Vivek Ramaswamy “God Is Real”

The 2024 election will be unlike any other. Back in 2016 all of us saw a rare moment in politics, when outsiders like Donald Trump completely reshaped the political landscape. Say what you like about him, but give the man his due, he did manage to completely destroy the idea of a political needing to have ‘political experience’. Now we are witnessing the rise of populist outsiders on both parties. Students of American political history may remember that William Jennings Bryant attempted the same thing over a century ago before loosing to Woodrow Wilson. This is truly a truly historic time.

The Republican roster is almost over-saturated this year, with Trump being the clear and obvious front runner. Yet there is another candidate who is shaking things up in a very different way; Vivek Ramaswamy.

Vivek is a strange candidate to be running under the Republican ticket. Historically Republicans tend to like a very certain sort of personality; older, evangelical, a few decades of political experience under your belt, that sort of thing. Virtually every Republican candidate ever nominated fits this box. Then Trump came and redefined the party. Now Vivek is attempting something similar.

Vivek Ramaswamy comes from immigrant parents, from Mumbai. He cut his teeth in the corporate world starting up a multi-billion dollar biotech company before he was thirty. After making brief media appearances decrying the politicization of the corporate world, Vivek decided to run for President at 38.

‘God is real, there are two genders, reverse racism is racism, an open border is no border, and civilized society depends on fossil fuels’. Ramaswamy uttered this undoubtedly scripted maxim at the first Republican primary debate. It was a made for TV moment that has been circulated across the internet and political ads. In fifteen seconds Vivek summed up everything that the Republicans wanted to hear, but it was still a surprise. No one expected this very young, politically inexperienced candidate to say something like that. I myself was surprised, but for different reasons.

Most voters don’t realize that Ramaswamy is a Hindu. An easy mistake to make, because Vivek doesn’t sound like a Hindu. He actually sounds more Christian than most evangelicals.

In my opinion, Vivek Ramaswamy doesn’t stand a chance of getting into the White House. However, his campaign is a stark rebuke to the majority of Republican candidates for the past decade. When listening to him, I confess I haven’t heard anyone from the Republican Party talk like this in quite some time. Neither has anyone else for that matter. I can’t remember the last time I ever saw a Republican candidate ever discuss the importance, much less the existence of God. I can’t remember the last time I saw any Republican candidate take a passionate stance for the nuclear family.

Here is what I want ever Republican voter to consider, if you didn’t know that Ramaswamy was a Hindu, what would you think? Personally, I would have guessed he was a Christian. Here’s a pointed question; when a Hindu sounds more Christian than most evangelicals, what does that say about the evangelicals in the Republican Party? Personally I would go as far as to call this a stark rebuke. Much as I hate to say it, someone must say it; the Republican Party has slowly drifted away from its roots and ideals. For years now, in 2023 especially, I have witnessed the Republican Party disintegrate into petty squabbles.

I ask the Republican establishment, why aren’t we taking a stronger stance against abortion? I’m well aware that Republicans don’t support abortion, but I have’t seen the party take a strong stance against it either. Why is that? Why did it take decades to unravel Roe v. Wade? And don’t tell me the Republicans couldn’t have done it, there were multiple opportunities over the years. Why aren’t the Republicans taking an aggressive stance on the family? Right now in America, families are disintegrating before our very eyes. Over the past several years we have witnessed families not only mocked and scorned, but targeted! By the FBI of all people. Parents have had their rights restricted slowly, like a python, for years now. The Republican Party didn’t do zip. Why?

I intend this not as a roast, but as an honest criticism. The Republican Party thus far has been running a very poor campaign nationwide. Remember the 2022 mid-terms? The Republicans didn’t do well in the mid-terms because they nominated very poor candidates, and they did a bad job of getting their message out. 2022 should have been the Republicans year, but it was lost due to failures on the Republicans side. For 2024 the Republicans should be able to take the White House. Yet if we don’t start delivering a unified message and a return to our roots, the Presidential race will go right down to the toilet. In short, I believe the Republican establishment could learn a lot from this Indian upstart.