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Vance was thinking big-picture in the comments quoted above, but the populist ethic of ruthlessness shows up in more mundane cultural flashpoints. Earlier this year in Florida, Ron DeSantis responded to mild criticism from Disney of his so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill by moving to revoke the company’s special improvement district for Disney World, as flagrant a case of viewpoint discrimination by a government official as one will ever see. To Trumpists, DeSantis’ willingness to use state power to intimidate political opponents is a badge of dishonor, making him the only credible alternative to Trump in a 2024 presidential primary. Like Trump, he “fights”—by which they mean that he’s willing to behave illiberally to dominate the right’s enemies. And by no means is he the only ambitious Republican keen to signal his willingness to do so.
At stake is the right of Florida to democratically pass laws as it sees fit, versus the right of Disney to actively lobby for the imposition of Disney values in Florida. If Disney is willing to use financial clout as a lever, then I don't see any problem with Florida doing the same. What happened to Georgia, to the economic devastation of local businesses in Atlanta, was a complete disgrace.
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Ruthlessness, like shamelessness, demonstrates resolve and nothing quite communicates ruthlessness in modern Republican politics like barreling across a red line drawn by classical liberalism in pursuit of one’s foes. It’s because Liz Cheney opposes populism’s most illiberal impulses that she now qualifies as a “RINO,” never mind that her voting record is far more conservative than the Trumpy moderate Stefanik’s. Cheney would rather risk having Democrats win within America’s civic tradition than ensure Republicans win by smashing it. To you and I, that’s evidence of honor. To the sort of MAGA edgelord given to burbling “they hate you” all day long on right-wing Twitter, it’s a Boy Scout’s pitiful seduction by weakness.
Civic traditions which Democrats have already serially undermined. Weaponization of the DOJ, politicization of the FBI, activist takeovers of school boards, the FCC, and the DHS. The leading journalist outlets (NYT, WaPo, CNN) are media arms of the Democratic party. Even progressive-left Europe is horrified at the American-left takeover of academia (see: France) and health-care (see: Sweden).
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On that note, I leave you with a question: At what point should a candidate’s illiberalism become disqualifying?
To the extent that the damage of them winning outweighs the benefits of them winning. As is always in politics, its not an exact science.
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