Interestingly, freedom is inextricably linked with inheritance. Start with land….this is where the indigenous Americans were in conflict with Europeans. We acquire and hold land and pass it down to our children and eventually, without checks or balances, all the land concentrates into a small group or even into one family. The rest are denied the freedom to own land because there is none left. Everything…. economics, wars, culture, etc. starts with this. Find a way to give citizens a birthright to a certain amount of land and they will start to care about democracy.
After making the comment I googled the amount of arable land in the United States and then divided that by the population and come up with just a little over 1 acre. I then googled how much land it takes to feed one person. An “off-the-grid” website stated that about half an acre would provide calories in fruit and vegetables for one person. Modern agriculture of course produces yields an order of magnitude greater than this, perhaps orders of magnitude.
Fox News has always used “Freedom” in a certain context that makes the term interchangeable in their reporting with “Greed.” I noticed this many years ago that Fox is usually using “Freedom” in terms of taxation or regulation and substituting “Greed” actually worked quite well and even made their view clearer.
The point being that America was originally about owning land, so you were not owned by a landowner. That land either fed you or produced something you could barter for food. Western democracy did not start with ancestral landowners; it started with city dwellers in ancient Greece with no such franchise who were craftsmen or merchants or another profession. These city dwellers were dictated to by kings or some entity that was a proxy for landowners. These landowners also were the citizen warriors that defended the city state and were not to be challenged.
The city dwellers created democracy to limit the wealth and power of the richest landowners who became ever more rapacious and ruthless and fixed prices to impoverish others who ended up as slaves. They also regularly started wars for land the city dwellers were called to fight in for little benefit unless defending against aggressors. The modern world has in some ways become simpler than the ancient world in that almost everything is now organized to worship a single god…money. Where money took third place to food and then land for most of history it has now become a universal religion that determines all things.
This is the story to teach to people so they might have a basic understanding of democracy. The purpose of democracy is to keep the dangerous and ruinous ambitions of individuals in check and enable the greatest good for the greatest number. The Representative Democracy found in our Republic was created in part to balance this check by enabling citizens to pursue their personal goals and aspirations, which rewards individuals and is valuable to the whole nation. A feature of any functioning democracy is some form of “Limitarianism.” This is what I call “walking the tightrope” between the needs of the populace, or, to use the term conservatives have demonized, the collective, and the wants of individuals. That billionaires in America are presently stepping up and without apology pouring vast sums into electing, what those not in his Cult know to be, a fascist, is almost unbelievable. But it must be believed because it is happening. Sadly, our complacent consumer programmed society does not seem too concerned.
The election that may end America is less than two weeks away and democrats like me, or about half the country, are terrified. That we cannot understand how the other half of is so gullible and committed to ending democracy is profoundly depressing to many of us. All we can do is pray…and vote.
I have wanted to break away from the toxic social media community I have been immersed in, on and off, for over 15 years, and I am hoping this is it.
As the character Riddick in the science fiction movie said about the destruction of the universe, “Had to end sometime.”
The Musk Cult worshipers there were getting to me anyway….they are just too disconnected from reality and they were never healthy to interact with. Always disturbing but now that Dark MAGA has manifested they have gone too far and are poison to the soul.
Goodbye you freaks. Good riddance.
I am thinking of an arc between two ends of a spectrum. At one end is limitarianism, a limiting of personal wealth. At the other end is sufficientarianism, a basic level of individual needs being met by the collective. As a triangle, these two sides are moderated by the base of the triangle that has a datum point dividing what is taken to maintain limitarianism and what is given to maintain sufficientarianism.
More on this to come.
Likely a quarter billion dollars from billionaires poured into pro-Trump PACs. Using every devious trick they can pull out of their behinds.
A visitor wears a face mask with a picture of former President Donald Trump’s mouth on it during the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 26, 2021, in Orlando, Florida.| Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. His book on democracy, The Reactionary Spirit, was published 0n July 16. You can purchase it here.
The Republican Party is the biggest threat to American democracy today. It is a radical, obstructionist faction that has become hostile to the most basic democratic norm: that the other side should get to wield power when it wins elections.
A few years ago, these statements may have sounded like partisan Democratic hyperbole. But in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol and Trump’s acquittal in the Senate on the charge of inciting it, they seem more a plain description of where we’re at as a country.
But how deep does the GOP’s problem with democracy run, really? How did things get so bad? And is it likely to get worse?
Below are 13 charts that illustrate the depth of the problem and how we got here. The story they tell is sobering: At every level, from the elite down to rank-and-file voters, the party is permeated with anti-democratic political attitudes and agendas. And the prospects for rescuing the Republican Party, at least in the short term, look grim indeed.
Today’s Republicans really hate Democrats — and democracy
1) Trump’s supporters have embraced anti-democratic ideas
This chart shows results from a two-part survey, conducted in late 2020 and early 2021, of hardcore Trump supporters. The political scientists behind the survey, Rachel Blum and Christian Parker, identified so-called “MAGA voters” by their activity on pro-Trump Facebook pages. Their subjects are engaged and committed Republican partisans, disproportionately likely to influence conflicts within the party like primary elections.
These voters, according to Blum and Parker, are hostile to bedrock democratic principles.
They go further than “merely” believing the 2020 election was stolen, a nearly unanimous view among the bunch. Over 90 percent oppose making it easier for people to vote; roughly 70 percent would support a hypothetical third term for Trump (which would be unconstitutional).
“The MAGA movement,” Blum and Parker write, “is a clear and present danger to American democracy.”
2) Republicans are embracing violence
The ultimate expression of anti-democratic politics is resorting to violence. More than twice as many Republicans as Democrats — nearly two in five Republicans — said in a January poll that force could be justified against their opponents.
It would be easy to dismiss this kind of finding as meaningless were it not for the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill — and the survey was conducted about three weeks after the attack. Republicans recently saw what political violence in the United States looked like, and a large fraction of the party faithful seemed comfortable with more of it.
These attitudes are linked to the party elite’s rhetoric: The more party leaders like Trump attack the democratic political system as rigged against them, the more Republicans will believe it and conclude that extreme measures are justifiable. A separate study by political scientists Lilliana Mason and Nathan Kalmoe found that “Republicans who believe Democrats cheated in the election (83 percent in our study) were far likelier to endorse post-election violence.”
3) Republicans see Democrats as something worse than mere rivals
Democracy is, among other things, a system for taming the disagreements inherent in politics: People compete for power under a set of mutually agreeable rules, seeing each other as rivals within a shared system rather than blood enemies.
But in the United States today, hyperpolarization is undoing this basic democratic premise: Sizable numbers of Americans on each side see the members of the other party not as political opponents but as existential threats.
The rise of this dangerous species of “negative partisanship,” as political scientists call it, is asymmetric. While many Democrats see Republicans in a dark light, a majority still see them more as political rivals than as enemies. Among Republicans, however, a solid majority see Democrats as their enemy.
When you believe the opposing party to be an enemy, the costs of letting them win become too high, and anti-democratic behavior — rigging the game in your favor, even outright violence — starts to become thinkable.
4) Republicans dislike compromise
America’s founders designed our political system around compromise. But for years now, majorities of Republican voters have opposed compromise on principle, consistently telling pollsters that they prefer politicians who stick to their ideological guns rather than give a little to get things done. It’s no wonder the past decade saw unprecedented Republican obstructionism in Congress (more on that later).
The hostility to compromise on the GOP side has at least two major implications for democracy.
First, it has rendered government dysfunctional and ineffective — and consequently has decreased public trust in government. Second, it has pushed Democrats in a more polarized direction; in 2018, Pew found, Democratic support for political compromise plummeted to roughly Republican levels. This seems in part like a reaction to years of GOP behavior: If they aren’t going to compromise with us, the Democratic logic goes, then why should we compromise with them?
But the more Democrats eschew compromise, the more cause Republicans have to see them as fundamentally hostile to conservative values — and to redouble their intransigence. It’s a doom loop for political coexistence.
5) The Republican Party is a global outlier — and not in a good way
The Democratic Party does better than the global median on metrics of respect for norms and support for ethnic minority rights. The GOP does far worse.Pippa Norris/Global Parties Survey
The Global Party Survey is a 2019 poll of nearly 2,000 experts on political parties from around the world. The survey asked respondents to rate political parties on two axes: the extent to which they are committed to basic democratic principles and their commitment to protecting rights for ethnic minorities.
