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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMolly Jong-Fast: From Trump to Vivek: The GOP Is Primed for Another Charismatic Phony
Ramaswamys post-debate blitz speaks to the priorities of the mediaand state of the Republican base.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/08/vivek-ramaswamy-donald-trump-gop-2024
On this last, slow, hot week in August, we are trapped in a Vivek Ramaswamy news cycle. Ramaswamy has figured out the path to free media is lined with saying extreme things like how the climate change agenda is a hoax at last weeks first Republican debate, or more recently, doubling down on calling Rep. Ayanna Pressley a member of the modern KKK (CNNs State of the Union) or suggesting Mike Pence shouldve implemented new voting reforms before certifying the 2020 election (NBCs Meet the Press). He was still pushing that bizarre January 6 scenario days later on MSNBC.
Link to tweet
Whats important about Ramaswamy is not his ideologyhe has no coherent onebut how susceptible our political and media ecosystem is to a charismatic phony. Hes become a recurring character on cable news, recently claiming on CNN that he was misquoted in The Atlantic when raising questions about the 9/11 attacks. But The Atlantics John Hendrickson had the tape, which of course included Ramaswamy asking, How many police, how many federal agents were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers? Denying something that is actually on tape, how very Trumpy.
Link to tweet
Link to tweet
Two days later, at the Fox Newshosted GOP debate, Ramaswamy claimed to be the only candidate onstage who isnt bought and paid for when decrying the climate hoax. But it turns out that Ramaswamy is bought and paid or at least paid for because his investment firm, Strive, has a fund called DRLL, which, as Semafor reports, invests in US energy companies and urges them to keep drilling for oil so long as its profitable. As Heateds Emily Atkin put it, Ramaswamy makes money from climate denial.
And yet, in the past, Ramaswamy has acknowledged that climate change is real, just one of his campaign flip-flops. On recognizing Juneteenth, for instance, he went from supportiveLet it be a celebration of the American Dream itself, he said on videoto against the holiday just two months later, telling Iowa voters,Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up.
Link to tweet
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Molly Jong-Fast: From Trump to Vivek: The GOP Is Primed for Another Charismatic Phony (Original Post)
Celerity
Aug 2023
OP
Charismatic? He's an obnoxious asshole who comes across as an obnoixous asshole.
eppur_se_muova
Aug 2023
#4
CurtEastPoint
(18,704 posts)1. He is not charismatic. He is creepy
Celerity
(44,008 posts)2. he is charismatic for the MAGAts
madaboutharry
(40,252 posts)3. He makes my skin crawl.
He has charlatan written all over him.
eppur_se_muova
(36,322 posts)4. Charismatic? He's an obnoxious asshole who comes across as an obnoixous asshole.
To today's Uglicans, that's charismatic. Oh, right -- of course it is !
Celerity
(44,008 posts)5. Evil people can be charismatic.
charisma:
a special power that some people have naturally that makes them able to influence other people and attract their attention and admiration
3Hotdogs
(12,522 posts)6. Listening to a program on Sirius/xm today. Seems Vivek's fortune came from a Pump & Dump
on a company he bought. It was working on an Alzheimer's drug that he pumped.