Jacob Hawk leaned over the plastic fencing to get Vivek Ramaswamy’s attention as the Republican candidate for Ohio governor moved down the line shaking hands at the Ohio University branch campus in Chillicothe, six days before the midterm elections.
asserted
candidate → lean → elections
Hawk held onto Ramaswamy’s hand and started trying to tell him everything he was dealing with, everything he wanted the Republican candidates gathered there to help him with.
asserted
candidates → hold → him
Hawk, 39, told him that he was a self-employed landscaper who was having a hard time with the high cost of fuel.
asserted
who → tell → fuel
He told him that he was raising three young kids from two different moms, mostly on his own.
asserted
he → tell → own
He told him of his worries for his 9-year-old son, who was autistic and underweight and suffered from a two-year delay in brain development.
asserted
who → tell → development
Ramaswamy, a biotech billionaire, nodded and offered some token reassurance and moved down the line, toward the arena where he would soon be appearing with President Donald Trump and Sen. Jon Husted and the rest of the Republican slate in a state that Trump had won by 11 percentage points two years ago, and which the party had dominated during the era of Trump.
asserted
party → nod → Trump
I had been at many Republican events in the state over that time, including a rally in an airplane hangar outside Dayton in March 2016, where a giant crowd had roared as Trump’s jet had rolled into view and where he had declared that he had come to save Ohio.
asserted
he → include → Ohio
“Our jobs are being sucked away,” he said then.
asserted
he → suck → ?
“It’s unbelievable what’s happening.”
asserted
what → ’ → ?
Ten years had passed, and gone was the fierce bravado of Trump the conquering hero, bristling with retribution and promises.
asserted
bravado → pass → retribution
This rally was populated largely by the same sort of voters who had been particularly drawn to Trump all along, working-class Midwesterners who had not been engaged in politics before he came on the scene.
asserted
he → populate → scene
But there were fewer of them — the campaign had chosen an arena that held only 2,000 — and their devotion had been subsumed by uncertainty.
asserted
devotion → be → uncertainty
They were still with Trump, but they weren’t sure how to reconcile their own difficulties with the fact that he was the president during this trying time.
asserted
he → reconcile → time
Take gas prices, which “are beating the hell out of me,” Hawk told me.
asserted
Hawk → take → me
He was trying his best not to hold them against Trump and his decision to go to war against Iran, instead faulting Congress for limiting domestic oil drilling.
asserted
He → try → drilling
“The president has to go find oil in another country because Congress won’t let him find it in our country,” he said, overlooking the fact that Trump’s party has controlled both houses of Congress during his second term.
asserted
party → have → term
Nearby, Debbie Shock, a 57-year-old mail carrier, blamed the high fuel costs on “the stock exchange, the markets — they’re the ones that control it.
asserted
that → blame → it
“We have oil right here in the U.S.,” she said.
asserted
she → have → U.S.
“Why are we buying it from other countries to begin with?”
asserted
we → buy → countries
Shock fit a profile I had gotten to know well in 2016: an Obama-Trump voter.
asserted
I → fit → 2016
She was loyal to Trump — “I like the man.
asserted
I → like → man
Nobody’s perfect, you know what I mean?” — and told me she would never go back to Democrats now.
asserted
she → ’ → Democrats
I asked.
asserted
I → ask → ?
“They’re covering up the child molestation,” she said.
asserted
she → cover → molestation
What did she mean by that?
asserted
she → mean → that
“I’ve heard stories about the sex trafficking.
asserted
I → hear → trafficking
The Clintons are involved in it, Disney World, you know, all that.
asserted
you → involve → it
It would be easy to ridicule such murky talk, yet it was not much less coherent than what soon emerged on the arena stage, which was streamed on a large screen for the few hundred of us who were out on the lawn outside the arena.
asserted
who → ridicule → arena
Trump has never been known for structured oratory, but it is hard to overstate the extent to which his digressive style has advanced since 2016, and to convey how surreal it is to experience firsthand, as the reality of what presidential communication has come to in 2026.
asserted
communication → know → 2026
The rally opened with the customary introductory video of late-era Trump, an explicitly messianic framing: “God said, ‘I need someone who will be strong and courageous,’” the voice-over intones.
asserted
over → open → someone
“So God made Trump.”
asserted
God → make → Trump
Thus introduced, Trump opened his remarks with a lengthy disquisition on Husted’s body, which had newly become part of his routine.
asserted
which → introduce → routine
“I looked at Jon and studied his physique,” he cooed, after referring to his recent comments on Husted’s “ass.”
asserted
he → look → ass
“I studied the feet, the legs, the shoulders.
asserted
I → study → feet
I tapped him on the shoulder, and it was like hitting a piece of steel.”
asserted
it → tap → steel
When a protester inside the arena started shouting something — those of us outside couldn’t hear what — and was removed, Trump bid him good riddance: “Now he goes home and his boyfriend gets upset with him.
asserted
boyfriend → start → him
There were protesters outside, too, and things were starting to heat up between them and the supporters.
asserted
things → be → them
“What are you talking about, ‘boyfriend?’” shouted one protester, a young man.
asserted
protester → talk → What
“He was just talking about Jon Husted’s ass!
asserted
He → talk → ass
That’s not gay??
asserted
That → ’ → ?
…and 75 more, not listed.
The Aporia