This chart shows the results of the survey for all political parties in the OECD, a group of wealthy democratic states, with the two major American parties highlighted in red. The GOP is an extreme outlier compared to mainstream conservative parties in other wealthy democracies, like Canada’s CPC or Germany’s CDU. Its closest peers are almost uniformly radical right and anti-democratic parties. This includes Turkey’s AKP (a regime that is one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists), and Poland’s PiS (which has threatened dissenting judges with criminal punishment).
The verdict of these experts is clear: The Republican Party is one of the most anti-democratic political parties in the developed world.
How things got this bad
6) The Republican turn against democracy begins with race
Republicans with high levels of “ethnic antagonism” generally agree with statements like “It is hard to trust the results of elections when so many people will vote for anyone who offers a handout.”Larry Bartels
Support for authoritarian ideas in America is closely tied to the country’s long-running racial conflicts.
This chart, from a September 2020 paper by Vanderbilt professor Larry Bartels, shows a statistical analysis of a survey of Republican voters, analyzing the link between respondents’ score on a measure of “ethnic antagonism” and their support for four anti-democratic statements (e.g., “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it”).
The graphic shows a clear finding: The higher a voter scores on the ethnic antagonism scale, the more likely they are to support anti-democratic ideas. This held true even when Bartels used regression analyses to compare racial attitudes to other predictors, like support for Trump. “The strongest predictor by far of these antidemocratic attitudes is ethnic antagonism,” he writes.
For students of American history, this shouldn’t be a surprise.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act cemented Democrats as the party of racial equality, causing racially resentful Democrats in the South and elsewhere to defect to the Republican Party. This sorting process, which took place over the next few decades, is the key reason America is so polarized.
It also explains why Republicans are increasingly willing to endorse anti-democratic political tactics and ideas. In the past, restrictions on the franchise served to protect white political power in a changing country; today, as demographic change threatens to further undermine the central place of white Americans, many are becoming comfortable with an updated version of the Jim Crow South’s authoritarian tradition.
7) Partisanship causes Republicans to justify anti-democratic behavior
This chart looks at early versus in-person voting in the 2017 Montana House special election. After the Republican candidate assaulted a reporter the day before the election, he appears to have lost support in Democratic precincts but saw gains in some heavily Republican ones.Matthew Graham and Milan Svolik
This chart is a little hard to parse, but it illustrates a crucial finding from one of the best recent papers on anti-democratic sentiment in America: how decades of rising partisanship made an anti-democratic GOP possible.
The paper, from Yale’s Matthew Graham and Milan Svolik, uses a number of methods to examine the effect of partisanship on views of democracy. This chart shows a particularly interesting one: a “natural experiment” in Montana’s 2017 at-large House campaign, during which Republican candidate Greg Gianforte assaulted reporter Ben Jacobs during an attempted interview just before Election Day.
Because many voters cast their ballots by mail before the assault happened, Graham and Svolik could compare these to the in-person votes after the assault in order to measure how the news of Gianforte’s attack shifted voters’ behavior.
The blue lines represent precincts where Gianforte did worse on Election Day than in mail-in ballots; the red lines represent the reverse. What you see is a clear trend: In Democratic-leaning and centrist precincts, Gianforte suffered a penalty. But in general, the more right-leaning a precinct was, the less likely he was to suffer — and the more likely he was to improve on his mail-in numbers.
For Svolik and Graham, this illustrates a broader point: Extreme partisanship creates the conditions for democratic decline. If you really care about your side wielding power, you’re more willing to overlook misbehavior in their attempts to win it. They find evidence that this could apply to partisans of either major party — but only one party nominates candidates like Trump and Gianforte (who won not only the 2017 contest but also his reelection bid in 2018 and Montana’s gubernatorial election in 2020).
The chart here is from a study covering 1997 to 2002, when Fox News was still being rolled out across the country. The study compared members of Congress in districts where Fox News was available to members in districts where it wasn’t, specifically examining how frequently they voted along party lines.
They found that Republicans in districts with Fox grew considerably more likely to vote with the party as it got closer to election time, whereas Republicans without Fox actually grew less likely to do so. The expansion of Fox News, in short, seemingly served a disciplining function: making Republican members of Congress more afraid of the consequences of breaking with the party come election time and thus less inclined to engage in bipartisan legislative efforts.
“Members with Fox News in their district behave as if they believe that more Republicans will turn out at the polls by increasing their support for the Republican Party,” the authors conclude.
How America’s political system creates space for Republicans to undermine democracy
9) Republicans have an unpopular policy agenda
Support in polls on major legislation since 1990; Republican bills with tax cuts for wealthy people and Obamacare repeal were especially unpopular.Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, Let Them Eat Tweets
The Republican policy agenda is extremely unpopular. The chart here, taken from Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson’s recent book Let Them Eat Tweets, compares the relative popularity of the two major legislative efforts of Trump’s first term — tax cuts and Obamacare repeal — to similar high-priority bills in years past. The contrast is striking: The GOP’s modern economic agenda is widely disliked even compared to unpopular bills of the past, a finding consistent with a lot of recent polling data.
Hacker and Pierson argue that this drives Republicans’ emphasis on culture war and anti-Democratic identity politics. This strategy, which they term “plutocratic populism,” allows the party’s super-wealthy backers to get their tax cuts while the base gets the partisan street fight they crave.
The GOP can do this because America’s political system is profoundly unrepresentative. The coalition it can assemble — overwhelmingly white Christian, heavily rural, and increasingly less educated — is a shrinking minority that has lost the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential contests. But its voters are ideally positioned to give Republicans advantages in the Electoral College and the Senate, allowing the party to remain viable despite representing significantly fewer voters than the Democrats do.
10) Some of the most consequential Republican attacks on democracy happen at the state level
This map from the Brennan Center for Justice shows every state that passed a restriction on the franchise between 2010 and 2019. These restrictions, ranging from voter ID laws to felon disenfranchisement, were generally passed by Republican majorities with the intent of hurting turnout among Democratic-leaning constituencies.
Because Republicans dominated the 2010 midterm elections, Republican statehouses got to control the post-2010 census redistricting process at both the House and state legislative level, leading to extreme gerrymandering in Republican-controlled states unlike anything in Democratic ones.
Conservative control of the Supreme Court enabled this state-level push. In 2013, the Court struck down the Voting Rights Act’s “preclearance” requirement — that states with a history of racial discrimination would be required to get permission from the Justice Department on their maps and other major changes to electoral law. In 2019, another Court ruling paved the way for further partisan gerrymandering.
11) The national GOP has broken government
Today’s Senate, where you need 60 votes to get virtually anything done, is a historical anomaly. Its roots can be traced to the unyielding GOP opposition to President Barack Obama in 2009 and 2010, when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell turned the Senate into a dysfunctional body in which priority legislation was routinely subject to a filibuster. When Republicans won a Senate majority in 2014, McConnell found a new way to deny Obama victories: blocking his judicial appointments.
These actions were an expression of an attitude popular among Republican voters and leaders alike: that Democrats can never be legitimate leaders, even if elected, and thus do not deserve to wield power.
It’s still Trump’s GOP
12) Republicans didn’t care when Trump abused his power
The Trump presidency was a test of Republican attitudes toward democracy. Time and again, the president abused his authority in ways that would have been unthinkable under previous presidents. Time and again, members of Congress, state party leaders, right-wing media stars, and rank-and-file voters looked the other way — or even cheered him on.
The chart here, which shows two NBC polls taken about a year apart, is particularly striking. It shows that support for Trump’s first and second impeachment among Republicans remained exactly the same among Republicans: 8 percent.
Trump was impeached the first time because he tried to interfere with the integrity of the 2020 presidential election — attempting to strong-arm the Ukrainian president into opening up a bogus investigation into Joe Biden. Trump was impeached the second time because he ginned up a mob to attack the Capitol to disrupt the counting of the votes from the Electoral College.
And yet in both cases, the percentage of Republicans who supported impeaching him was the same — a measly 8 percent. There’s just very little popular appetite in the GOP for punishing anti-democratic excesses by Trump, regardless of the circumstances.
13) Trump and Trumpism could return in 2024
This chart shows the results of a Morning Consult poll on the 2024 Republican primary held after Trump’s second impeachment trial. It found that 54 percent of Republicans would choose Trump again, even when given a wide range of alternative possibilities. Six percent would choose his son Donald Trump Jr. — who obviously wouldn’t run if his father did — putting the Trump family support in the GOP primary electorate at around 60 percent.
