Yearning for deliverance from a decade’s worth of radicalism, observers sometimes try to imagine a functional GOP. The party they foresee tends to blend free markets with multiracial inclusion to create a moderate, modern Right. This is a pleasant thought, and it vaguely comports with many people’s impression of America’s rising generations. But look at the Millennial Republicans who are already emerging and one sees that another wave of Trumpism is about to crest.
Most prominent among these youngish mavens of the right is biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Now, in no sense is this man representative of his generation as a whole, given his $600 million of stock options and degree from Harvard University. He is, in fact, an elite. But he is also 37 years old and an astute man on the political make, and the way he has crafted his image is instructive as to which lessons young Republicans have learned from the transformation of their party.
What he has gleaned from the Trump revolution is emphatically not to embrace the modernizing creed. In a sense Ramaswamy would be ideally suited to coopt the cosmopolitan yearnings of former RNC Chair (and Trump Chief of Staff) Reince Priebus’s famous “Autopsy,” which in 2013 posited a future in which Republicans would welcome minorities with open arms and focus on leading America into a strong, free future. Instead, Ramaswamy has used his tycoon status and diverse background to bend this vision into a Trumpian appeal.
Ramaswamy does this by leveraging his profile to tell Trumpian populists what they want to hear. He is Asian American; therefore, his denunciations of “identity politics” carry more weight. He is a wealthy businessman; therefore, he understands better than most the invidious threat of “Woke Capital.” Ramaswamy’s identitarian gymnastics show that even a more multiracial leadership class is likely to submit to the white-nationalist currents in the GOP base. The key to winning Republican primaries will be to make an appeal slightly different from, but fundamentally consistent with, the populism that has remade the Republican Party.
Where Ramaswamy and other rising Republicans such as Madison Cawthorn do not differ from their elders at all is on authoritarianism. In a party that has made voter suppression a core strategic ploy, Ramaswamy goes farther than any other GOP leader. He, like other Republicans, observes that young people vote heavily for the Democratic Party. His solution to this challenge is to literally disenfranchise most people under 25. I repeat: He would raise the voting age so high that millions of Americans would lose their right to vote. In this absurd autocratic absolutism, he’s perceiving another ongoing trend in the GOP’s evolution. They are becoming more extreme. Rising Republicans are likely to instill yet more force into their party’s 60-year lurch toward ultra-conservatism.
Thus, even in a changing America, the next generation of Republicans is likely to be a continuation of Trumpian trends. They may indeed become more racially diverse at the top as Republicans begin to perceive Brown and Black faces as a necessity for appearing respectable in the eyes of an anti-racist public. But the racism will endure untouched. So will the authoritarianism: Nearly every Republican has concluded that American democracy is unfit for the traditionalist imperative, and thus representative democracy must be jettisoned. Vivek Ramaswamy is not a novelty candidate. He is a wise and adept observer of the iniquity that has made his party autocratic.
Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.
Sorry, forgot….Also go on the website Racial Equity Institute if you WANT to know the truth…..
Ramaswamy is just another hustler who sees an opportunity to further his interests at the expense of democracy. Nothing new here, Folks like Trump, Cotton and others within the MAGA movement are driven by the same forces. Moreover, Ramaswamy comes up short in the appearance requirements. He is not white, and his name is hard to pronounce. MAGA folks have embedded prejudices which prevent them from voting for folks that do not look like them. MAGA folks are not analytical nor do they like candidates with funny sounding names. They are still trying to recover from a black man with the name Obama beating their candidates, not once but twice. Ramaswamy’s chances of making it past a primary are about on par with a snowball in hell.
So, you think you have it all figured out, is that right? All those evil ‘MAGA’ folks and their incurable racism are the reason a guy like Ramaswamy simply could NOT be elected or ever embraced by Republicans, is that right? I’m sure you would know all about racists and racism, since the Democrat Party–from its very beginnings–has been the party which has defined and actively practiced racism since Day 1!
Need I remind you that the Democrat Party rejected the Civil Rights Acts, both of 1866 AND 1964? Were it not for Republican endorsement and support, those civil rights acts would have never passed into law! Equally bad, it is provably true that without Republican endorsement and support of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, black Americans would not have U.S. citizenship, would not have equal protection under the law, and would not have the right to vote. It is the party with the jackass mascot which encouraged and supported the KKK, Jim Crow laws, and segregation, and that same mindset persists to this very day!
