Friend, did you catch last night’s debate?

For your own sanity, we’re honestly hoping the answer to that question is a resounding no. With a secondary answer of, “There was a debate last night?”

Normally, we could care less about the race for second place. But there’s a takeaway from last night that everyone in the pro-democracy movement needs to know about. 

That takeaway is Vivek Ramaswamy. He described his strategy going into last night as acting “unhinged” and for once, we agree with him. The man spent the entire evening on the debate stage mainlining authoritarian talking points into the GOP primary electorate. 

Sure, he was greeted with some scattered boos. But he also received an eye-opening amount of applause. 

Vivek isn’t going to sniff the GOP nomination. But that’s not what he’s gunning for. He’s moving his self-described “unhinged” talking points straight into the mainstream of the Republican party. That’s what we have to keep an eye on.

It’s pro-Putin, ultra-nationalist, morally bankrupt snake oil. And the worst part isn’t that the GOP electorate is so unhinged that they’re buying it in bunches. It’s that the mainstream media is treating Vivek like a serious candidate and giving his insanity airtime.

Of course, he’s also gotten Trump’s attention. Trump even said he would consider Vivek as his VP. (Or Tucker, which shows you how far gone Trump is)

That’s why we call the 2024 election the most important election of our lifetime. The stakes are even higher than in 2016 and 2020. 

In the past, we were facing the bumbling buffoonery and incompetence of Trump and the establishment GOP that was riding his coattails to power. 

The authoritarian movement has steadily grown into what it is today: a dominant force in GOP politics.

This year, we’re not just facing Trump. It’s Steve Bannon, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Tucker Carlson. These are diehard dictatorial ideologues hell-bent on destroying our democracy. 

Our pro-democracy movement is the only political force that can defeat them. We need you on our team.

-The Lincoln Project