This shouldn’t really be surprising.
All the reasons for the GOP’s turn against democracy — backlash to racial progress, rising partisanship, a powerful right-wing media sphere — remain in force after Trump. The leadership is still afraid of Trump and the anti-democratic MAGA movement he commands.
More fundamentally, they are still committed to a political approach that can’t win in a majoritarian system, requiring the defense of the undemocratic status quo in institutions like the Senate and in state-level electoral rules. Republicans still control the bulk of statehouses and are gearing up for a new round of voter suppression bills and extreme gerrymandering in electorally vital states like Georgia and Texas.
Every day I see reporting that the polls are even I get more stressed, more afraid. This is unlike anything that has ever happened in my long life….and everyone else seems to be just going with it. It is the most bizarre and profoundly disturbing time I have ever experienced. I realize how incredibly fortunate I have been to have been born in America during the peak of our success and freedom that this is looking like the end of that and the beginning of something….terrible.
At 12:00 Pomerantsev explains the monster chewing up and spitting out democracy perfectly.
The truth and an informed public are a requirement, along with voting, for democracy. The techbro’s are ending that quickly. They are accelerationists who want to burn it all down and then start over… with them as the lords of creation.
Last month I made comments on spacenews about Polaris Dawn being rock bottom for Human Space Flight. Today, while lying in bed recovering from covid, I watched the Super Heavy do the first chopstick catch….and have a new rock bottom.
I also saw a headline that Trump and Harris are running even in the polls. And also another story about Elon being Trump’s “secretary of cost-cutting.”
The wars in Ukraine and Israel…this is not a good day.
About 10 years ago I posted some very rough estimates of how long it would take to get to various possible ocean destinations at 100,000 mph using 1000 bombs accelerating the ship a 100 mph at a time. Of course there are the 1000 more bombs to slow down, 1000 more bombs to speed back up, and 1000 more bombs to slow back down upon return to Earth. So…4000 bombs. But an Aircraft Carrier catapult accelerates a fighter to almost 175 mph and if that efficiency could be achieved it would cut the number of bombs way down. Possibly even 250 mph….which would mean only 1600 bombs for the whole trip. Slowing down using the nearest gas or ice giant’s atmosphere, available except for Pluto and Ceres, would reduce the number of bombs to 1200. And… filling up the bomb slugs with local ice and even using shielding for the decelerations to Ceres and Pluto and upon return in the vicinity of Earth, and then quickly re-shielding, might reduce the number to 1000.
Luna, launch point.
Ceres 0.510 km/s approximate travel time 120 days/4 months
Jupiter system 200 days/ 7 months
2. Europa 2.025 km/s
3. Ganymede 2.741 km/s
4. Callisto 2.440 km/s (outside of Jupiter’s radiation belts)
I have always liked Sam, despite his militant Atheism, which another person I listen to all the time, Chris Hedges, profoundly dislikes. He is so unhappy with the left’s support for Palestine that he almost, but not quite, says he would vote for Mitt Romney if it was him instead of Trump. Hmmm. Don’t go there Sam.
This is one of the most interesting conversations I have heard in a while. The examination of Trumpism is as disturbing as any I have heard or read over the years. How to explain it? Is it that people, at least half of them, are actually so…deplorable? So gullible, so biased, so prone to scapegoating and pandering to the strongman? So rotten inside? Do half the population hide their fundamental moral failure so well that the other half are not aware of it until it becomes normalized?
I read a reply to one of my comments about Trumpism and not understanding how this could happen the other day and one reply really got me.
@garychurch9237 7 days ago What really worries me is that people don’t seem too worried about half the country having fallen down the Trumpist rabbit hole. It is profoundly disturbing, and I think about it every day. I was in the military back in the early 80’s with Reagan and both sides having a total of 60,000 nuclear weapons ready to go…and I feel the same now. I think we need more gravitas, more serious urging to get people to register and vote.
@kavflyladyvillery858 7 days ago The problem is they didn’t fall down a “rabbit hole”. Many of them were already who they are, and djt gave them unsolicited permission to be their quiet, shadow selves out loud & in the open.
Chris Hedges states that Utopians, whether “New Atheists” or religious fundamentalists, believing that using violence is an answer, are “infected.” The disease is cultism, suspending critical thinking and perception of reality. And science, as in Nazi eugenics and social Darwinism, is just as much a cult as religion, and also the cult of the strongman, the cult of personality.
Last week, Donald Trump appeared before a rally in Iowa, where he regaled a crowd of supporters with stories of the great wealth of his inner circle of advisers. “When you get the president — this is the president of Goldman Sachs — smart! — having him represent us, he went from massive paydays to peanuts!” he boasted. The crowd applauded, as people passionate enough about a politician to attend a rally are wont to do.
But the thing about Trump’s core supporters is that Trump doesn’t have enough of them. To win the election, he had to pry away some former Obama voters in the Midwest, and he did it by positioning himself to his opponent’s left on economics. “Hillary will never reform Wall Street. She is owned by Wall Street!” he warned. “I’m not going to let Wall Street get away with murder,” he promised. His closing ad quoted Trump insisting, “The Establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election,” while images of a stock ticker and the street sign for Wall Street appeared onscreen.
Trump lies and reverses himself about all kinds of things, but usually this behavior is a flailing attempt at self-preservation. The curious thing about these particular reversals is that this hypocrisy comes at large cost to himself. Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg recently interviewed white working-class Obama voters who’d turned to Trump and found that news of the president’s Wall Street advisers was the fact most likely to shake their faith in his administration. Trump’s approval ratings have sunk to 40 percent or lower. Why is he making so little effort to conceal his bait-and-switch? Why forfeit his most precious political asset? The best explanation for this grand act of self-sabotage (beyond his simply not understanding the policies he endorses) is that Trump, like much of the Republican Party, is an instinctive social Darwinist.
Social Darwinism is a philosophy that treats the market as a perfectly efficient and moral mechanism for allocating wealth. Just as natural selection favors those species best adapted for survival, the theory goes, capitalism rewards the smartest and most deserving among us. It is the intellectual scaffolding, constructed by writers like Ayn Rand and various Austrian economists, behind the vision of conservatives like Paul Ryan and David Koch. Trump may not have read up on the theory, but he understands it viscerally. His father, Fred, inculcated his son with the unshakable belief that his own greatness would lead to enormous wealth.
Trump’s boast in Iowa about the “great, brilliant business minds” in his administration communicates a great deal about his innermost beliefs. “I love all people, rich or poor,” he explained, “but, in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person, does that make sense?” The richest people in the country are, by definition, the most brilliant and well qualified. Trump rejects the notion that circumstance, luck, or social advantage might play a role. In a 1990 interview, a more candid time, Trump expressed his belief that being born into poverty would not have arrested his rise. “The coal miner gets black-lung disease, his son gets it, then his son,” he told an interviewer. “If I had been the son of a coal miner, I would have left the damn mines. But most people don’t have the imagination — or whatever — to leave their mine. They don’t have ‘it’ … You’re either born with it or you’re not.”
Conservative intellectuals make a sharp distinction, at least in theory, between good wealth amassed through pure capitalism and bad wealth obtained by government favoritism. Trump has never observed any boundary between the two. (On the contrary: During the campaign, he presented his experience buying government influence as a qualification for office.) And in practice, few Republicans bother themselves too much over how a person got rich, either. The Bush administration was a boom time for grifters — Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, and Duke Cunningham were among the party eminences who used Republican control of government to fatten their wallets.
After the Bush presidency collapsed, conservatives made a show of remorse and vowed not to succumb again to the temptations of corruption. Abramoff, the crooked conservative activist and lobbyist, refashioned himself after returning from prison as a chastened reformer. In 2012, he appeared at a Public Citizen event, denouncing the evils of the system.
But now the lessons have been discarded, and the stench of self-dealing is everywhere. The only low-income-housing program spared by Trump’s budget is one his business profits from, and he picked a comically underqualified family loyalist, an event planner by trade, to oversee federal housing in New York, where his business has its largest interest. Trump has handed control of every major regulatory agency to the industries they oversee — a Wall Street lawyer runs the Securities and Exchange Commission, fossil-fuel surrogates run the Environmental Protection Agency, the CEO of a for-profit lender will oversee the student-loan system, and on and on. Lobbyists are already shuffling between the White House and K Street. Even Abramoff has been lured out of retirement—registering as a foreign lobbyist, in which capacity he prevailed upon one member of Congress to write a letter requesting a presidential meeting with a client of Abramoff’s, a foreign dictator.
