Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, speaks at the Salem GOP Labor Day Picnic in Salem, N.H., on Sept. 4.SOPHIE PARK/The New York Times News Service
Donald Trump’s run for the presidency represents an “incredibly high-risk moment for Canada-U.S. relations,” says Bruce Heyman, the United States’ former ambassador to this country.
Indeed, we need to beware the return of the ticking time bomb. But if Mr. Trump is somehow sidelined, how much consolation is there?
One nightmarish alternative is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He’s a Trump-like nativist who has issued a declaration of economic independence and who fits the mold of a hard-right authoritarian populist. Not much hope there of getting America off the road to perdition.
And now there’s a new, thoroughly Trumpified threat in the form of powder-keg contender Vivek Ramaswamy. He declared this week that Uncle Sam had become Uncle Sucker – but “we will be Uncle Sucker no more.”
The 38-year-old pharmaceuticals entrepreneur and coal hugger from Ohio is a whip-smart, rhetorically compelling demagogue worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He has zero political experience but with his big yap and its dispensing of claptrap, he has come out of nowhere to capture the imagination of American troglodytes.
It could be that he’s a flash in the pan getting his 15 minutes of fleeting fame. But it could be more than that. He’s already being spoken of as a potential running mate for Mr. Trump, whom he has labelled an “excellent president.” What a dream ticket that would be.
While applauding Mr. Trump, the turbocharged Mr. Ramaswamy wants to take his reform agenda further. ”I stand on the side of revolution,” he says.
To wit, he would cut off all American aid to Ukraine. It’s Uncle Sucker stuff. The war is “really just a battle between two thugs on the other side of Eastern Europe,” he says.
On climate change, he would abandon the anti-carbon agenda. “We will drill more, we will frack more, we will burn more coal.”
On transgender rights, Mr. Ramaswamy favours none. Being transgender is a “deluded and mentally deranged state,” he says.
On criminal justice, he claims the charges against Mr. Trump are “downright politicized persecutions” worthy of a “banana republic.” He would gut the FBI, militarize the southern border and completely terminate race-based affirmative action.
And as a further contribution to general enlightenment, he would abolish the department of education.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Trump praises Mr. Ramaswamy, saying, “I think he’s very good” and “a very intelligent person.” The alarm bells clang.
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mélanie Joly, was recently criticized in some right-side circles for saying the government is considering a “game plan” to deal with “a possible far-right authoritarian shift.”
That would appear to be the obvious and sensible thing to do. From Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives we hear next to nothing about the contemptible trajectory of their American conservative cousins and the dangers they present.
Politically, there’s good reason for Mr. Poilievre to steer clear. His base includes millions of Canadians who are supportive of Trumpian proclivities. To call out the GOP would be to alienate those voters.
If asked, Mr. Poilievre can say he doesn’t comment on the internal politics of other countries. That’s in keeping with common practice. But this hands-off tradition has been shot full of holes: by Mr. Trump, who repeatedly insulted Justin Trudeau, and by former president Barack Obama, who publicly endorsed the Trudeau Liberals a few days before the 2019 election.
Conservatives are right to say that the protectionist direction of Joe Biden’s Democrats is worrisome, but does anyone really think it equates with the potential threat posed by the likes of Mr. Trump, Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Ramaswamy?
There is an outside chance that a conventional politician, like former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, could win the Republican nomination. She scored well in the debate last week, bashing Mr. Ramaswamy for his ignorance on foreign policy and calling out Mr. Trump as “the most disliked politician in all of America.”
She could have gone further. None of the candidates hit him where he is exceedingly vulnerable – that under his banner, the party has suffered three embarrassments in succession: the 2018 midterms, the 2020 general election and the 2022 midterms.
What makes Ms. Haley’s bid so difficult is that top-tier candidates like Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Ramaswamy are in Mr. Trump’s corner. If the former president somehow fades, his support would likely go to one of those two.
Neither of them have Mr. Trump’s baggage and, given Mr. Biden’s low support numbers, one of them could win a general election. Which is all the more reason for Ms. Joly to be doing crisis planning.