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**APRIL 18, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
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**** Hillbilly Eulogy
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Will Trump's endorsement of J.D. Vance help Ohio's hedge-fund
hillbilly-or sink him?
Author and financier J.D. Vance is in a primary battle for the
Republican Senate nomination. It's not clear whether Trump's seal of
approval is a benediction or the kiss of death.
Trump's endorsements, one after another, have been accident-prone. Trump
has an unfortunate habit of moving impulsively, failing to exercise due
diligence, blowing off old allies, and endorsing losers.
Trump hoped that his endorsements would clear the field. More often,
they either blow up, or clear the field of stronger candidates. In
Alabama Trump dumped his endorsed Senate candidate, Mo Brooks. In
Georgia, Trump candidate Herschel Walker, with a faked resume, is barely
ahead of Raphael Warnock in the polls. In the race for governor, Trump
nemesis Brian Kemp, the incmubent, is well ahead of Trump's branded
candidate, David Purdue.
Trump is attracted to TV fakes like himself. Consider the fellow
showman-shaman with the perfectly Dickensian name Dr. Oz (pay no
attention to the man behind the curtain). Trump endorsed Oz in the PA
primary over an establishment candidate, David McCormick, a former hedge
fund CEO, who is a far stronger candidate.
The winning formula for papering over schisms between the MAGA base and
the GOP establishment was displayed last year in Virginia, where Wall
Street Republican Glenn Youngkin postured moderate but won over the
Trump base with winks and nods. Trump was unable to screw that up
because he didn't have a viable surrogate.
But elsewhere, Trump's hapless efforts to play kingmaker could be the
Democrats' secret weapon. In Ohio, Vance, like Trump, keeps reinventing
himself and his positions. His bestselling book supposedly celebrated
the grit of hillbillies, but the subtext was that people dealt a bad
hand have only themselves to blame for their dysfunctional behavior.
Vance also downplayed the fact that the grandparents who rescued him
from a ruined life were New Deal Democrats. In this review of Hillbilly
Elegy and several
other books, I referred to Vance as Charles Murray with a shit-eating
grin.
Meanwhile, Trump's endorsement further splits the Republican electorate.
At this writing, Vance is running fourth among Republicans in the polls.
If Vance were to be nominated, advantage Democrats. In a senate race
between a fake populist who became a hedge fund exec and a real
populist-most likely Tim Ryan-who correctly blames structural
factors rather than bad personal behavior for disappearing jobs, the
real populist has the advantage.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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Altercation: There Is a Cancel Culture, and It's the Right That's
Advancing It
From banning books to dictating curricula, Republicans are the real
cancelers, not that the MSM recognizes that. BY ERIC ALTERMAN
Police Have No Duty to Protect the P
ublic
Though often unsaid in police reform debates, numerous court precedents
have established that cops aren't obligated to act in the interests of
citizens. BY RAMENDA CYRUS
Lobbyist-Led Dark-Money Group Buys Pro-Schrader Ads
Better Jobs Together, which previously ran ads for Henry Cuellar and
Kyrsten Sinema, is on the air for Rep. Kurt Schrader in his tightly
contested Oregon primary contest against a progressive challenger. BY
DAVID MOORE
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Conor Lamb's Shift on Campaign Finance
The Senate hopeful is doing fundraising that would have been outlawed by
voting rights bills he supported. BY ALEXANDER SAMMON
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