Congress has indulged Trump’s flagrant profiteering in part because he is letting them dip their beaks too. That Trump is holding his inaugural reelection fund-raiser in the Trump International Hotel, where party elites will join in an event that lines the president’s pockets, is one of the perfectly symbolic moments of the young administration. Any theoretical distinction between the Trumpian ethos of self-entitlement and the conservative doctrine of rewarding “job creators” has long since washed away.
Social Darwinism is the tissue connecting this shady conduct with the Republican Party’s highest policy priorities. Conservatives believe programs that tax the rich and benefit the poor illegitimately meddle with the natural and correct distribution of wealth produced by the marketplace. The Republican health-care bill — both what passed in the House and what Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has brought to the Senate — confers a nearly trillion-dollar tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the wealthy. That appears to be its sponsors’ primary consideration. Secondarily, it strips away an equal amount in Medicaid and middle-class insurance tax credits.
Conservatives have little difficulty applying the logic of social Darwinism to justify punishing the sick. Vice-President Mike Pence explains that the administration’s health-care plan supports the promotion of “personal responsibility.” Kellyanne Conway implies that only an unwillingness to work would cause an able-bodied adult to have trouble affording health care: “If they are able-bodied and they want to work, then they’ll have employer-sponsored benefits like you and I do.” The Republican plan, explained Alabama congressman Mo Brooks, will reduce “the cost to those people who lead good lives. They’re healthy, they’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy.” Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s budget director, allowed that while people who “get cancer” should have a “safety net,” “that doesn’t mean we should take care of the person who sits at home, eats poorly, and gets diabetes.”
After passing a health-care bill built around a regressive tax cut, Republicans plan to proceed quickly to a second tax cut, which is expected to also benefit the rich disproportionately. The two bills, which are the entire focus of the party’s current legislative ambitions, would constitute the most sweeping upward redistribution of resources in American history. Washington in the summer of Trump’s first year is an atmosphere of organized looting. The precariousness of Trump’s position, given his anemic polling, a riled-up opposition, and Robert Mueller lurking in the background, has only heightened the urgency to get while the getting is good.
*A version of this article appears in the June 26, 2017, issue of New York Magazine.
HE DOESN’T MEAN CAPITAL R 0:03 REPUBLICAN, HE MEANS WE’RE AT 0:04 THE END OF US BEING A REPUBLIC. 0:06 J.D. VANCE HAS NOT ONLY TO 0:09 CONSERVATIVES TO, IN HIS WORDS, 0:11 WAKE UP. 0:12 BUT WHAT THEY NEED TO WAKE UP TO 0:13 IS THE FACT THAT MOST OF 0:14 AMERICAN LIFE AND CULTURE SHOULD 0:16 BE, IN HIS WORDS, RIPPED OUT 0:21 LIKE A TUMOR. 0:22 THOSE ARE, AGAIN, HIS WORDS, NOT 0:23 MINE. 0:25 WATCH. 0:25
OUR LEADERS RIGHT NOW ARE SO 0:26 CORRUPT AND SO VILE THAT IF YOU 0:29 ASSIMILATE INTO THEIR CULTURE, 0:31 YOU’RE ASSIMILATING INTO, LIKE, 0:33 GARBAGE LIBERAL ELITE CULTURE. 0:35 YOU’RE NOT ASSIMILATING INTO 0:37 TRADITIONAL AMERICAN CULTURE. 0:38 SO, THIS IS A TOUGH, TOUGH 0:39 PICKLE FOR ME. 0:40 I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT 0:41 ANSWER IS HERE BECAUSE YOU CAN’T 0:46 JUST TEACH THESE THINGS. 0:46 YOU CAN’T TEACH THAT WE LIVE IN 0:48 A GREAT COUNTRY IF THE LEADERS 0:50 ARE AK TUFLY ALIGNED AGAINST IT. 0:52 ALMOST THE THING YOU NEED TO DO, 0:53 STEP ONE IN THE PROCESS, IS TO 0:55 TOTALLY REPLACE, LIKE, RIP OUT 0:58 LIKE A TUMOR, THE CURRENT 0:59 AMERICAN LEADERSHIP CLASS AND 1:03 THEN REINSTALL SOME SENSE OF 1:05 AMERICAN POLITICAL RELIGION. 1:06 WE NEED TO RIP IT OUT LIKE A 1:09 TUMOR AND THEN INSTALL POLITICAL 1:15 RELIGION. 1:15 THE MAN WHO IS INTERVIEWING J.D. 1:17 VANCE HERE GETS VERY EXCITED 1:18 ABOUT THIS IDEA, AND IT LEADS — 1:21 THIS IS IMPORTANT HERE. 1:22 IT LEADS J.D. VANCE TO EXPLAIN, 1:24 SORT OF, INFLUENCES ON HIS 1:27 THOUGHTS, WHERE HE GETS HIS 1:28 IDEAS ON SUBJECTS LIKE THIS. 1:31 YOU SAID SOMETHING THAT I 1:33 WOULD LIKE TO ZERO DOWN ON. 1:36 HOW DO WE EFFECTIVELY, QUOTE, 1:38 RIP OUT THE DISGUSTING 1:40 LEADERSHIP CLASS? 1:43 OH, MAN. 1:46 I MEAN, YOU KNOW — 1:48 BECAUSE LET ME EXPAND ON THAT 1:50 JUST A SECOND. 1:50 YEAH, YEAH, YEAH. 1:51 I’M GOING TO GIVE YOU A 1:52 LITTLE COVER HERE. 1:53 IT’S NOT JUST — I MEAN, 1:54 OBVIOUSLY ELECTIONS. 1:56 THAT’S ONE THING, OKAY? 1:57 BUT UNFORTUNATELY, THIS EVIL 1:59 LEADERSHIP CLASS HAS ALREADY 2:00 TAKEN OVER ALL OF OUR 2:02 INSTITUTIONS. 2:03 CURRENT PIPELINE IS TO TURN THEM 2:04 INTO THOSE PEOPLE THAT WE JUST 2:05 CALLED EVIL AND DISGUSTING. 2:08 HOW DO WE, ASIDE FROM 2:10 ELECTIONS — HOW DO WE RIP OUT 2:11 THIS LEADERSHIP CLASS? 2:14 SO, THESE INSTITUTIONS ARE 2:17 CORRUPTED AND ROTTEN TO THE 2:19 CORE. 2:19 THIS IDEOLOGY IS EVERYWHERE AND 2:20 IN ALL THE THINGS. 2:22 WHAT OTHER OPTIONS DO WE HAVE 2:24 BESIDES VOTING THEM OUT, WHICH 2:25 WE’RE SEEING IS INEFFECTUAL. 