Although Vivek Ramaswamy and I are both children of Tamil immigrants with funny-sounding last names who for some reason moved to the freezing Midwest to pursue the American Dream, our political outlook could not be more different.
Although I doubt Vivek genuinely believes much of what he says, allow me to nonetheless break down his most annoyingly repetitive talking point: his ten commandments.
God is real. Coming from a guy who believes in thousands, if not millions, of gods by virtue of his Hindu faith, I find that statement ironic. If you perceive that to be a technicality, allow me to ask you this: is this country not for atheists?
There are two genders. Although I encourage readers to reference my earlier works regarding my opinion on this, the bottom line for the cisgendered is this: the effort it takes to respect people is a hell of a lot less than the effort it takes to be someone you are not, as well as less than the effort it takes to denigrate people who are trying to be themselves.
Human flourishing requires fossil fuels. Climate change is an indisputable fact. I do not wish to rehash the numerous independent methods of proving this, so look it up. It is undoubtedly leading to suffering from extreme weather and other phenomena; thus, his statement that climate change mitigation efforts have killed more people than climate change is verifiably false.
Reverse racism is racism. In a literal sense, I agree with this completely. In the sense he means this, as a wealthy member of THE privileged minority (South Asians/East Asians), I doubt he realizes the full extent of racism today. I do not have the space to restate these arguments either, so I encourage people to look up unconscious bias as well as the alarming parallels between mass incarceration and Jim Crow, for starters.
An open border is no border. Although drug trafficking is a concern, his inability to commit to increasing legal immigration so South/Central Americans can escape severe poverty and violence suggests it is not his only one. Additionally, based on suggestions about the use of the American military in Mexico, I am not entirely certain Republican candidates understand where the border is or have learned the lessons of the Global War on Terror.
Parents determine the education of their children. There are multiple aspects to this – public versus private schools, what material should be allowed in schools and more – that, given the climate in Sartell, I will not address right now to get my other points across.
The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind. That is too broad for me to debate, but if it is the best, then surely families of transgender kids [and doctors] should make related medical decisions?
Capitalism lifts people up from poverty. It can also crush them under increasing inequality, as it has done since Reagan, so corrective actions like welfare are essential.
There are three branches of the US government, not four. Since he worked at a corporation, and not in government, Vivek lacks knowledge of the essential role that agencies like the FBI or CDC play. Yes, many of these people have political opinions, but as someone who did a brief stint in this realm, one would be shocked how much pressure they put on each other to be apolitical at work. Also, I am sure we would all be shocked by the growth in drug trafficking, human trafficking, terrorism and espionage that would occur if we lost the FBI and “gave” its role to the states. And that’s just one agency.
The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history. Since Vivek admitted that he started studying foreign policy six months ago, I doubt he knows other documents that warrant comparison. Aspirationally, I hope he is right, but the Constitution is being tested right now.
Janagan Ramanathan is a Sartell High School alum, former U.S. Naval Academy midshipman and current aerospace engineering major at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.