Vivek, a Dangerous Man

How the Republican Upstart’s Shine is Blinding

Image from Wikimedia Commons

I quickly fell in love with Vivek Ramaswami the first time I heard and laid eyes on him and herein lies the danger — it took me a bit of time and digging to figure out exactly how dangerous this man is not necessarily just for the United States but for the whole world especially relevant as I am Canadian.

Eyes wide shut might be a good way to describe the Indian-American with a shining resume from Harvard and Yale Law School and the hundreds of millions or more of dollars to show for it.

But you should be able to shut down debate when Vivek invokes “the climate hoax” and “Covidism” as some sort of ills of The Left — which he neatly wraps up with all the rhetoric of the anti-Wokers in a neat little package of disdain.

Although I myself have been invoking Gilead — the dystopian setting of Margaret Atwood’s sort of Christian Fascist America in a Handmaiden’s Tale — to increasingly describe the US, Vivek’s so-called 10 truths:

1. God is real.
2. There are two genders.
3. Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.
4. Reverse racism is racism.
5. An open border is no border.
6. Parents determine the education of their children.
7. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.
8. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.
9. There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.
10. The U.S. constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.

wherein the majority of his points actually spell out a new kind of Gilead that Vivek’s agenda would indeed try and usher in. As Leonard Cohen prophesized: “There ain’t no entertainment and the judgements are severe.”

I am a big fan of what I call realist writers here on Medium, chiefly Umair Haque, Jessica Wildfire and Indi.ca and accordingly think a much improved 10 truths might read something like this:

1. Religious belief is diverse and we should live and let live.
2. Gender can be equally complicated and once again: live and let live.
3. For humans to flourish in the future on planet earth we must rapidly move away from fossil fuels.
4. Racism is real and must be fought against in all its forms.
5. Okay, borders are important but so are Ukraine’s.
6. Education is a human right.
7. Nuclear families, but also extended families and other arrangements ALL can work.
8. Capitalism at times can be destructive and cause inequity so must be balanced with fair redistribution policies especially during this time of AI.

9 and 10 in Vivek’s view are rather US-specific but I would replace them with truths about democracy and how it is being undermined by politicians with authoritarian tendencies like Vivek himself.

Getting to the Point

Vivek actually makes a more nuanced argument to justify his candidacy. In his several books to date he does not just rail against Wokeism — which to me is a backhanded way of shutting down debate on racism — but specifically targets stakeholder capitalism where companies push causes such as racial and climate justice on their shareholders and customers.

I think this whole line of argument is totally misguided.

Since Vivek also wants to eviscerate the US federal government — getting rid of the FBI and Department of Education among others — who will be left to actually govern and as well champion policies that are not just good for the 1% like Vivek for according to him even companies — which are private entities — should get out of the way in setting any kind of better agenda for America.

Vivek’s Climate Catastrophe

In proclaiming the climate crisis a hoax, demanding to drill & even up production of (very dirty) coal, and finally disparaging ESG (environmental social governance) which companies invoke as a way for them to find ways to mitigate climate change among other causes ALL spells doom for those of consience I believe — that is for those that care for more than just the almighty American dollar.

Under Vivek global efforts to get the environment even in some nominal way under control will be jeopardized. Activist groups like Climate Defiance and Declare Emergency would surely be silenced, perhaps ruthlessly, by this wolf in shiny sheep’s clothing Vivek Ramaswamy.

In sum, Vivek is an intellectual of the chaos movement spearheaded by Donald Trump. The real danger of his candidacy is that he comes across as very smart (except for all his dumb ideas 😉), young, vivacious, and even a biting debater, that if Trump would somehow get disqualified, Vivek could actually win this thing and that is very very scary indeed.

Jonathan G. Wexler is a longtime technical writer who has written for Medium hesitantly in the past and is getting back into it slowly. Please help out by following him.