2:28 THIS IS A TOUGH QUESTION BUT 2:30 THIS IS MAYBE THE QUESTION THAT 2:31 CONFRONTS US RIGHT NOW. 2:32 THERE’S THIS GUY, CURTISYEAH, 2:38 THERE’S THIS GUY, CURTIS YARVIN, 2:40 WHO WRITES ABOUT THIS STUFF. 2:42 A CHUCKLE FROM THE INTERVIEWER. 2:44 THIS IS CURTIS YARVIN WHO J.D. 2:47 VANCE IS CITING HERE AS HE IS 2:48 TALKING ABOUT THE NEED TO SEIZE 2:50 THE UNIVERSITIES, DESTROY — USE 2:53 THE GOVERNMENT TO DESTROY 2:54 BUSINESSES WHO AREN’T RIGHT 2:55 WING, TALKING ABOUT NEEDING TO 2:56 RIP OUT THE AMERICAN SYSTEM LIKE 3:00 A TUMOR. 3:01 HERE’S THE GUY HE IS CITING AS 3:05 HIS, SORT OF — THE SOURCE OF 3:07 HIS THINKING ON THESE MATTERS. 3:12 SO, I’VE RAISED THIS VERY 3:16 COMPLICATED PROBLEM TO A SIMPLE 3:20 FOUR LETTER ACRONYM WHICH IS 3:23 R.A.G.E., WHICH STANDS FOR 3:25 RETIRE ALL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES. 3:29 VERY, VERY, VERY SIMPLE. 3:31 NOW, THE PROBLEM WITH THIS IS, 3:34 WHY HAVE WE NEVER HEARD THIS 3:35 BEFORE? 3:36 WHY HAS NO ONE SUGGESTED LET’S 3:39 GET RID OF THIS THING. 3:41 WHAT IS GOVERNMENT? 3:42 A GOVERNMENT IS JUST A 3:44 CORPORATION ENJOYING THE 3:45 COUNTRY. 3:46 NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS. 3:47 IT SO HAPPENS IN OUR 3:50 CORPORATION, VERY POORLY 3:52 MANAGED. 3:52 AND THERE IS A VERY SIMPLE WAY 3:54 TO REPLACE THEM WHICH IS WHAT WE 3:57 DO WHEN ALL FOUR HAVE FAILED. 3:59 WE SIMPLY BELIEVE THEM. 4:00 WE HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO DO THAT. 4:06 WE SHOULD DELETE THE U.S. 4:10 GOVERNMENT BECAUSE IT’S STALE. 4:11 IT HAS BEEN AROUND FOR TOO LONG. 4:13 WE HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO DO THAT, 4:15 MEANING DELETE OUR GOVERNMENT, 4:18 FOR 200 YEARS, SO IT’S GOTTEN A 4:19 BIT STALE. 4:20 IT’S BEEN AROUND TOO LONG. 4:23 SO, WHAT WOULD THAT ENTAIL, 4:24 DELETING THE U.S. GOVERNMENT? 4:28 THE OTHER THING ABOUT GETTING 4:30 RID OF YOUR GOVERNMENT IS YOU 4:31 CAN’T JUST SAY, WELL — FORMAL 4:34 GOVERNMENT. 4:34 YOU HAVE TO SAY, WELL, WHAT IS 4:36 THE SYSTEM ACTUALLY? 4:38 AND IT INCLUDES A LOT OF THINGS, 4:41 NGOs, UNIVERSITIES. 4:45 IT’S VERY, VERY LARGE SYSTEM. 4:46 AND IT ALL NEEDS TO BE 4:48 DESTROYED. 4:51 THERE’S LITE OF TALENTED 4:52 AMERICANS WHO ACTUALLY KNOW HOW 4:54 TO RUN THINGS AND MAKE THINGS 4:57 WORK AND ARE GENERALISTS. 4:58 AND YOU CAN GET THESE PEOPLE, 4:59 PUT THEM IN POSITIONS OF 5:01 RESPONSIBILITY AND HAVE THEM DO 5:03 THEIR THING. 5:03 AND FINALLY, YOU NEED A CEO. 5:10 A — CEO IS CALLED A DICTATOR. 5:12 IT’S THE SAME THING. 5:13 THERE’S NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 5:14 THE CEO AND A DICTATOR. 5:19 IF AMERICANS WANT TO CHANGE 5:21 THEIR GOVERNMENT, THEY’RE GOING 5:22 TO HAVE TO GET OVER THEIR 5:23 DICTATOR PHOBIA. 5:25 SO, THE VICE PRESIDENTIAL 5:28 CANDIDATES’ DEBATE IS TOMORROW. 5:29 TIM WALZ, THE DEMOCRATIC 5:31 CANDIDATE, HAS BEEN GOVERNOR, IS 5:33 CURRENTLY THE GOVERNOR OF 5:35 MINNESOTA. 5:36 HE’S BEEN A LONG-TERM 5:37 CONGRESSMAN, HIGH SCHOOL 5:38 TEACHER, FOOTBALL COACH, A 5:39 SOLDIER FOR DECADES. 5:41 J.D. VANCE, THE REPUBLICAN 5:42 CANDIDATE, IS A DIFFERENT KIND 5:43 OF CAT — FORGIVE ME. 5:45 ASIDE FROM A BRIEF STINT IN THE 5:48 MARINE CORPSE, WHERE HE SERVED 5:49 WITH THE PUBLIC AFFAIRS UNIT, HE 5:52 HAS SPENT HIS ADULT LIFE WORKING 5:56 FOR OR BEING SUPPORTED BY RIGHT 5:58 WING TECH BILLIONAIRES, 5:59 SPECIFICALLY ONES WHO HAVE 6:00 DEVOTED THEMSELVES TO THE 6:01 POLITICAL TEACHINGS OF THIS GUY. 6:06 FINALLY, YOU NEED A CEO AND 6:09 AN ACTUAL CEO IS WHAT’S CALLED A 6:11 DICTATOR. 6:11 IT’S THE SAME THING. 6:14 I HAVE DEBATED WHETHER OR NOT 6:15 TO TALK ABOUT THIS ON THE SHOW 6:17 BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT GIVES ME 6:20 THE UGHS. 6:21 BUT I ALSO FEEL LIKE THIS IS AN 6:22 IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT 6:24 THE REPUBLICANS’ VICE 6:26 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE AND WHAT HE 6:28 HAS TO OFFER AND WHY HE WAS 6:29 BROUGHT ON TO THE TICKET DESPITE 6:31 HIS PALPABLE LACK OF POLITICAL 6:33 SKILL OR LACKBILITY, HIS LACK OF 6:35 ANY TRACK RECORD IN POLITICS 6:38 WHATSOEVER, AND AFTER HE SPENT 6:39 LESS THAN TWO YEARS IN THE ONLY 6:41 PUBLIC OFFICE HE’S EVER HELD, 6:43 WHICH IS A SENATE SEAT, THAT HE 6:44 ONLY BARELY WON THANKS TO ONE OF 6:47 THOSE ECCENTRIC TECH 6:49 BILLIONAIRES GIVING HIM THE 6:50 SINGLE LARGEST SENATE CAMPAIGN 6:52 DONATION IN THE HISTORY OF THIS 6:53 COUNTRY. 6:53 I MEAN, HE COMES WHOLLY FROM 6:58 THIS VERY, VERY OBSCURE, 7:01 ECCENTRIC, RIGHT WING SUBCULTURE 7:03 OF TECH BILLIONAIRES. 7:06 AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS 7:09 ECCENTRIC SILICON VALLEY PRO 7:12 DICTATORSHIP PHILOSOPHY HAS BEEN 7:14 PRETTY WIDELY DISCUSSED IN 7:15 PRINT. 7:15 THESE ARE A WHOLE BUNCH OF 7:18 ARTICLES. 7:18 I’VE DISCUSSED THIS AT ONE LEVEL 7:20 OR ANOTHER. 7:20 IT’S BEEN DISCUSSED IN PRINT. 7:22 BUT I DON’T FEEL LIKE IT’S 7:23 WIDELY UNDERSTOOD BY THE COUNTRY 7:24 WHO IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS 7:26 GUY AS A CANDIDATE. 7:28 BUT THIS IS WHERE J.D. VANCE’S 7:31 BIG IDEAS COME FROM ABOUT WHERE 7:32 THE COUNTRY IS HEADING FOR. 7:34 QUOTE, VANCE IS FRIENDS WITH 7:36 CURTIS YARVIN, WHO HE OPENLY 7:38 CITES AS A POLITICAL INFLUENCE. 