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Jay Nordlinger is a senior resident fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative and a contributor to The Next Move.
Vivek Ramaswamy is a toxic figure in our public life. He is the Republican nominee for governor in Ohio. He has aired a toxic ad—instantly infamous.
People wonder: What can be done about such poison in our country? Anything? I will return to this question, and to the ad, in due course.
Ramaswamy is a classic American success story. A son of immigrants, he went to Harvard and Yale and became a billionaire. He has not yet held public office. But he has used his wealth to create a splash in politics.
In 2024, he ran for the Republican nomination for president. He showed a taste for the “edgy”—the outré, the extreme, the foul. For instance, he did some musing about 9/11.
“I think it is legitimate to say, ‘How many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers?’ Maybe the answer is zero. It probably is zero for all I know, right?”
Right. He was just asking questions, you see.
Ramaswamy spent an hour with Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist and defamation artist. Later, he was part of a panel convened by Elon Musk, whose other members included Jones, Michael Flynn, and Andrew Tate.
Even in a field of Republican candidates, Ramaswamy was outstanding for his hatred of Ukraine and its cause. He made a demon out of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denouncing what he termed “Zelensky-ism.”
In a primary debate, Ramaswamy sneered at Zelenskyy as a “comedian in cargo pants” and associated him with Nazism. (Zelenskyy, of course, is Jewish.)
There could hardly be two more different men, in character and experience, than Ramaswamy and Zelenskyy.
Any politician supportive of Ukraine, Ramaswamy deplored. “Ukraine-ism is now a new religion,” he wrote. “Kyiv is the Vatican, Zelensky is the pope, and career politicians in both parties are the new faithful.”
He repeatedly accused his pro-Ukraine opponents, such as Nikki Haley and Chris Christie, of wanting “to send your sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine.” This was a lie. Those candidates wanted to support Ukraine with money and matériel, in part to prevent a wider conflict, which might involve US troops.
Said Ramaswamy, with his trademark nastiness, “You can put lipstick on a Dick Cheney, it is still a fascist neocon.”
In a podcast with me, George F. Will zeroed in on something essential about Ramaswamy: he “shows the tremendous strength that comes from not caring whether what you say is true.”
Mike Lee, the Republican senator from Utah who styles himself “BasedMikeLee,” had a more positive view: “Vivek Ramaswamy = badass.”
Well, the “badass” now bids to be governor of Ohio. His opponent is Amy Acton, a physician who once directed the Ohio Department of Health. She survived a horrific childhood.
Ramaswamy has spent $4 million on an ad featuring Donna Arthur, Acton’s mother (biological mother, at least). In the ad, Arthur says that Acton is a liar unfit for leadership.
Acton responded with an ad of her own, featuring her brother, Philip Stearns. She also put out a statement, which begins,
“Growing up in Youngstown, my brother Phil and I endured abuse, hunger, and neglect … We were often kept in a dark basement … and lived in fear of our birth mother’s violent and erratic temper.”
There is a lot more.
“Between the ages of 10 and 12, I was sexually abused by her husband, while my birth mother did nothing to protect me.”
Eventually,
“I confided in my father and stepmother, and we were removed from that situation. My birth mother’s husband was arrested, charged with rape, and indicted by a grand jury. At 12 years old, I testified in court. I haven’t seen my birth mother since that day in 1978. She and her husband fled the state and he was declared a fugitive.”
ICYMI: Tune in to the latest episode of the Older/Wiser podcast
No matter. As Axios reports, Team Ramaswamy thinks it has struck “campaign gold.” “This is a campaign-ending moment for Amy Acton,” said the campaign manager. “The people who know her best keep warning Ohioans about her.”
Uh-huh. “The people who know her best.”
All right, the question I mentioned earlier: What can the public do about the poison, the indecency, in our politics? The answer: Not reward it. Not vote for it. If you reward something, you get more of it. If you penalize it, you get less.
Something else: Decent people ought to stop backing indecent candidates, party politics be damned.
The current governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, is a famously decent pol. He and his wife, Fran, are known for their many charitable works. A Republican, he has endorsed Ramaswamy to succeed him.
Why? And can’t he rescind his endorsement? After 50 years in public life, he is retiring at the age of 79. What does he have to lose?
Rob Portman, too, has endorsed Ramaswamy. Portman is one of the politicians I have admired most in my life. A Republican from Cincinnati, he was a staffer in the Bush 41 White House. Then he was a US House member. Under Bush 43, he was US trade rep, then budget director. Finally, he was a US senator, for two terms.
In 1999, I interviewed Barry McCaffrey, the retired Army general who was serving as President Clinton’s drug-policy director. As we talked, McCaffrey brought up a young Ohio congressman, namely Portman. “I hope he’s president of the United States in another 12 years,” said McCaffrey. “He’s one of the finest public servants I’ve met in America.”
I would have liked to see him president too. But it was not to be.
When he retired from the Senate, he was succeeded by JD Vance, as different from Portman as night from day. For instance, Portman had been Republican co-chairman of the Senate Ukraine Caucus. Vance is as hostile to Ukraine as Ramaswamy.
Portman endorsed Vance for Senate. Of course?
Vice President Vance, by the way, has lent his full support to Ramaswamy and his infamous ad. To Republicans squeamish about the ad, he said, “Stop whining.”
A long time ago, John F. Kennedy said, “Sometimes party loyalty asks too much.” We will never reduce the indecency in our politics—the grotesque, the vile, the indefensible—until people say, simply: no.
More from The Next Move:
Trump Betrayed Ukraine. Here’s What’s Next.
After the diesel deal and Starlink restrictions, Ukraine’s friends must act.
This dark shadow of nastiness oozing through US politics dressed in slick suits and razor-sharp words needs to continue to be called out like this.
He’s a garbage human and it was obvious the last time he ran. Just a smarmy lowlife