Ramaswamy brings a Trumpian brazenness to denying the undeniable

INTERMINABLE presidential campaigns, unlike the migraines they induce, are useful, as Vivek Ramaswamy is demonstrating. They provide ample opportunities for candidates to reveal whether they have sufficient seasoning for the daunting challenges of the office.

Except Ramaswamy is serenely undaunted. His only puzzlement seems to be that the nation’s problems puzzle others.

The problem of unsustainable Social Security and Medicare trajectories? Simple, says Ramaswamy: Just achieve sustained 5 percent economic growth, and the problem will disappear. (Average annual economic growth from 1947 to 2022 was 3.1 percent, according to Cato Institute fiscal analyst Norbert Michel; only once was it more than 5 percent for three consecutive years.)

The problem of China’s threat to Taiwan? Not a problem, Ramaswamy says, if we dare to embrace ruthlessness: “Xi Jinping should not mess with Taiwan” — until 2029. Ramaswamy says that at the end of his first term, the United States will have “semiconductor independence” and no further use for Taiwan. Announcing a date when Xi can launch a riskfree invasion of Taiwan is one way to reduce uncertainties.

The problem of helping Ukraine resist Vladimir Putin’s war of national annihilation? Ramaswamy would erase this problem by embracing the wisdom of 1938. He would “require” Putin to end his alliance with China, in exchange for a “hard” U.S. commitment that NATO would “never” admit Ukraine. And Russia would be allowed to digest large amounts of Ukraine. Ramaswamy evidently thinks concessions abetting Ukraine’s dismemberment will work better than similar concessions regarding Czechoslovakia in the Munich Agreement.

Ramaswamy would pardon Edward Snowden, who leaked U.S. national security secrets, then fled to Putin’s Russia. Ramaswamy says “part of what made” Snowden “heroic” was his risking punishment: “Just think Rosa Parks.” Interviewer: “Did you just compare Rosa Parks to Edward Snowden?” Ramaswamy: “No, I did not.”

Ramaswamy brings Trumpian brazenness to denying the undeniable. When asked whether 9/11 was “an inside job” or happened as “the government tells us,” Ramaswamy said: “I don’t believe the government has told us the truth.” When asked by the Atlantic about saying we do not know “the truth” about Jan. 6, 2021, he recurred to skepticism about what the government has said about 9/11. When he claimed to have been misquoted, the Atlantic produced a recording of his words.

Ostentatiously confident, he advertised his intention to skip normal preparation for the first Republican debate. Then The Post informed him about a photo of him in a suit, standing at a lectern, flanked by two others, also at lecterns, which looked like normal prep. He said he “reluctantly” tried prep; his campaign spokeswoman said he “experimented with” prep.

He did not need to prepare for a question not posed to him on Wednesday: “You say Trump was ‘the greatest president of the 21st century.’ So why are you running against him?”

A biotech entrepreneur, Ramaswamy illustrates the difference between intelligence, which he has, abundantly, and judgment, which he lacks, utterly. It is not smart for smart people to pretend to be dumb, but perhaps he thinks he must regularly exhibit childishness to charm the GOP’S nominating electorate.

For example, he proposes amending the Constitution to raise the voting age to 25 — unless 18-year-olds are service members or first responders or pass the civics exam required of immigrants. This lunge for attention is a purely performative gesture, flam

boyant audacity that 38 states will not ratify.

Ramaswamy nevertheless insists that voters need to have some “civic experience.” So should presidents have had some prior government experience? Ramaswamy would be the second president with no government experience, civilian or military. (The first was the most recent Republican.) Ramaswamy, who needs schooling, should read Harry Mcpherson’s memoir, “A Political Education” (1972).

Mcpherson recalled driving into Washington late on Jan. 31, 1956, to become an aide to Senate majority leader, and later president, Lyndon B. Johnson. “In the mist beyond the Monument is the White House and General Eisenhower,” hitherto an object of Mcpherson’s condescension. That night, however, “surrounded by this city of power, he seems much more formidable. … Eisenhower belongs here.” It was one thing to mock President Eisenhower over schooners of Pearl beer back in Texas, but:

“It is another to confront this city with its mysteries of authority. Perhaps the presence of power begets ambiguity: in the years ahead I am to see a variety of angry convictions turned to doubt when confronted by power and responsibility.”

Mcpherson was 26 the night he drove across Memorial Bridge sensing that “the smell of power hangs over this city like cordite.” Ramaswamy, 38, is, comparatively, a child.