Vivek Ramaswamy’s Cringeworthy Performance

National Review Online

Thursday, November 09, 2023

 

Vivek Ramaswamy is the candidate by and for X.

 

In the first Republican debate, he was smarmy and obnoxious, accusing everyone else on stage of being bought. When that tanked his favorable ratings, he showed up at the second debate contrite and ready to turn the page with his esteemed Republican colleagues. When that didn’t work, either, he apparently decided to double down on his approach from the first debate, and so outdid himself last night with cringe-inducing theatrics meant to light up a segment of right-wing social media.

 

He blamed RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel for creating a culture of losing in the GOP. McDaniel shouldn’t be immune to criticism. It is a ridiculous evasion just to attack her, though. She’s a creature of Donald Trump, and obviously the former president, not the unknown McDaniel, is the one who is defining the brand of the GOP. Yet Ramaswamy is only interested in the simulacrum of courage. So McDaniel is his target and not the man to whom he shows extreme deference, for fear Trump might say something negative about him and dent his image among MAGA influencers.

 

He said both Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels.” Most people probably didn’t get the DeSantis dig, since it was a reference to a MAGA and legacy media micro-obsession with the burning question of whether the Florida governor’s cowboy boots make him look taller. This was a stupid and personal attack. DeSantis ignored it, and Haley brushed it off with a funny line or two about her heels. The deeper point is that Ramaswamy desperately wants to associate himself with an isolationist-inclined national populism and, accordingly, accuses everyone with a more forward-leaning foreign policy than his of being advocates for “neocon wars.”

 

Relatedly, he accused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of being a Nazi. His campaign said afterwards that he was referring to the Ukrainian Nazi fighter in World War II honored by the Canadian parliament. But his actual words were that Ukraine “has celebrated a Nazi in its ranks — a comedian in cargo pants, the man called Zelensky,” and it’s the kind of mistake only made by someone trying to muddy the waters as much as possible. Ramaswamy, absurdly, portrayed Ukrainian territory in the East as belonging to Russia prior to the invasion, failing to mention that Russia took it by conquest, as well. It’s fair enough to point out the flaws and failings of Ukraine, but there is no moral equivalence between Kyiv and its Russian invader.

 

Finally, in defending his use of TikTok, he cited the fact that Nikki Haley’s daughter used to be on the app. He thus violated the basic rule of decency in such proceedings of not bringing an opponent’s children into a debate. Haley reacted fiercely, calling Ramaswamy “scum,” an inartful, if understandable, description given the circumstances.

 

There is no doubt that Ramaswamy is a talented guy. He’s a gifted talker and occasionally says things that are insightful and incisive. But he’s decided whom he wants to pander to in this primary. He’s doing everything he can to win the favor of the gatekeepers of the MAGA audience, presumably with an eye to a future media gig or campaign.

 

It has not been a heartening Republican campaign season so far, but at least Ramaswamy’s transparently insincere shtick isn’t winning over many GOP voters. We might say Ramaswamy would have been better served running as himself, if it didn’t seem that he genuinely is a principle-less opportunist.