7:41 YARVIN, THE MAIN POLITICAL 7:42 INFLUENCE ON ALL OF THE PEOPLE 7:43 WHO HAVE SUPPORTED J.D. VANCE 7:45 THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, INCLUDING 7:46 PAYING TO INSTALL HIM IN THE 7:48 U.S. SENATE. 7:50 WHEN J.D. VANCE SAYS STUFF LIKE, 7:52 WE’RE IN A LATE REPUBLICAN 7:54 PERIOD — WHICH IS SOMETHING HE 7:55 SAYS ALL THE TIME — HE DOESN’T 7:57 MEAN ANYTHING ABOUT THE 7:57 REPUBLICAN PARTY. 7:58 HE MEANS WE’RE AT THE TIME RIGHT 8:01 BEFORE THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 8:04 COLLAPSED. 8:05 AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE 8:06 ROMAN REPUBLIC COLLAPSED? 8:07 WELL, A DICTATOR, CAESAR, CAME 8:10 IN. 8:11 AND WASN’T THAT BETTER? 8:12 HE TALKS ABOUT BEING IN A LATE 8:14 REPUBLICAN PERIOD ALL THE TIME. 8:16 THAT’S HIM CHANNELLING THIS GUY, 8:19 YARVIN. 8:19 WHEN VANCE SAYS, UNIVERSITIES 8:21 ARE THE ENEMY AND THEY SHOULD BE 8:22 SEIZED, HE’S NOT ONLY 8:24 CHANNELLING ELIZABETH DILLING 8:25 AND ALLEN ZOLL AND ALL THE WEIRD 8:27 FAR RIGHT CRUSADERS AGAINST THE 8:29 UNIVERSITIES FROM THE ’30s AND 8:30 ’40s. 8:31 THAT WOULD BE TROUBLING ENOUGH. 8:33 HE’S ALSO CHANNELLING THIS GUY, 8:35 YARVIN, WHO SAYS WHILE WE ARE 8:37 FIRING ALL THE GOVERNMENT 8:38 EMPLOYEES, WE SHOULD DO THE SAME 8:39 TO THE UNIVERSITIES BECAUSE 8:40 THEY’RE ALL PART OF THE BIGGER 8:41 SYSTEM THAT ALL NEEDS TO BE 8:43 DESTROYED. 8:45 HE SAYS, QUOTE, RETIRE THEIR 8:47 EMPLOYEES, LIQUIDATE THEIR 8:52 ASSETS. 8:53 UNIVERSITIES IN PARTICULAR HAVE 8:54 LOVELY CAMPUSES, MANY OF WHICH 8:55 ARE CENTRALLY LOCATED AND SHOULD 8:55 BE ATTRACTIVE TO DEVELOPERS. 8:57 MEANING LET’S PUT SOMEBODY IN TO 8:59 BE A — WHAT DOES HE CALL IT — 9:01 A NATIONAL CEO, WHICH IS 9:04 INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM A 9:05 DICTATOR. 9:05 AND A DICTATOR SHOULD TAKE OVER 9:08 ALL THE UNIVERSITIES AND SELL 9:09 THEM OFF TO DEVELOPERS. 9:10 THIS IS LITERALLY A 9:14 PRO-DICTATORSHIP PRO-MON ARKIE 9:16 PHILOSOPHY THIS IS NOT JUST 9:17 ABOUT ENDING THE U.S. SYSTEM OF 9:19 GOVERNMENT, DELETING THE U.S. 9:20 GOVERNMENT, BUT THEN USING THE 9:22 POWER OF A DICTATOR TO DISMANTLE 9:25 UNIVERSITIES, DISMANTLE 9:26 BUSINESSES, TO DISMANTLE ALL OF 9:28 CIVIL SOCIETY, TO INSTEAD 9:30 INSTALL A WHOLE NEW SYSTEM 9:31 CONTROLLED BY THE STATE THAT 9:33 SERVES JUST THE DESIRES OF THE 9:35 LEADER. 9:40 TOMORROW AT THE DEBATE, IT IS 9:41 GOING TO COME UP THAT J.D. VANCE 9:44 WANTS NATIONAL ABORTION BAN. 9:45 IT’S GOING TO COME UP THAT HE 9:47 HAS TOLD AND CONTINUES TO TELL 9:49 HORRIBLE LIES ABOUT IMMIGRANTS. 9:51 IT IS GOING TO COME UP THAT HE 9:52 HAS SAID HIS RUNNING MATE WAS 9:54 AMERICA’S HITLER, HIS PHRASE, 9:57 AND CULTURAL HEROIN, AND THAT 9:58 TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY WAS A 10:02 FAILURE. 10:03 IT’S GOING TO COME UP — HIS 10:03 INVOLVEMENT IN PROJECT 2025 IS 10:04 GOING TO COME UP. 10:05 HIS PROPOSAL THAT PEOPLE WITHOUT 10:07 CHILDREN SHOULD BE TAXED MORE 10:09 AND SHOULD HAVE THEIR VOTES 10:11 COUNT LESS, IT WILL ALL COME UP 10:12 AT TOMORROW’S DEBATE. 10:14 WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THIS STUFF? 10:19 STEP ONE IN THE PROCESS IS TO 10:22 TOTALLY REPLACE, LIKE, RIP OUT 10:25 LIKE A TUMOR THE CURRENT 10:26 AMERICAN LEADERSHIP CLASS. 10:27 REPUBLICANS, CONSERVATIVES, 10:30 WE’RE STILL TERRIFIED OF 10:31 WIELDING POWER, OF ACTUALLY 10:33 DOING THE JOB PEOPLE SENT US 10:34 HERE TO DO. 10:35 YOU NEED A CEO, AND A 10:37 NATIONAL CEO IS WHAT’S CALLED A 10:39 DICTATOR. 10:39 IT’S THE SAME THING. 10:40 WE’VE GOT TO GET COMFORTABLE 10:41 WITH WIELDING POWER. 10:42 THERE’S NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 10:43 THE CEO AND DICTATOR. 10:45 IF AMERICANS WANT TO CHANGE 10:46 THEIR GOVERNMENT, THEY HAVE TO 10:47 GET OVER DICTATOR PHOBIA. 10:49 GOING TO HAVE TO GET OVER 10:50 THEIR DICTATOR PHOBIA. 10:54 WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THIS LEVEL 10:55 OF RADICALISM, TRYING TO TAKE 10:57 OVER IN WASHINGTON RIGHT NOW AND 10:58 TRYING TO CONVINCE THE FAR RIGHT 11:00 THAT THEY’VE GOT TO STOP BEING 11:02 AFRAID OF WIELDING THIS KIND OF 11:04 POWER THIS WAY? 11:06HE DOESN’T MEAN CAPITAL R 0:03 REPUBLICAN, HE MEANS WE’RE AT 0:04 THE END OF US BEING A REPUBLIC. 0:06 J.D. VANCE HAS NOT ONLY TO 0:09 CONSERVATIVES TO, IN HIS WORDS, 0:11 WAKE UP. 0:12 BUT WHAT THEY NEED TO WAKE UP TO 0:13 IS THE FACT THAT MOST OF 0:14 AMERICAN LIFE AND CULTURE SHOULD 0:16 BE, IN HIS WORDS, RIPPED OUT 0:21 LIKE A TUMOR. 0:22 THOSE ARE, AGAIN, HIS WORDS, NOT 0:23 MINE. 0:25 WATCH. 0:25
OUR LEADERS RIGHT NOW ARE SO 0:26 CORRUPT AND SO VILE THAT IF YOU 0:29 ASSIMILATE INTO THEIR CULTURE, 0:31 YOU’RE ASSIMILATING INTO, LIKE, 0:33 GARBAGE LIBERAL ELITE CULTURE. 0:35 YOU’RE NOT ASSIMILATING INTO 0:37 TRADITIONAL AMERICAN CULTURE. 0:38 SO, THIS IS A TOUGH, TOUGH 0:39 PICKLE FOR ME. 0:40 I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT 0:41 ANSWER IS HERE BECAUSE YOU CAN’T 0:46 JUST TEACH THESE THINGS. 0:46 YOU CAN’T TEACH THAT WE LIVE IN 0:48 A GREAT COUNTRY IF THE LEADERS 0:50 ARE AK TUFLY ALIGNED AGAINST IT. 0:52 ALMOST THE THING YOU NEED TO DO, 0:53 STEP ONE IN THE PROCESS, IS TO 0:55 TOTALLY REPLACE, LIKE, RIP OUT 0:58 LIKE A TUMOR, THE CURRENT 0:59 AMERICAN LEADERSHIP CLASS AND 1:03 THEN REINSTALL SOME SENSE OF 1:05 AMERICAN POLITICAL RELIGION. 1:06 WE NEED TO RIP IT OUT LIKE A 1:09 TUMOR AND THEN INSTALL POLITICAL 1:15 RELIGION. 