Ramaswamy's populist bunk is fit for purpose
Who is he and why are we seeing him in the media?
Ramaswamy’s populist bunk is fit for purpose
"I would freeze the lines of control and that would leave parts of the Donbas with Russia,", block Ukraine from joining NATO and even visit Putin in Moscow, Vivek Ramaswamy said during an interview with Jim Acosta on CNN. When Acosta rightly points out that this would be a win for Putin, Ramaswamy jumped back with one of the most infantile and dangerous statements I’ve heard in a long time. He said that we need to stop thinking about it this way and ask what would be a win for the US.
The last time I checked, a win for Russia in Ukraine would open a perilous geopolitical and security pandora’s box from hell for NATO by destabilising an entire continent—childplay’s for the strategifc grandmaster, Ramaswamy.
I’ve seen this all before in Italy: a candidate comes along with the idea of unilaterial disarmament of Ukraine, simultaneously proposing a detente with Russia so that it distances itself from China, which is the ‘real enemy’ to global security, and American security in particular. It makes no sense given the close relations between Russia and China, and how much China is doing to bolster and support Russia’s war effort. Those advocating for a restart with Russia amidst its war of genocide in Ukraine either have been on vacation for the last 543 days or they are working in the interests of the Kremlin.
I’ve had Ramaswamy on my radar for a few months, especially since his appearance on Musk’s libertarian-leaning Twitter spaces run by Mario Nawfal, who I’ve written about before. For the sake of faux balance, Nawfal has invited the likes of RFK Jr, Tara Reade (who has asked for political asymlum in Russia), Cornell West and other third tier politicians who all seem to support Russia.
Ramaswamy’s policy platform,“Truth”, mirrors the Russia United Party’s policies to the extent that I would say he’s one of Putin’s chosen candidates. The Kremlin has maintained networks of assets, sympathisers, opportunists and useful idiots on both sides of the Atlantic for a little over one hundred years. In more recent times, the Kremlin network was put into overdrive during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections and hasn’t let up since.
The Ramaswamy project feels and smells like a Russian friendly, Steve Bannon production. Ramaswamy came out of nowhere, looking respectable in a suit, wagging a fast tongue and using all the right trigger words for social media. Amidst the tried and tested populist slogans he throws out to his audience like candy, the one word that sticks out in his soapbox speech in the video below is ‘revolution’. Bannon has used this kind of narration since 2015 on his podcast, in many interviews, and at rallies in Europe. It was the same narration used by Georgia Meloni when she spoke at CPAC in the US and Hungary and at a rally in support of Vox before the general election in Spain.
That said, I don’t believe that Ramaswamy’s absurd platform resonates with the majority of the American electorate even if one poll put him at 11%. I could be wrong, but I have my doubts about his numbers.
The poll everyone was talking about was conducted online so its authenticity is highly questionable. Online polls are generally gamed, as are many of the huge social media accounts touting millions of followers. For example, the latest analysis on Elon Musk’s Twitter followers is revealing: 42% of Elon Musk's 153 million Twitter followers have 0 followers. Over 62.5 million of his followers have posted 0 tweets. Looks like he’s using bots to increase his visibility and importance (including his Twitter spaces), which is what he did to validate himself and sell Tesla cars. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bannon, or someone in his network, had commissioned the poll to get air time on legacy media outlets, which is exactly what happened. The legacy media couldn’t ignore Ramaswamy’s so-called numbers given their hunger for stories to fill up the 24-hour news cycle. A new poll released by YouGov on August 20 puts Ramaswamy at 7%, which is still high but more realistic.
Since Ramaswamy’s platform could only really appeal to fringe voters in the Republican and Democratic Parties, I believe there are other reasons for his so-called presidential run.
Firstly, in comparison with extreme candidates like Ramaswamy and RFK Jr, Donald Trump looks like a moderate, and the GOP electorate could be convinced to forgive him his legal sins. Look! You could get that crazy nut so you’d better hold your nose, close your eyes and vote for Donald even if he’s in prison.
This tactic was used in Italy with regards to Georgia Meloni and in France with Marine Le Pen. During the Italian general election in September 2022, an array of extremist ‘parties’ and ‘movements’ magically popped up out of nowhere nine months before the election, and were given precious media attention they really didn’t merit. The crazier they sounded, the more Meloni stood out as ‘the’ only viable conservative centrist candidate. It was the perfect distraction from her neo-fascist inclinations, or the book she had co-authored entitled, “Nigerian Mafia,”, published in 2019, which was replete with racist comments and conspiracy theories.
Ramaswamy may also be useful in the grand scheme of our current geopolitical context. Russia will back any candidate or influencer that serves to disrupt and fragment the Democratic Party, by providing an appealing option for the more extreme factions on the left. Divide et impera. It’s as old as the Roman empire. Russia didn’t come up with this one but it uses it masterfully in elections in the EU and the US. Both Ramaswamy and Cornell West, who are running on red-brown ‘stop the war’ platforms, could potentially steer voters away from the Biden ticket, or dissuade them from voting come November 2024.
If Biden loses the 2024 election because his voter base has been split, and a Kremlin-friendly GOP candidate (be it Trump or someone else) were to come to power, the new administration could veer away from the current US position vis-a-vis support to Ukraine, discontinuing all aid, armaments, and ammunition for Ukraine’s defence.
I’ll be working on a post dedicated to the extremist candidates once I’ve gathered enough information. This is my working hypothesis so far. The up-coming elections in Poland, other EU states, and the United States are crucial in terms of the current geopolitical landscape, and they must be protected from Russian active measures. Russia’s strategic aim is to weaken the support of Ukraine’s allies, and that means installing Kremlin-aligned politicians in the right places. When the time is ripe, when the West is tired of the war, these malign actors will come into play forcefully. Medvedev spelled it out in his latest screed on Telegram:
For them [the West], it is a foreign war in which people who are strangers to them die. And although they do not feel sorry for them, the West will never go beyond the point where it becomes too harmful to its interests. No matter how much it wails at its summits and at the UN. Alien war sooner or later becomes boring, costly and irrelevant.
Some time will pass. Western authorities will change, their elites will get tired and will beg for negotiations and freezing the conflict. Any counter-offensive will be exhausted. They will sing the dead, lick the wounds.
But we must not stop until the current Ukrainian state, which is terrorist in its essence, is completely dismantled. It must be destroyed to the ground. Or rather, so that not even ashes of it remain. So that this abomination can never, under any circumstances, be revived.
Russia’s wars are always accompanied by well-planned or adaptive active measures, including the attempt to change less favourable political leadership at the helm of a foreign state with someone who is ready to sell their soul for money, notoreity or ideology. Although Trump was never indicted for his numerous opaque connections to Putin’s Russia, dating back to 1984, he was certainly working to advance Russia’s strategic goals while in office. Had he been re-elected, I’m almost certain he would have pulled US membership from NATO as well as other international organisations, yielding power to authoritarian Russia and China and their ‘multipolar’ designs.
That’s why someone like Ramaswamy isn’t just a clown show national news producers can use to fill up five minutes of dead air time. I hope investigators in the media are looking closely into his background and network—he’s certainly not working alone. In 2016, the media irresponsibly helped Trump win the White House by normalising his hysterics and populist bunk. They could facilitate yet another candidate’s climb into the presidential race, who merits nothing more than a lollipop for his childish ideas, nevermind American votes.
Astute, and chilling.