Deadline Poet / September 5, 2023

Ramaswamy

Calvin Trillin
vivek ramaswamy speaks at FOX news republican primary debate
Vivek Ramaswamy, 2024 Republican presidential candidate, during the Republican primary presidential debate in Milwaukee, Wis., on August 23, 2023.(Al Drago / Getty)

This Ramaswamy fellow in debate
Is like that kid in school who classmates hate.
No matter what the teacher’s question is,
This kid insists on showing he’s a whiz.
His hand shoots up. And you can feel his plea:
“Oh, please, just call on me, Teach, call on me.”

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Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.  

As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

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Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin is The Nation’s “deadline poet.”

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