1:15 THE MAN WHO IS INTERVIEWING J.D. 1:17 VANCE HERE GETS VERY EXCITED 1:18 ABOUT THIS IDEA, AND IT LEADS — 1:21 THIS IS IMPORTANT HERE. 1:22 IT LEADS J.D. VANCE TO EXPLAIN, 1:24 SORT OF, INFLUENCES ON HIS 1:27 THOUGHTS, WHERE HE GETS HIS 1:28 IDEAS ON SUBJECTS LIKE THIS. 1:31 YOU SAID SOMETHING THAT I 1:33 WOULD LIKE TO ZERO DOWN ON. 1:36 HOW DO WE EFFECTIVELY, QUOTE, 1:38 RIP OUT THE DISGUSTING 1:40 LEADERSHIP CLASS? 1:43 OH, MAN. 1:46 I MEAN, YOU KNOW — 1:48 BECAUSE LET ME EXPAND ON THAT 1:50 JUST A SECOND. 1:50 YEAH, YEAH, YEAH. 1:51 I’M GOING TO GIVE YOU A 1:52 LITTLE COVER HERE. 1:53 IT’S NOT JUST — I MEAN, 1:54 OBVIOUSLY ELECTIONS. 1:56 THAT’S ONE THING, OKAY? 1:57 BUT UNFORTUNATELY, THIS EVIL 1:59 LEADERSHIP CLASS HAS ALREADY 2:00 TAKEN OVER ALL OF OUR 2:02 INSTITUTIONS. 2:03 CURRENT PIPELINE IS TO TURN THEM 2:04 INTO THOSE PEOPLE THAT WE JUST 2:05 CALLED EVIL AND DISGUSTING. 2:08 HOW DO WE, ASIDE FROM 2:10 ELECTIONS — HOW DO WE RIP OUT 2:11 THIS LEADERSHIP CLASS? 2:14 SO, THESE INSTITUTIONS ARE 2:17 CORRUPTED AND ROTTEN TO THE 2:19 CORE. 2:19 THIS IDEOLOGY IS EVERYWHERE AND 2:20 IN ALL THE THINGS. 2:22 WHAT OTHER OPTIONS DO WE HAVE 2:24 BESIDES VOTING THEM OUT, WHICH 2:25 WE’RE SEEING IS INEFFECTUAL. 2:28 THIS IS A TOUGH QUESTION BUT 2:30 THIS IS MAYBE THE QUESTION THAT 2:31 CONFRONTS US RIGHT NOW. 2:32 THERE’S THIS GUY, CURTISYEAH, 2:38 THERE’S THIS GUY, CURTIS YARVIN, 2:40 WHO WRITES ABOUT THIS STUFF. 2:42 A CHUCKLE FROM THE INTERVIEWER. 2:44 THIS IS CURTIS YARVIN WHO J.D. 2:47 VANCE IS CITING HERE AS HE IS 2:48 TALKING ABOUT THE NEED TO SEIZE 2:50 THE UNIVERSITIES, DESTROY — USE 2:53 THE GOVERNMENT TO DESTROY 2:54 BUSINESSES WHO AREN’T RIGHT 2:55 WING, TALKING ABOUT NEEDING TO 2:56 RIP OUT THE AMERICAN SYSTEM LIKE 3:00 A TUMOR. 3:01 HERE’S THE GUY HE IS CITING AS 3:05 HIS, SORT OF — THE SOURCE OF 3:07 HIS THINKING ON THESE MATTERS. 3:12 SO, I’VE RAISED THIS VERY 3:16 COMPLICATED PROBLEM TO A SIMPLE 3:20 FOUR LETTER ACRONYM WHICH IS 3:23 R.A.G.E., WHICH STANDS FOR 3:25 RETIRE ALL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES. 3:29 VERY, VERY, VERY SIMPLE. 3:31 NOW, THE PROBLEM WITH THIS IS, 3:34 WHY HAVE WE NEVER HEARD THIS 3:35 BEFORE? 3:36 WHY HAS NO ONE SUGGESTED LET’S 3:39 GET RID OF THIS THING. 3:41 WHAT IS GOVERNMENT? 3:42 A GOVERNMENT IS JUST A 3:44 CORPORATION ENJOYING THE 3:45 COUNTRY. 3:46 NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS. 3:47 IT SO HAPPENS IN OUR 3:50 CORPORATION, VERY POORLY 3:52 MANAGED. 3:52 AND THERE IS A VERY SIMPLE WAY 3:54 TO REPLACE THEM WHICH IS WHAT WE 3:57 DO WHEN ALL FOUR HAVE FAILED. 3:59 WE SIMPLY BELIEVE THEM. 4:00 WE HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO DO THAT. 4:06 WE SHOULD DELETE THE U.S. 4:10 GOVERNMENT BECAUSE IT’S STALE. 4:11 IT HAS BEEN AROUND FOR TOO LONG. 4:13 WE HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO DO THAT, 4:15 MEANING DELETE OUR GOVERNMENT, 4:18 FOR 200 YEARS, SO IT’S GOTTEN A 4:19 BIT STALE. 4:20 IT’S BEEN AROUND TOO LONG. 4:23 SO, WHAT WOULD THAT ENTAIL, 4:24 DELETING THE U.S. GOVERNMENT? 4:28 THE OTHER THING ABOUT GETTING 4:30 RID OF YOUR GOVERNMENT IS YOU 4:31 CAN’T JUST SAY, WELL — FORMAL 4:34 GOVERNMENT. 4:34 YOU HAVE TO SAY, WELL, WHAT IS 4:36 THE SYSTEM ACTUALLY? 4:38 AND IT INCLUDES A LOT OF THINGS, 4:41 NGOs, UNIVERSITIES. 4:45 IT’S VERY, VERY LARGE SYSTEM. 4:46 AND IT ALL NEEDS TO BE 4:48 DESTROYED. 4:51 THERE’S LITE OF TALENTED 4:52 AMERICANS WHO ACTUALLY KNOW HOW 4:54 TO RUN THINGS AND MAKE THINGS 4:57 WORK AND ARE GENERALISTS. 4:58 AND YOU CAN GET THESE PEOPLE, 4:59 PUT THEM IN POSITIONS OF 5:01 RESPONSIBILITY AND HAVE THEM DO 5:03 THEIR THING. 5:03 AND FINALLY, YOU NEED A CEO. 5:10 A — CEO IS CALLED A DICTATOR. 5:12 IT’S THE SAME THING. 5:13 THERE’S NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 5:14 THE CEO AND A DICTATOR. 5:19 IF AMERICANS WANT TO CHANGE 5:21 THEIR GOVERNMENT, THEY’RE GOING 5:22 TO HAVE TO GET OVER THEIR 5:23 DICTATOR PHOBIA. 5:25 SO, THE VICE PRESIDENTIAL 5:28 CANDIDATES’ DEBATE IS TOMORROW. 5:29 TIM WALZ, THE DEMOCRATIC 5:31 CANDIDATE, HAS BEEN GOVERNOR, IS 5:33 CURRENTLY THE GOVERNOR OF 5:35 MINNESOTA. 5:36 HE’S BEEN A LONG-TERM 5:37 CONGRESSMAN, HIGH SCHOOL 5:38 TEACHER, FOOTBALL COACH, A 5:39 SOLDIER FOR DECADES. 5:41 J.D. VANCE, THE REPUBLICAN 5:42 CANDIDATE, IS A DIFFERENT KIND 5:43 OF CAT — FORGIVE ME. 5:45 ASIDE FROM A BRIEF STINT IN THE 5:48 MARINE CORPSE, WHERE HE SERVED 5:49 WITH THE PUBLIC AFFAIRS UNIT, HE 5:52 HAS SPENT HIS ADULT LIFE WORKING 5:56 FOR OR BEING SUPPORTED BY RIGHT 5:58 WING TECH BILLIONAIRES, 5:59 SPECIFICALLY ONES WHO HAVE 6:00 DEVOTED THEMSELVES TO THE 6:01 POLITICAL TEACHINGS OF THIS GUY. 6:06 FINALLY, YOU NEED A CEO AND 6:09 AN ACTUAL CEO IS WHAT’S CALLED A 6:11 DICTATOR. 6:11 IT’S THE SAME THING. 6:14 I HAVE DEBATED WHETHER OR NOT 6:15 TO TALK ABOUT THIS ON THE SHOW 6:17 BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT GIVES ME 6:20 THE UGHS. 6:21 BUT I ALSO FEEL LIKE THIS IS AN 6:22 IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT 6:24 THE REPUBLICANS’ VICE 6:26 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE AND WHAT HE 6:28 HAS TO OFFER AND WHY HE WAS 6:29 BROUGHT ON TO THE TICKET DESPITE 6:31 HIS PALPABLE LACK OF POLITICAL 6:33 SKILL OR LACKBILITY, HIS LACK OF 6:35 ANY TRACK RECORD IN POLITICS 6:38 WHATSOEVER, AND AFTER HE SPENT 6:39 LESS THAN TWO YEARS IN THE ONLY 6:41 PUBLIC OFFICE HE’S EVER HELD, 6:43 WHICH IS A SENATE SEAT, THAT HE 6:44 ONLY BARELY WON THANKS TO ONE OF 6:47 THOSE ECCENTRIC TECH 6:49 BILLIONAIRES GIVING HIM THE 6:50 SINGLE LARGEST SENATE CAMPAIGN 6:52 DONATION IN THE HISTORY OF THIS 6:53 COUNTRY. 