Office Hours: Who the hell is Vivek Ramaswamy, and why is he surging in the polls?

The latest illustration of how the American media has followed Trump into mindless political entertainment

Friends,

One way to become a brand name in contemporary America is to run for president with so much bravado, bombast, and baloney that you gain lots of attention, which drives press coverage, which gets you more name recognition, which boosts your polls, which then — even if you don’t get elected — lets you do whatever brand names do in contemporary America (host a TV show? license your name? run for president again?).

Think of Vivek Ramaswamy or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Since their campaign launches, both have been hyped across the media landscape. And much of the reporting about them is about the hype they’ve generated, which generates more hype.

It’s a perfect loop of nothingness. No critical assessment of what they stand for. No analysis of what they seek to do. No in-depth reporting of their qualifications. Just contentless sensationalism.

They’re the latest illustrations of how the media has followed the profitable path carved out by Trump toward mindless politics-as-entertainment.

The media sensationalizes “oh the wonder of it” stories about anything new, shiny, and exciting. Ramaswamy’s wonder is that he says outrageous things — such as his debate quip last week that climate change is a “hoax” — and then denies or backtracks and changes the subject to another outrageous thing. Exactly like Trump.

And he speaks in bumper-sticker bursts of reactionary bromides — “there are two genders,” “reverse racism is racism,” “an open border is no border,” “the nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind,” “capitalism lifts people up from poverty” — without pausing to acknowledge any subtlety or alternative points of view.

It seems to be working. Ramaswamy is now about tied with DeSantis for the number 2 slot in the Republican primary sweepstakes — far behind Trump but good enough to give him a crack at running again in 2028.

Since February, Ramaswamy has been on more than 150 podcasts and at one point was doing 30 interviews a day. Last Sunday, he appeared on NBC’s and CNN’s Sunday shows, where he continued his contentless provocation. Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash about whether he stood by his remarks likening Ayanna Pressley, a Black Democratic congresswoman, to the “grand wizards of the KKK,” Ramaswamy said, “I stand by what I said to provoke an open and honest discussion in this country.”

To provoke? Exactly.

Ramaswamy grabs attention because, like Trump, he hurls insults and vacuous provocationd. Also like Trump, he’s devoid of deeply held conviction. He is the product of a broken media culture that caters to attention spans of fruit flies flitting from one provocation to the next without any intervening thought.

Hence, today’s Office Hours question: Does Vivek Ramaswamy have a political future in the Republican Party?

Please let us have your views. And, if you’re so inclined, please take our poll: