, he brought new ideas and new people into government. A fresh perspective! He didn't commit mass murder! But it's kind of hard to deny that the man is an egotistical moron and a loser. We clearly need someone else. Trump has to go.
Ambrose said...
Have there been any “Ramaswamy is worse than Trump” op/eds yet?
8/18/23, 1:18 PM
Yes. On Matthew Yglesias’ Slow Boring. Makes me want to vote for him even more!
Vivek Ramaswamy is a wolf in sheep’s clothing
His unifying, empathetic rhetoric obscures his Trumpist platform
MAYA BODNICK
AUG 6, 2023
If a President challenges the ESTABLISHMENT, he's starting with two strikes against him and an umpire who bet big bucks on the other team (the "umpire" is the permanent government and the media). Trump never figured out how to deal with that situation (they took away his national security advisor before he even got started). In his years out of office he hasn't demonstrated that he's learned how to do anything but yell about how unfair it all is. (By the way, there was time before he left office to pardon all the participants in the Jan. 6 demonstration, but he didn't do it, did he?)
Do you want to elect a President who may be able to begin to change things in Washington, or do you want to elect someone who will say things you like to hear? If your farm is failing in a new dust bowl do you hire a poet like Walt Whitman because you like what he says, or do you hire someone who knows how a farm works?
Of all the potential (or at least the mooted) candidates for president we might have a chance to vote for, the only one who seems to have a functioning brain and a grasp of the situation is Vivek Ramaswamy, and he has virtually zero chance of being elected. Isn't democracy a grand thing!
No one of consequence said...
"Ambrose said...
Have there been any “Ramaswamy is worse than Trump” op/eds yet?
8/18/23, 1:18 PM
Yes. On Matthew Yglesias’ Slow Boring. Makes me want to vote for him even more!
Vivek Ramaswamy is a wolf in sheep’s clothing
His unifying, empathetic rhetoric obscures his Trumpist platform"
And what, pray tell, is a "Trumpist platform". I really want to know.
No. Really. I want to know.
Seriously. You got anything?
At least he is saying the right things. Mostly like RFK Jr. I'd vote for either of them against either Trump or any other Democrat.
If Vivek does even one of the things he's promising, he'd be worth electing. If he tries to do all of them - and most of them are Executive Actions! - he's be incredible.
No? Just pissin' in the wind?
Post a Comment