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.
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