6:53 I MEAN, HE COMES WHOLLY FROM 6:58 THIS VERY, VERY OBSCURE, 7:01 ECCENTRIC, RIGHT WING SUBCULTURE 7:03 OF TECH BILLIONAIRES. 7:06 AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS 7:09 ECCENTRIC SILICON VALLEY PRO 7:12 DICTATORSHIP PHILOSOPHY HAS BEEN 7:14 PRETTY WIDELY DISCUSSED IN 7:15 PRINT. 7:15 THESE ARE A WHOLE BUNCH OF 7:18 ARTICLES. 7:18 I’VE DISCUSSED THIS AT ONE LEVEL 7:20 OR ANOTHER. 7:20 IT’S BEEN DISCUSSED IN PRINT. 7:22 BUT I DON’T FEEL LIKE IT’S 7:23 WIDELY UNDERSTOOD BY THE COUNTRY 7:24 WHO IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS 7:26 GUY AS A CANDIDATE. 7:28 BUT THIS IS WHERE J.D. VANCE’S 7:31 BIG IDEAS COME FROM ABOUT WHERE 7:32 THE COUNTRY IS HEADING FOR. 7:34 QUOTE, VANCE IS FRIENDS WITH 7:36 CURTIS YARVIN, WHO HE OPENLY 7:38 CITES AS A POLITICAL INFLUENCE. 7:41 YARVIN, THE MAIN POLITICAL 7:42 INFLUENCE ON ALL OF THE PEOPLE 7:43 WHO HAVE SUPPORTED J.D. VANCE 7:45 THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, INCLUDING 7:46 PAYING TO INSTALL HIM IN THE 7:48 U.S. SENATE. 7:50 WHEN J.D. VANCE SAYS STUFF LIKE, 7:52 WE’RE IN A LATE REPUBLICAN 7:54 PERIOD — WHICH IS SOMETHING HE 7:55 SAYS ALL THE TIME — HE DOESN’T 7:57 MEAN ANYTHING ABOUT THE 7:57 REPUBLICAN PARTY. 7:58 HE MEANS WE’RE AT THE TIME RIGHT 8:01 BEFORE THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 8:04 COLLAPSED. 8:05 AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE 8:06 ROMAN REPUBLIC COLLAPSED? 8:07 WELL, A DICTATOR, CAESAR, CAME 8:10 IN. 8:11 AND WASN’T THAT BETTER? 8:12 HE TALKS ABOUT BEING IN A LATE 8:14 REPUBLICAN PERIOD ALL THE TIME. 8:16 THAT’S HIM CHANNELLING THIS GUY, 8:19 YARVIN. 8:19 WHEN VANCE SAYS, UNIVERSITIES 8:21 ARE THE ENEMY AND THEY SHOULD BE 8:22 SEIZED, HE’S NOT ONLY 8:24 CHANNELLING ELIZABETH DILLING 8:25 AND ALLEN ZOLL AND ALL THE WEIRD 8:27 FAR RIGHT CRUSADERS AGAINST THE 8:29 UNIVERSITIES FROM THE ’30s AND 8:30 ’40s. 8:31 THAT WOULD BE TROUBLING ENOUGH. 8:33 HE’S ALSO CHANNELLING THIS GUY, 8:35 YARVIN, WHO SAYS WHILE WE ARE 8:37 FIRING ALL THE GOVERNMENT 8:38 EMPLOYEES, WE SHOULD DO THE SAME 8:39 TO THE UNIVERSITIES BECAUSE 8:40 THEY’RE ALL PART OF THE BIGGER 8:41 SYSTEM THAT ALL NEEDS TO BE 8:43 DESTROYED. 8:45 HE SAYS, QUOTE, RETIRE THEIR 8:47 EMPLOYEES, LIQUIDATE THEIR 8:52 ASSETS. 8:53 UNIVERSITIES IN PARTICULAR HAVE 8:54 LOVELY CAMPUSES, MANY OF WHICH 8:55 ARE CENTRALLY LOCATED AND SHOULD 8:55 BE ATTRACTIVE TO DEVELOPERS. 8:57 MEANING LET’S PUT SOMEBODY IN TO 8:59 BE A — WHAT DOES HE CALL IT — 9:01 A NATIONAL CEO, WHICH IS 9:04 INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM A 9:05 DICTATOR. 9:05 AND A DICTATOR SHOULD TAKE OVER 9:08 ALL THE UNIVERSITIES AND SELL 9:09 THEM OFF TO DEVELOPERS. 9:10 THIS IS LITERALLY A 9:14 PRO-DICTATORSHIP PRO-MON ARKIE 9:16 PHILOSOPHY THIS IS NOT JUST 9:17 ABOUT ENDING THE U.S. SYSTEM OF 9:19 GOVERNMENT, DELETING THE U.S. 9:20 GOVERNMENT, BUT THEN USING THE 9:22 POWER OF A DICTATOR TO DISMANTLE 9:25 UNIVERSITIES, DISMANTLE 9:26 BUSINESSES, TO DISMANTLE ALL OF 9:28 CIVIL SOCIETY, TO INSTEAD 9:30 INSTALL A WHOLE NEW SYSTEM 9:31 CONTROLLED BY THE STATE THAT 9:33 SERVES JUST THE DESIRES OF THE 9:35 LEADER. 9:40 TOMORROW AT THE DEBATE, IT IS 9:41 GOING TO COME UP THAT J.D. VANCE 9:44 WANTS NATIONAL ABORTION BAN. 9:45 IT’S GOING TO COME UP THAT HE 9:47 HAS TOLD AND CONTINUES TO TELL 9:49 HORRIBLE LIES ABOUT IMMIGRANTS. 9:51 IT IS GOING TO COME UP THAT HE 9:52 HAS SAID HIS RUNNING MATE WAS 9:54 AMERICA’S HITLER, HIS PHRASE, 9:57 AND CULTURAL HEROIN, AND THAT 9:58 TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY WAS A 10:02 FAILURE. 10:03 IT’S GOING TO COME UP — HIS 10:03 INVOLVEMENT IN PROJECT 2025 IS 10:04 GOING TO COME UP. 10:05 HIS PROPOSAL THAT PEOPLE WITHOUT 10:07 CHILDREN SHOULD BE TAXED MORE 10:09 AND SHOULD HAVE THEIR VOTES 10:11 COUNT LESS, IT WILL ALL COME UP 10:12 AT TOMORROW’S DEBATE. 10:14 WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THIS STUFF? 10:19 STEP ONE IN THE PROCESS IS TO 10:22 TOTALLY REPLACE, LIKE, RIP OUT 10:25 LIKE A TUMOR THE CURRENT 10:26 AMERICAN LEADERSHIP CLASS. 10:27 REPUBLICANS, CONSERVATIVES, 10:30 WE’RE STILL TERRIFIED OF 10:31 WIELDING POWER, OF ACTUALLY 10:33 DOING THE JOB PEOPLE SENT US 10:34 HERE TO DO. 10:35 YOU NEED A CEO, AND A 10:37 NATIONAL CEO IS WHAT’S CALLED A 10:39 DICTATOR. 10:39 IT’S THE SAME THING. 10:40 WE’VE GOT TO GET COMFORTABLE 10:41 WITH WIELDING POWER. 10:42 THERE’S NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 10:43 THE CEO AND DICTATOR. 10:45 IF AMERICANS WANT TO CHANGE 10:46 THEIR GOVERNMENT, THEY HAVE TO 10:47 GET OVER DICTATOR PHOBIA. 10:49 GOING TO HAVE TO GET OVER 10:50 THEIR DICTATOR PHOBIA. 10:54 WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THIS LEVEL 10:55 OF RADICALISM, TRYING TO TAKE 10:57 OVER IN WASHINGTON RIGHT NOW AND 10:58 TRYING TO CONVINCE THE FAR RIGHT 11:00 THAT THEY’VE GOT TO STOP BEING 11:02 AFRAID OF WIELDING THIS KIND OF 11:04 POWER THIS WAY? 11:06 WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THIS?
Ice on the Moon 