Rachel Maddow sounds alarm on JD Vance's pro-dictatorship influences

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Monday spent a significant portion of her eponymous show detailing the dangers posed by the agenda crafted by Donald Trump's running mate in the 2024 presidential election, Republican Sen. JD Vance, Ohio.

Maddow kicked off the segment by noting Vance's observation that the majority of American life and culture needs to be "ripped out like a tumor." The host then aired a clip of Vance's recent guest appearance on the "Jack Murphy Live" podcast, hosted by the alt-right blogger and internet personality of the same name.

"Our leader right now is so corrupt and so vile, that if you assimilate into their culture, you're assimilating into like, garbage liberal elite culture. You're not assimilating into traditional American culture," the congressman says. "So this is a tough, tough pickle for me. I don't even know what the right answer is here because you can't just teach these things. You can't teach that we live in a great country if the leaders are actively aligned against it. So step one in the process is to totally replace — like rip out like a tumor — the current American leadership class, and then reinstall some sense of American political religion."

The MSNBC host, clearly disconcerted by the conservative's remarks, then delved into Vance's subsequent elaboration on the influences underpinning his school of thought. "How do we rip out this leadership class? What options do we have besides voting them out? ..." Murphy asked in the video.

"This is a tough question, but this is maybe the question that confronts us right now. There's this guy Curtis Yarvin who's written about some of these things," Vance said, referring to the right-wing blogger and anarchist who has championed that ascendence of a singular leader — in favor of the current system of government — who could "dismantle the whole regime." Vance, Yarvin, and Patrick Deneen (author of "Why Liberalism Failed") have all been heavily associated with the New Right movement, which focuses on national sovereignty instead of international cooperation.

Maddow then shared footage of Yarvin speaking in 2012 saying that he has reduced the "very complicated problem" of "How to Reboot the U.S. Government" with a "simple four-letter acronym, which is RAGE. And RAGE stands for Retire All Government Employees."

"A government is just a corporation that owns the country," Yarvin adds. "And there's a very simple way to replace that, which is what we do with all corporations that have failed. We simply delete them, because it's stale."

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Maddow then probed Yarvin's process for "deleting" the government, which included putting "generalists" in power and appointing a "CEO."

"If Americans want to change their government, they're going to have to get over their dictator phobia," Yarvin says in the clip.

Maddow then acknowledged the stark differences in the candidates in Tuesday's Vice President debate: Vance and Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. In addition to serving as governor, Maddow noted that Walz, the wholesome midwesterner, has also been a long-term congressman, high school coach, football coach, and a decades-long soldier. "JD Vance, the Republican candidate, is a different kind of cat — forgive me," she said.

"Aside from a brief stint in the Marine Corps, where he served with a public affairs unit, he has spent his entire adult life working for or being financially supported by eccentric right-wing tech billionaires. Specifically, ones who have devoted themselves to the political teachings of this guy," Maddow added, referencing Yarvin's dictator comments.

"I have debated whether or not to talk about this on the show, but I feel like this is an important thing to know about the Republican's vice presidential nominee and what he has to offer. And why he was brought onto the ticket despite his palpable lack of political skill or likeability, his lack of any track record in politics whatsoever. And after he spent less than two years in the only public office he's ever held — which is a Senate seat that he only barely won thanks to one of those eccentric tech billionaires giving the single largest Senate campaign donation in the history of this country. He comes wholly from this very very obscure, eccentric, right-wing subculture of tech billionaires."

"And his relationship with this eccentric, Silicon Valley, pro-dictatorship philosophy has been pretty widely discussed in print, " the host said, showing images of numerous articles from outlets like the New York Times, Politico, The Nation, and more to bolster her claim.