Stanford Politics

This election could be a test for their relationship — and her broader political philosophy.

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s we enter the home stretch of 2020’s veepstakes, one Stanford alum has found herself an increasingly strong contender to be tapped as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate: former U.N. ambassador and national security advisor in the Barack Obama administration Susan Rice (’86). But during the last four years that she’s been out of politics, another Rice dominated headlines on Stanford’s campus: her son John Rice-Cameron (’20), the infamous former head of Stanford College Republicans whom this magazine wrote about in 2018.

In the time since that profile, the man sometimes known as J.R.C. found himself embroiled in a series of scandals of his own making, from conspiring with self-proclaimed free-speech proponent Niall Ferguson to conduct “opposition research” on lefty student activist to filing and later dropping assault charges against a female student for allegedly shoving him during a pro-life demonstration. Rice-Cameron insists that he has no intention of going into politics, preferring to pursue finance instead, though in 2018, he did a mix of both, interning with the Office of Management and Budget for the Donald Trump administration.

The relationship between the potential next Democratic vice president and her right-wing ideologue son is more than just a curiosity. It actually plays a large part in Susan Rice’s political outlook today. She’s not quite sure how things got to where they are—both with her son and with the state of America’s deep disunion—but her prescription to heal, or at least live peaceably with, such rifts is the same: tough love. Indeed, that’s the very title she gave to her 2019 memoir, which comes out Tuesday in paperback, and which we at Stanford Politics have decided to revisit in light of the possibility that she could be back in the White House next year.

Here are 10 excerpts that can shed light on how Susan Rice thinks of John Rice-Cameron, whom she refers to as Jake. It’s clear that she loves him greatly, calling him the family’s “greatest blessing.” But she also candidly describes his political turn as challenging, and his passion as not quite so cute as it used to be. Perplexingly, Rice-Cameron is both a proponent and a darling of the conservative media outlets and personalities that routinely vilify his mother, not to mention an outspoken supporter of the president who once accused her without evidence of committing a crime. (There’s also an anecdote, in which Rice portrays a former Russian ambassador as being unreasonable about not wanting her son present in private government meetings, that perhaps hasn’t aged well.)

Rightly or wrongly, Rice uses her son as a stand-in for the other side of a nationwide political divide that she believes must be bridged by compassion and a willingness to sit at the table together. She says he’s always been supportive of her career, but if she ends up on the ticket against Trump this November, that may well be put to the test.

Page numbers are given from the Oct. 8, 2019 hardcover edition, © Simon & Schuster.

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… our son, Jake, arrived with what we would later come to recognize as his customary flair for the dramatic, necessitating extraction with the unwelcome use of forceps.

—Page 164

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If marrying Ian is the best decision I ever made, Jake jump-starting our family is our greatest blessing. God has a sense of irony and humor, and Jake is proof. From birth when he had a reparable but delicate condition that required three surgeries and tricky postoperative care, to college where he became known for his outspoken leadership as a conservative, Jake has challenged us every step of the way.

—Page 213

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When in 2005 a slower moving, yet still-sharp Mandela came to Brookings, Jake and I sat very near the front of the audience. In the middle of his discussion with Strobe Talbott, Brookings’s president, Mandela suddenly paused and, for no apparent reason, interrupted himself. He looked directly at Jake (wearing his little coat and tie) and said in his distinctive South African brogue, “Young man, are you the president of this country?”

Taken aback but not knocked off his game, Jake replied, “No sir, not yet.”

Mandela seemed amused by Jake’s answer, which I too thought was cute at the time, but his ready retorts seem less so these days, given how my son’s political views have evolved. After the event, Jake was thrilled to shake Mandela’s hand before giving his first press interview at age nine to the French news service Agence France-Press about his reaction to meeting the great Madiba, which he likened to meeting Martin Luther King Jr.

—Page 214

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Vitaly [Churkin] was the only U.N. ambassador ever to object to my bringing my son into the U.N.’s nonpublic sessions. From age eleven onward, Jake loved these meetings and could sit for hours mesmerized by the debates. He was always silent and well-behaved, but Vitaly couldn’t stand the idea of a child in the Security Council. He repeatedly threatened to halt the meetings and insisted on Jake’s expulsion. We nearly came to blows one day after such a session, in Jake’s presence. Vitaly yelled at me, “Do you allow your son to watch pornography?” “Of course not,” I said. He rejoined, “Then why do you let him watch Security Council debates?”

—Page 257

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Thirteen-year-old Jake was already known to many of my colleagues (not just Vitaly) because of his passion for foreign policy, which had only intensified through many visits to the U.N. and conversations with U.N. representatives from around the world. Jake was a knowledgeable and poised interlocutor, but back then his views often diverged from official U.S. policy. For instance, the Arab ambassadors at the U.N. found charming Jake’s strong sympathies for the Palestinian cause, which compelled me to limit his unsupervised conversations with them. (In the years since, Jake’s views have migrated toward the opposite extreme of uncritical support for the Netanyahu government.)

—Page 265

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By virtue of my experience, Jake has seen firsthand how dishonest and defamatory the right-wing media can be, even as he remains an all too avid consumer.

Perplexing as such cognitive dissonance is to us, Ian and I love Jake as deeply and surely as any parents can love their child. We are thankful that he is a smart, self-disciplined, and responsible kid, who has given us few headaches apart from politics. We talk and text frequently when he is away, and he continues to seek his parents’ advice and crave our approval.

—Page 471

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As close as Jake and I are, we know exactly how to push each other’s buttons. Like every good Dickson and Rice, he is not shy about advocating, even aggressively, for what he believes. Our arguments can be calm and rational—when we try hard to reason deliberately and exercise maximum restraint.

More often, a phone call or casual conversation in the car or around the dinner table can escalate into an explosive, sometimes profane argument.

—Page 471

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Even when most frustrated, I’m proud that Jake cares deeply about public issues and is an effective leader. It takes guts to get in the arena, especially at a place like Stanford where his views have earned him many dedicated detractors. Still, I confess it can be deeply painful to love someone so powerfully with whom I disagree so profoundly. As much as Ian and I have struggled to understand Jake’s ideological evolution, chastising ourselves—what did we do or not do?—to this day, we’re not sure when or why his views shifted so far to the right. The facts belie Jake’s claim that he has always been a conservative. Yet his posture seems more than a phase of youthful rebellion, given its intensity and duration—although a swing from one end of the spectrum to the other has been a pattern in Jake’s intellectual development. He moved from supporting the far-left Dennis Kucinich early in the 2008 campaign to center-left Obama, and then to conservative Rick Perry in 2012 and Tea Party ideologue Ted Cruz in 2016. Political views aside, Jake still personally likes and respects President Obama, who has always been extremely kind to him.

—Page 472

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Jake usefully affords us firsthand insight into the perspectives of many fellow Americans, which we would otherwise lack. Without him and our inescapably contrasting views, I doubt I would fully appreciate the urgency and importance of bridging our increasingly deep domestic political divide.

—Page 473-474

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Personally, I still worry there could come a day when Jake and I determine that our disagreements have become so profound, that we are irreconcilable. Not only do I pray that never happens, but I am committed to doing everything in my power to prevent and repair any rupture. Love and respect, however tough, are the most powerful salves to heal wounds, and we can’t be afraid to use them—whether with family or, as I was reminded, with our compatriots.

—Page 474

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