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Notes -
Vivek Ramaswamy has written an article on his foreign policy doctrine, focusing on China.
He is squarely taking aim at the "neocons and liberal internationalists", in other words the two main constituents of what Obama referred to as "the Blob" dominating foreign policy in D.C. He is predictably being called an isolationist and WaPo columnists are freaking out.
WaPo columnists themselves are not relevant but they are often mouthpieces for more powerful interests. Trump was hated for many things but one underappreciated aspect of why the Blob hated him was his instinct not to start new wars. In fact, he is one of the few presidents in recent memory who did not start a new war and he tried to get out of Syria - twice - but was undermined by his own bureaucracy.
Vivek is a much smarter guy than Trump, so I wonder if the Blob would be able to run circles around him the way they did around Trump. I doubt it and I suspect they doubt it too, which is why I think a campaign to destroy Vivek is likely to ramp up before too long. Trump couldn't be controlled outright but at least he could be misled.
https://twitter.com/vivekgramaswamy/status/1696234841249857658?s=46&t=aQ6ajj220jubjU7-o3SuWQ
He’s now posting for physical fitness test for colleges in order to help black people get into college.
There probably is an edge for blacks at the extreme of the spectrum but I’m also a believer intelligence and athleticism aren’t anti-correlated. You would end up getting the superstar athletes who are 1100 SAT scores. But those guys don’t want to go to Harvard they rightfully view football as their payday and want to play in the SEC. The 1300 SAT score tennis player is likely already getting into Harvard.
Ramsy does have this popular mid-twit sounds good at first thought messenging.
I would be down with getting every kid to do a 6-ish minute mile. Upper class and wealthy people already are skinny. Obesity is one of those things I see in statistics but I know fairly close to zero people with the issue.
Reminder: Ramaswamy isn't running for president, he's running for the position of interesting primary candidate. Posting polarizing takes that the sophisticated libs will dunk on gets him more attention, makes him 'A Guy', and he can take his reputation and do something with it when this is over (e: yes, including running for office in the future). He knows the things he's saying are half-baked, and he doesn't care, because you (well, people on twitter and in the media who think like you) are talking about them. It almost feels like (from a liberal perspective) everyone who talked about him for the past six months was defecting in a big prisoners dilemma - you don't have to give people attention for saying dumb stuff, just ignore them!
Although I'm not entirely sure what that says about how he'd govern if everyone else in the race dropped dead.
So, basically what Trump did?
Yeah same approach, but different goals - Trump went after the other primary candidates, Vivek isn't even bothering to say anything negative about Trump, who he'd have to beat in the primary to win.
This is also a smart approach - Trump has the nomination and the undying loyalty of the GOP base. If you make yourself openly anti-Trump republican voters will kick you right the fuck out. The only reason to run against Trump as a candidate is to build a name for yourself, try and score a VP position, or to grift large amounts of money from the Koch brothers and other extremely wealthy anti-Trump lobbyists.
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