Vivek Ramaswamy Wants To Phantom Zone Mentally Ill People Because That'll Fix All The Crime
Vivek Ramaswamy Wants To Phantom Zone Mentally Ill People Because That'll Fix All The Crime
Did you forget about that smarmy POS?
Professional douchebag and vanity presidential candidate Vivek Ramawswamy isn’t afraid to tackle difficult issues, especially because he's not the least bit afraid of sounding like a complete ass. It’s his entire brand, and it’s why Nikki Haley invoked the ultimate Billy Madison insult when she told him, “Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber.”
Last night on his knockoff Tucker Carlson show, Jesse Watters asked Ramaswamy if as president (LOL!), he planned to “bring back mental institutions,” which still very much exist. This will somehow address the rising violent crime rates, as Republicans are incapable of considering any humane options. They are not ready for a “Star Trek” future.
“I think that this is a clear path to fighting the violent crime wave across this country, Jesse,” replied the smug, entitled creep. “I’ve said it at the debates. I’m the only candidate in either party talking about it because it’s a taboo subject. But we have to talk about the hard truth.”
Ramaswamy once again mistakes speaking without thought with speaking the truth.
“Violent crime has risen over precisely the period we have shuttered these psychiatric institutions,” he said. This is a sick lie. People with mental illness are more likely to be a victim of violent crime than the perpetrator, especially when they are living under a bridge so rich people can pay slightly less in taxes. The mentally ill aren’t the ones carjacking Congress members.
There’s increasing evidence that drug addiction, especially related to fentanyl, has had a devastating effect on the homeless population. The visible impact of drug overdoses in public places isn’t good for anyone’s quality of life (especially the ones ODing). But, hey, let’s just start rounding up “crazy” people.
Ramaswamy continued: “The number one psychiatric institution today is jail. It’s prison. And they don’t do a very good job.”
He’s twisting some actual truths here. Yes, according to Vera.org, the Los Angeles jail system “is the largest mental health institution in the United States, and it’s locking up more people with mental illness than ever before.”
US prisons are definitely not in the business of effectively treating mental health issues. However, Ramaswamy has no plan for or interest in resolving this problem. Instead, he wants to involuntarily commit more people to already stressed institutions. (God forbid a Republican support increased funding for any social program.)
He’s repeated this perverse talking point repeatedly on the campaign trail. At the first pointless Republican debate in August, he said (bolded emphasis mine):
“Don’t remove guns from law-abiding citizens. Remove violent, psychiatrically deranged people from their communities and be willing to involuntarily commit them. Revive mental health institutions: less reliance on pharmaceuticals, more reliance on faith-based approaches that restore purpose to people’s lives. We know from the 1990s how to stop violent crime. The real question is if we have the spine to do it. I do – and I’ll use the power of the purse to accomplish it just as Reagan did in the 1980s.”
Ronald Reagan didn’t reduce crime when he defunded mental health facilities and tossed severely mentally ill people onto the streets. He just exacerbated the homeless crisis. Reagan also blathered on about a faith-based approach where “every church and synagogue would take in 10 welfare families” each. The Rev. Paul Moore, New York City’s Episcopal bishop, called this proposal “absolute balderdash.”
“And now you then get the calls to clear the jails or to have commuting of sentences or shortening of sentences,” Ramaswamy told Watters. “People leave those jails in a worse psychiatric condition, often, than when they even entered.”
Yes, prison conditions are deplorable. However, drug possession or petty theft doesn’t justify a lifetime prison sentence. Inmates will eventually be released, and yes, they are often in worse shape than when they entered. Ramaswamy doesn’t care about reducing recidivism in a sensible fashion. He just wants to lock up the undesirables forever, and he seems to recommend treating chemical imbalances with a hefty does of Vitamin Jesus.
“I don’t think I want to be pumping psychiatric institutions with pharmaceuticals into people,” he said. “Faith-based approaches — there are better ways to do this. But that being said – and you put your finger on this a little bit, Jesse – is look at who benefited from that policy. It was none other than large pharmaceutical companies that had developed antipsychotics and other forms of antidepressants.”
Mediaite notes that Ramaswamy was heavily invested in the pharmaceutical industry before his current grift. He even founded a pharmaceutical company, Roivant Sciences, in 2014. Ramaswamy is almost an insult to respectable frauds everywhere.
[Mediaite]
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This is the Republican future; government run by the mean drunk at the end of the bar, the drunk uncle who spoils every family gathering, the bloviating know-nothing with the pickup plastered with aggressive, insulting and belligerent stickers.
Republican officeholders will do nothing more than use high crime rates as a wedge issue, a problem "justifying" their longstanding combination of malicious neglect and brutal oppression aimed at the poor. Nothing faux-legitimizes malign authority like the threat of chaos and instability.