The Thinking Man’s Trump

Welcome to Radio Free America, Aaron Kleinman’s take on stories that matter in state politics but aren't getting enough attention. 

An odd thing has been happening in Ohio: Democrats are leading in gubernatorial polls.

Democrats haven’t won the Buckeye State governorship since a rare coin scandal (really) led to a collapse in support for statewide Republicans in 2006. While there is a long-simmering scandal involving Sen. Jon Husted that’s working its way through the courts, the reason why they could lose the governorship (beyond Republicans’ favorable ratings tanking nationwide) is their candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy. He’s trying to be the Thinking Man’s Trump.

Ohio’s a Republican-leaning state. Since that 2006 scandal, the only Democrats to win regular partisan elections statewide have been named Barack or Sherrod. But if you look at those polls for the upcoming gubernatorial election, you’ll notice that Ramaswamy’s approval rating among Republicans is hovering in the 60s and he’s losing not insignificant GOP support to his likely Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton.

The video above gives decent insight into Ramaswamy’s obnoxious personality. He’s also hopscotched his way from scandal to scandal, from initially getting rich doing pump-and-dump securities fraud, to his early involvement with DOGE, to hiring security guards with side hustles as fentanyl traffickers, to spending nearly a million dollars on private jets. But at his core his problem is that he’s trying to present himself as a type of MAGA intellectual, an idea that falls apart upon contact with the public.

You could see it last week when he suggested that the state should start eliminating some of its publicly funded colleges. Not only did he do this right before the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament electrified fans of Ohio State, Wright State, Akron and Miami of Ohio (which had played in Dayton the night before), but a lot of the smaller schools that would be on the chopping block are important employers in the red counties that Republicans rely on to drown out Democratic votes coming from Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati. 

MAGA works when it doesn’t affect the lives of its supporters. When its premise is “I can make it [insert year that you had the fewest real responsibilities and still had your looks] again,” it’s pretty appealing. And if there are no negative material impacts on its voters, then they can drown themselves in enough cozy agitprop to think that it’s a success. But when MAGA starts affecting your bottom line, all of a sudden it becomes awfully unappealing. Trying to intellectualize the magical thinking behind MAGA is a folly that leads to initiatives like DOGE, a lesson that Ramaswamy has failed to internalize. 

But November is far off, Ohio is still a Republican-leaning state, and Ramaswamy still has a talent that has served MAGA well in the past: He’s a great liar. He lied his way to riches, he lied about what’s in his book, he lied about spreading 9/11 conspiracies and yet he’s on the verge of  being the governor of 12 million people. Already the lies against his likely opponent Acton are picking up, as right-wing opportunist Clay Travis’ website lied about whether an old parody Twitter account was actually hers.

As Republicans grope for what a post-Trump party should look like, will a smarter version of him work? Or if they want to keep winning, do they just need to be as convincing liars as he is?

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When you have glasses as thick as mine, you spend a lot of time doing vision tests at your ophthalmologist’s office, and they’re boring as hell. I’m sick of looking at that hot air balloon! Thankfully, software engineer Keith Cirkel has found a way to make them fun, by challenging you to find the line between two incredibly similar colors. My only complaint is that he may be doing some grade inflation — I tried doing this without my Bubbles glasses and still got the 91st percentile. What is this, Harvard? Shoutout to Tim Faust aka Bluesky user tbone.malware-virus.biz for bringing this to my attention

Blood and soil is all the rage these days, but to what end? Is it really better than concepts like “personal freedom” or “representative democracy”? I’d argue no, but blood and soil has a compelling argument — lines on a map. Rand McNally doesn’t put how well your legislature functions on that 5th grade classroom globe. Which is why Vanished Kingdoms by Norman Davies is such a worthwhile read right now. He tracks the rise and fall of fourteen different states over the course of European history. And while Aragon, Prussia or Galicia no longer appear on those classroom globes, they live on through their cultural patrimony. So if you want a legacy — if you want something that lasts, something truly eternal — you’ll strive for something that future generations will be grateful for. Not a bigger splotch on the globe.

When it comes to shorts that won’t wear out in your seat, based on your opinions, it seems like Carhartt can’t be beat. Seems like they make clothes for both outdoorsmen and indoorsmen. I’ll have to check them out.

As for this week’s request, I’ve got some bad news. It appears Google Maps has fallen. I asked it for directions, and it told me to change trains three times instead of taking a direct route that would’ve gotten me there sooner. Apparently, connecting a successful app with AI is like marrying a Hapsburg. So what is the best mapping app these days? Hit reply and tell me what you think.

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