{"id":36981,"date":"2024-10-13T20:18:10","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T03:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=36981"},"modified":"2024-10-13T20:18:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T03:18:11","slug":"jd-vance-is-the-handpicked-leader-of-the-anti-democracy-movement-in-the-us-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/10\/13\/jd-vance-is-the-handpicked-leader-of-the-anti-democracy-movement-in-the-us-2\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance is the handpicked leader of the anti-democracy movement in the US"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Robert Reich<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

October 3, 2024 (theguardian.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Robert<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rightwing tech lords are betting that Vance will be the Republican presidential pick in 2028. They\u2019re probably rightThu 3 Oct 2024 06.00 EDTShare430<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JD Vance, the Republican candidate for vice-president, will almost certainly be the Republican presidential candidate in 2028, regardless of whether Donald Trump<\/a> wins in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But who is JD Vance<\/a>, really? An opportunist chameleon who once viewed Donald Trump as \u201cHitler\u201d and is now his pit bull?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or does Vance have an agenda over and above mere political ambition?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of the most important exchanges of Tuesday\u2019s vice-presidential debate, Vance refused to say that the former president lost the 2020 election, and he downplayed the violent events of January 6. Vance also declined to rule out challenging the outcome of the upcoming election even if votes were certified by every state leader as legitimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump picked Vance as his running mate because Vance publicly stated he\u2019d do what Mike Pence refused to do \u2013 overturn democracy and place the US under Maga control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to a question ABC\u2019s George Stephanopoulos asked Vance last February \u2013 \u201cHad you been vice-president on January 6th, would you have certified the election results?\u201d \u2013 Vance said<\/a>: \u201cIf I had been vice-president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors, and I think the US Congress should have fought over it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, Vance alleged that the 2020 election was stolen and that Biden\u2019s immigration policy meant<\/a> \u201cmore Democrat voters pouring into this country\u201d. In 2022, he suggested that Democrats were attempting to \u201ctransform the electorate\u201d amid an immigrant \u201cinvasion\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

In contrast to Trump … Vance does have an ideology. He\u2019s the emerging leader of the anti-democracy movement in the US<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Echoing the so-called \u201cgreat replacement theory\u201d, Vance told<\/a> voters, \u201cYou\u2019re talking about a shift in the democratic makeup of this country that would mean we never win, meaning Republicans would never win a national election in this country ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast to Trump, who has no ideology except accumulating power and wealth for himself and taking revenge on those who would deny these to him, Vance does<\/em> have an ideology. He\u2019s the emerging leader of the anti-democracy movement in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vance would never have become a senator from Ohio in 2022 were it not for the billionaire tech financier Peter Thiel<\/a>, who staked $15m on Vance\u2019s election \u2013 a major portion of all the funds that went into Vance\u2019s race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thiel knew what he was buying. Vance had worked for Thiel\u2019s California venture capital firm before running for the Senate and was part of Thiel\u2019s libertarian community of rich crypto bros, tech executives, back-to-the-landers and disaffected far-right intellectuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because Thiel had been a major funder of Trump\u2019s 2016 presidential run, he had significant influence with Trump when urging him to pick Vance for his vice-president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why has Thiel been such a strong sponsor of Vance? Because Thiel sees in his protege a future leader of a political movement to turn the US away from democracy. \u201cFor Peter,\u201d said<\/a> one of the people familiar with his thinking, \u201cVance is a generational bet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thiel is a self-styled libertarian who once wrote<\/a>: \u201cI no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the point. Thiel and Vance \u2013 along with Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, Blake Masters, tech entrepreneur David Sacks, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, Palantir adviser Jacob Helberg, Sequoia Capital\u2019s Doug Leone, blogger Curtis Yarvin, and others in the anti-democracy movement \u2013 believe that the only way true libertarians can win in the US is for a Caesar-like figure to wrest power from the US establishment and install a monarchical regime, run like a startup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Moira<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yarvin comes as close as anyone as being the intellectual godfather of the anti-democracy movement. He has written<\/a> that real political power in the United States is held by a liberal amalgam of universities and the mainstream press, whose commitment to equality and justice is eroding social order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Yarvin\u2019s view, democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful; they should be replaced with sovereign joint-stock corporations whose major \u201cshareholders\u201d select an executive with total power, who serves at their pleasure. <\/sup>Yarvin refers to the city-state of Singapore as an example of a successful authoritarian regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to achieve Yarvin\u2019s vision? The first step, as Vance offered<\/a> in a 2021 podcast, is to replace \u201cevery single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state \u2026 with our people. And when the courts stop you, stand before the country, and say\u201d \u2013 as did Andrew Jackson \u2013 that \u201cthe chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vance has been anointed by Thiel and the rest of the anti-democracy movement as the post-Trump president, tasked with replacing the US establishment with an authoritarian regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make no mistake: the foundation for the US\u2019s first anti-democracy president is being laid right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n