Vivek
I Was Wrong About Vivek
If you haven’t watched the Tucker Carlson interview with Vivek Ramaswamy, watch it. Here is the link.
I always like Vivek. But, when he declared for President I was critical of him. I thought he was doing it to sell books and raise money for his ETF. A lot of campaigns are about selling books, not actually doing things. They are inner focused, on the candidate and their desire to fatten their own wallet, not real policy.
Vivek comes off as different.
First, he’s got the cards to carry that the David Brooks crowd should appreciate. He’s brown skin and what Joe Biden would call “clean”. He went to Harvard, and Yale Law. I wonder if Vivek could join Sheldon Whitehouse’s club.
For the business-focused people and techies in startup land that love to talk the talk about libertarianism but vote Democratic when they can, he took a few startups across the finish line and rang the cash register. That is extremely hard to do.
So, he has talent.
For what it is worth, Democrats are nowhere near libertarian. They believe in centralized power. Centralized power encourages bureaucracy which enables lobbyists.
The Republican debate will be interesting. I am sorry it’s on Fox. I’d rather see it on Twitter with people like Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, and Holman Jenkins asking questions. Megyn Kelley now that she is unleashed on her podcast might be a good moderator.
Ron DeSantis has sharpened his attack against Vivek. I read a lot of stuff and one site I have read over the past several years is The Conservative Treehouse. They said DeSantis was really an establishment candidate. The site is all in for Trump. I didn’t think they were correct either but it’s looking like DeSantis has adopted a more GOPe tenor.
For what it’s worth, the site has been spot on when it comes to Covid and Joe Biden’s corruption.
DeSantis has been a great governor and takes on some fights a lot of people wouldn’t. He has expanded a Republican majority after narrowly winning his first election. But, seeing him in high-contact situations with normal people he seems out of place. Compare him to a candidate like JD Vance. I just don’t see DeSantis being like that.
Trump isn’t like that either but he gets how to connect with people on their terms, not his. I think Vivek gets it as well as Trump but we will see as the spotlight gets hotter on his campaign.
I donated some money to him because I want him on the debate stage. I think it is important to donate even as little as $1 to him, just to show that you want to see a real competitive primary in the Republican race. As a Republican, you should believe in competition. Democrats don’t exactly believe in unbridled competition. They need guardrails and “reasonable competition”.
His voice needs to be heard. People like Asa Hutchinson and Mike Pence do not. They are yesterday’s leftovers.
Here is what Vivek has to say on his website:
God is real.
There are two genders.
Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.
Reverse racism is racism.
An open border is no border.
Parents determine the education of their children.
The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.
Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.
There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.
The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.
I agree with all of it. I have blogged about a bunch of it over the last thirteen years. Vivek talks about revitalizing 1776 and the spirit of the Revolution. I think he is correct. The unelected bureaucrats need to go away. Vivek did battle with them when he took startups to the finish line. So, he knows that in a real way.
I would have loved to see Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin jump in but he didn’t.
At this point in the Republican cycle, there are only three people that should be on the stage. DeSantis, Trump, and Ramaswamy. It’s still early and while the media wants to give it to Trump so they have a story, the race is far from over. It’s not a laydown.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlTY7VzqBwc Vivek on Jordan Peterson
I agree with you. Vivek is an impressive man, if you look only at his accomplishments in his young life. But when you listen to him, you are taken back. He's brilliant, can think on his feet. And yes- he has his talking points that he repeats to hammer home, but...his points are refreshing, grounded in tradition, with an eye firmly on the future. And economic freedom. There's a lot to like about him. And I think his rise in the polls, coming from nowhere, is the result of people actually taking the time to listen to him.
One other thing: I love my Governor here in Florida. And we're going to lose him to term limits anyway. I think he'd be a great President. He's a man of action, he gets things done. He's extremely intelligent. But...he does sometimes pick fights where none are needed. And I'm not sure he'll know how to respond to the left other than attack.
Whereas Vivek, I think, could actually sway many on the left, and a whole lot of people right in the middle. I think, if more people do get to hear him, he will sway many more.