Vivek Ramaswamy shrinks in the GOP spotlight

As the battle for the Republican presidential nomination gathers steam, a newcomer finds himself in the spotlight: businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

In many ways, he’s the sort of figure to whom one could look to lead the GOP out of its current mess and into a new era. He’s 38 years old; a son of Indian immigrant parents and a Hindu who calls himself an “American nationalist,” affirming the trend of a more diverse conservatism; and a successful entrepreneur in pharmaceuticals and biotech, which puts him in a good place to offer a positive vision of a dynamic and forward-looking America. He has criticized “wokeness” and divisive identity politics on the left but would seem poised to counteract the trends toward reactionary white identity politics on the right.

Ramaswamy could have been that candidate. Unfortunately, he’s not. He has chosen to pander to Donald Trump’s populist base, peddling conspiracy theories, knee-jerk anti-establishment politics, crude “anti-woke” rhetoric, and madcap foreign policy schemes. Also, he’s a complete fake.

Take Ramaswamy’s evolution on the events of Jan. 6, 2021. Last year in his book “A Nation of Victims,” Ramaswamy praised Vice President Mike Pence for ensuring a peaceful transition of power. Now, he says that in Pence’s place he would have made election certification contingent on a “national compromise” on election reform, including universal voter IDs and a virtual total ban on early voting.

Even aside from the merit of these proposals, Ramaswamy seems unaware that spearheading such reform is completely outside the vice president’s constitutionally defined role. Ironically, he also believes that people under 25 shouldn’t vote unless they pass a comprehensive civics test. Perhaps he needs one himself.

Then there are the conspiracy theories. Ramaswamy has trafficked in Sept. 11 conspiracy innuendo (and clumsily tried to backtrack from audio-recorded words) and suggested that the violence on Jan. 6 was instigated by FBI agents. He has also suggested that “censorship” of pro-Trump views in social media was to blame for the violence.

And there’s Russia and Ukraine. Ramaswamy offers a fantasy in which Russia can somehow be induced to ally with the United States against China in exchange for the United States throwing Ukraine under the bus (i.e., stopping weapons deliveries and letting Russia keep its newly grabbed territories). To justify this proposal, he spouts fact-free claims that portray Russia and Ukraine as morally equivalent, at one point calling Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy “two thugs sorting out differences in Eastern Europe.” He accuses Zelenskyy of banning “opposition parties,” even though the ban was imposed on pro-Russian collaborationist groups after the Russian invasion.

Ramaswamy’s critique of progressive racial politics makes some good points: Attacks on “white privilege” can turn into polarizing rhetoric blaming whites. But like many other “anti-woke” agitators, Ramaswamy tends to push this critique to the extreme of denying still-existent white supremacist extremism. In a stark example, he seemed to blame “woke” politics for the recent hate-driven shooting of three black Americans in Florida.

There is, finally, the question of whether Ramaswamy’s new populist, “anti-woke,” anti-establishment persona is even genuine. We’ve learned, for instance, that he paid Wikipedia to scrub from his biography a “Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship” funded by the older brother of liberal philanthropist and right-wing boogeyman George Soros.

It’s hard to say how much headway Ramaswamy will make in the Republican primaries. But it’s not too early to say that what he brings is the same toxic politics in slicker packaging.

Opinions expressed by Cathy Young, a writer for the Bulwark, are her own.

By Cathy Young

Cathy Young is a writer for The Bulwark.