Vivek Ramaswamy gave an analysis of party realignment in U.S. It was a TED talk.
But he ruined it by talking about what he would do as president.
He is an over-caffinated speaker. In the two TV debates he was a bullying, condescending know-it-all. But alone on the stage he becomes a TED-talk presenter letting us in on a secret he discovered. He reminds me of a revival minister or infomercial pitchman with either heaven or an extraordinary product the reward.
He explained that the American left began this century primarily interested in incomes and fairness. A Republican president and the Fed bailed out the banks in 2008 after the financial crisis. Bankers kept their bonuses. Regular working American taxpayers paid the bill That energized the Occupy Wall Street people.
But then the left got distracted by policy advocates who thought the real problem in America is prejudice. These thought leaders were housed in universities, cause-oriented nonprofits, and think tanks.They were people with liberal arts degrees and refined sensibilities. Books, magazines, and serious journalism carried articles calling racial prejudice, misogyny, and homophobia the cause of poverty and social pathologies like addiction. This prejudice wasn't just the bias of individual racists. Leftist thought leaders argued that racial prejudice was deeply systemic and imbedded in American culture, language, and institutions.
That set of ideas appealed more to well-educated urbanites than to the non-college working class. Working people, especially White males, even including people doing hard, dirty, poorly-paid work, were defined as oppressors. They recoiled from the accusation. Democratic politicians followed the guidance of the adademic thought leaders; moral scolds were on the lookout. Democrats chose elites instead of working people.
Wall Street and corporate elites were delighted the left got distracted. It was easy and cheap for them to put women and minorities on boards and in advertisements.
Ramaswamy wants to represent the new, realigned Republicans, the people who are scolded and shamed by cultural elites. Ramaswamy is a populist. He defends old-fashioned popular verities: There is a God, nuclear families are the best, there are two sexes, etc.
He voiced a combination of conspiracy theories and Trump-ism. He condemned Dr. Anthony Fauci, criticized universities, supported voting exams for young voters, dismissed climate worries, supported fossil fuels, condemned the prosecution of January 6 rioters, supported the idea of suitcases of fake ballots, condemned the Justice Department, and said we could have an immediate cut of 75% of the federal employees.
He would have been an interesting young assistant professor when I was in college, had he stuck to the analysis of the political structure. He is not competitive in this current endeavor because he is crowding into the already-filled lane held by Trump and DeSantis.
If Trump is re-elected I expect him to ask to be Attorney General. Watch for this. It would be a mistake for Trump. Ramaswamy would be loyal to his own ambition, not to Trump. At some point Trump would ask him to do something so dangerously illegal that Ramaswamy would refuse. Trump doesn't want another Pence.
Here is a CSPAN videotape of his speech. Click: about 40 minutes.
This guy has nothing of value to offer America. He is a trump devotee, hoping to be donald's VP. He is a huckster of a politician whose family has enjoyed migration to this country & becoming citizens...just not for anyone else, eh Vivek? Shame on his wife who supports his campaign, "while not agreeing with much of what he proposes."