- he sought to appeal to evangelical Christian right and Christian nationalist voters, [...] Ramaswamy has criticized secularism. He said that the U.S. was founded on "Christian values" or "Judeo-Christian values"
Exploiting known vulnerability in a voting block. A strategy that started with the Christian Coalition in the late 70s to early 80s which turned this historically non-voting segment of the population into a reliable and predictable voting block. The love their god and their big mans who they seem to deify.
- Ramaswamy is a vocal supporter of Donald Trump. [He] promised to pardon him if elected president
Fucking sycophant.
- He supports state-level six-week abortion bans,
Yes because he has a dick and probably no empathy for those who don't have one, but would rather make decisions on their behalf because 'family values'
- Ramaswamy favors raising the voting age to 25, with exceptions, [...] he would allow citizens between 18 and 24 to vote only if they are enlisted in the military, work as first responders, or pass a civics test. He is also in favor of [...] requiring Voter ID to cast a ballot. (all things to conveniently exclude the more liberal leaning 21-24yo group, also Voter ID just makes voting more confusing and harder for the disenfranchised - voter fraud is not really a problem in USA)
Honestly - I'm not opposed to this. I think that something like this would be good for our society. We need more initiatives that support the development of engaged citizenry, and it would need to have enough diverse opportunities to do that to account for the huge disparity in education around civics. More public service work would be really positive. This is the one thing that I think is good, though obviously can understand how it underhands progressives initially, I think that overtime it would benefit progressives since people would actually understand civic responsibility and the need for regulation and funding of infrastructure, rather than cutting taxes and then wondering why our infrastructure is fucked up
- Ramaswamy supports expanding presidential power, pledging to rule by executive fiat to a degree unprecedented among modern U.S. presidents. (read: he wants to be a dictator) He supports abolishing and replacing the Department of Education, FBI, and IRS.
How sad to think that we would conclude the great experiment of democracy only 2 years shy of the 250th!
I'd need to know what he wanted to replace those agencies with, but frankly, that sounds like a lot work that will get punted into the Trump Wall phase of the plan... (read: moving goalposts)
- Ramaswamy has pledged to "use our military to annihilate the Mexican drug cartels", yet he has described himself as "not a war on drugs person" (??? Who wants a useless war with Mexico, raise your hand! ... I don't see any hands.)
We're going to use violence to end the war!
- Ramaswamy argues that identity politics promotes a "victimhood" culture that needs to be replaced with a "merit" culture that promotes excellence. He also opposes affirmative action, calling it the "single biggest form of institutionalized racism in America today", and vowing to rescind Executive Order 11246 if elected. (which basically bans discrimination based upon race, sex, age, religion etc, in Federal contractors doing jobs over $10,000) Ramaswamy has also argued that American-style capitalism provides an antidote to India's caste system by offering lower-caste citizens more economic opportunities. He opposes teaching critical race theory. (thinly veiled racist dogwhistles)
I don't agree with his conclusion, but I do feel like he's tapping into something with the mindset of folks in our culture. I'm a therapist, I would argue that I"m a halfway decent one at that. I'd even argue that I"m a topic matter experts on certain areas of evidence-based practice and diagnostics. The sheer number of people who self diagnose because they watched a TikTok video or some instagram story, and then carry that diagnosis into their reddit disclaimer: 'as a person with SEVERE BPD (which one? unclear...) Autism, DID, CPTSD I am qualified to have an opinion on this topic...' - It's mind boggling. I do think there's an inherent truth to the pathological mentality that exists in our society, and I do not think that anti-discrimination laws being repealed are the answer, sorry Vivek, try again dude.
- Ramaswamy has taken no public position on the 2017 Trump tax cuts. (so he's OK with the rich getting big cuts) [...] he expressed support for an inheritance tax rate as high as 59% and criticized intergenerational transfers of wealth, writing that they create "hereditary aristocracy". (which is the only large payment many poorer people will ever get in their life: more wealthy people have investments they can transfer without incurring tax)
Sycophant, and aware enough to know whose money he needs in his pockets to stand a chance.
- Ramaswamy favors "major concessions to Russia" in the Russo-Ukrainian war. He favors ending U.S. military aid to Ukraine, excluding Ukraine from NATO (saying he is "dead-set opposed" to it), and allowing Russia to occupy regions of Ukraine in exchange for an agreement that Russia end its alliance with China. (about as likely to happen as Charlie Sheen staying sober for 48 hours)
Fuck that shit, we should not back down on allies who have given us no reason to abandon, especially not in a way that gives Russia a leg up. The Cold War was not that long ago, and Russia is a society that is old as fuck. Putin is a huge influence on Trump, governing through deception. That is not the kind of influence that I would ever want to have a chance to develop even more daylight in the US. We used to stand for values in this country, and we used to stand behind our allies.
I'm sure he has some Crypto that he wants me to invest in as well