GOP gambles on cruelty as a campaign strategy

“There’s a decency we should expect out of our public officials,” said former President Barack Obama at a recent campaign rally condemning Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s now-infamous attack ad against Democrat Amy Acton. The commercial shows there is “no line he will not cross, no low he will not sink to.” But while Obama’s comments were directed at Ramaswamy specifically, they come as the GOP grapples with a surging strain of Trumpian malice among arguably less adept candidates — to the chagrin of some within their own party.

‘Ethical degradation of Trumpism’

Ramaswamy’s “may be the most disgusting ad in American political history,” said Michelle Goldberg at The New York Times. But it has opened a “kind of proxy debate on the right” about whether the party should “reclaim some baseline morality” or pursue its “current smashmouth course.” The controversy surrounding the ad affords conservatives space to “reckon with the ethical degradation of Trumpism” without “quite admitting that that’s what they’re doing.” With “no ideas to run on” and minimal accomplishments to tout, GOP candidates “seem to have hatched a plan,” said Rex Huppke at USA Today: “Let’s just be the most wretched versions of ourselves” and “see how things shake out.”

It is “undoubtedly the case” that Trump himself enjoys “some special sauce” that makes him a “formidable general election candidate,” said Jamelle Bouie at the Times. But without candidates who enjoy that innate talent, Republicans are struggling to “mimic Trump’s particular style of politics” as successfully.

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GOP ‘litmus test’

Trump is “reminding us on a daily basis that cruelty is the point,” said Charlie Sykes on his To the Contrary podcast. “That seems to be spreading.” In American politics, “bullies” do tend to prosper “for a bit,” said Times columnist David French to Sykes. But they then experience a “serious backlash.”

Ramaswamy’s ad has become a “litmus test” for “how deep” into MAGA’s “post-truth nihilism” someone might sink,” said Rolling Stone. Republican discomfort with Trumpian insolence misses the “greater point” of the “political movement” that led to its creation: The “conservative project’s greatest strength is its moral flexibility.” By that metric, the party’s future is “still firmly in Trump’s hands.”