Racism has been a core characteristic of the Democrat Party since its inception, and the Democrat Party continues to leverage racism simply to keep blacks and other minorities in line, and to intimidate them into believing that they must ONLY vote Democrat, and that ONLY Democrats will save them! What a crock! Once again, I point out–your own political history indicts you. Today’s Democrat Party is evil to its corrupt core. MAGA Republicans are not the problem–apparently, it is the Democrat’s racist and corrupt party apparatchiks which are–and have always been–at the root of the problem regarding racism in America!
You are aware, are you not, that the parties’ positions on race reversed during the 1960’s? The racist Southern Democrats who fought civil rights for decades became Republicans, and Nixon’s cynical Southern Strategy converted the GOP into the party that embraced racists? Not all Republicans are racist, but all racists are Republican.
Wayne, I will not try an educate you on American History, it is obvious you have little understanding of economics or history. Since the early part of the 20th century. Marxism ceased to exist as a plausible economic theory and a major shift took place in the Democratic Party. Today’s Democrats are known for their association with a strong federal government and support for minority, women’s and labor rights, environmental protection, and progressive reforms. I recommend you stick to cut and pasting that nonsense you read in American Thinker and hear from the lizards from outer space.
My thanks to you and the ‘big fish’ for educating me with your preposterous platitudes about the greatness of the Democrat Party, and its similarly astonishing history of equal rights. (insert laughing emojis!) I am quite well educated on a college level, as I am sure you are as well. But–I can also ‘read the tea leaves’, and there is no doubt whatsoever that the Democrat Party is anything BUT a democratic organization. More like a criminal syndicate, I would say! The racist bigotry of today’s Democrat Party can very easily and clearly be traced back to before the Civil War, and your assertions that the party’s somehow miraculously switched ideological paradigms is unsupportable. The Democrat Party is not ‘known’ for its support of minority rights, nor of its support for reform, by any stretch of the imagination. More and more, voters are becoming aware that the Dem Party is simply a cabal of power-hungry authoritarians who harbor an unbridled lust for control, regardless of how they get it. I WILL offer this, however–the Republican Party is not the answer to our nation’s problems, but Democrats clearly ARE the problem. What BOTH party’s lack is a clear, bi-partisan comprehension of fundamental constitutional principles–those same principles which formed the foundation of our republic. Neither American history, Western Civ., Civics, or Political Science is accurately taught within the public school structure, and our school-age kids, from pre-school thru university level, are all the dumber for it. Unfortunately, so are all too many parents as well. We have become awash in rank ignorance, and the malicious influences from Marxist/Democrat groups intent on indoctrinating our educational institutions has become our downfall. China is watching.
Wayne, the 1964 Civil rights act, framed by Democrats, signed by a Democratic President. This Legislation was designed to extend equality and equal protection of the laws to all by outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools and public accommodations, and employment discrimination. Incidentally, if you drop this phony use of big words, concentrated on research you would know Republicans in Congress voted against it. Yes, Republicans did that! I do not know where you went to school, but for you not to know these historical facts leads me to believe, you need to ask for your money back.
Then of course, we have Democratic sponsored bills such as Social Security, Medicare, Unemployment benefits, to name a few. Most recently, Obama Care. All signed into law by a Democratic president. Desegregation of the military, ordered by a Democratic president. Let us get real. Do you enjoy playing the fool or is this an extension of the Republican big lie syndrome?
Yesterday’s democrats are today’s republicans. What has remained constant is the FACT that the social construct of RACE is still the issue no one wants to talks about. America is and always has been racist to it’s core. Contrary to the “his story” we were all taught the reality has always been maintaining a hierarchy dominated by a white male society. Read the book “Lies My Teacher Told Me.”
This pinhead Wayne is completely full of sh*t but we knew that already. Trumpism is a racist, fascist ideology.
Wayne, the pre-1960s Democrats you claim were so indicative of today’s Dem party thinking included such “stalwart Dems” as Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, & Ronald Reagan. After the Civil Rights Act, they switched parties.
If you don’t understand that the 2 parties switched social policies almost totally in the 1960s, you have no business spouting political opinions.