Thinking Citizen Blog — Vivek Ramaswamy: the Case for Merit, Excellence, and Freedom
Thinking Citizen Blog — Sunday is Political Process, Campaign Strategy, and Candidate Selection Day
Today’s Topic: Vivek Ramaswamy (1985 — ) the Case for Merit, Excellence, and Freedom
Is Vivek right about our national identity crisis? Is he right about China? Who is this guy anyway? Well, he’s only 37 years old. He is the son of immigrants from southern India. He is a summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College with a JD from Yale. He is the author of two books, He has co-founded a biotech company and a financial firm. And now he is running for the US President as a conservative Republican. What does he have to say? I decided to find out and share what I learned. If you were to run for President, what would your focus be? Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
“THE UNAPOLOGETIC PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE”
1. ‘I am launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream — one that is not only about money but about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence.”
2. “It may seem presumptuous for a 37-year old political outsider to pursue the highest office in the land, but I am running on a vision for our nation — one that revives merit in every sphere of American life.”
3. “We must restore merit for who gets to come to America. My parents entered this country legally, worked hard, and raised two kids who went on to create businesses that improved the lives of thousands of Americans. We need more immigrants like them, instead of those who break the law when they enter our country. That means securing the border unapologetically and eliminating lottery-based immigration in favor of meritocratic admission.”
ENDING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION — RESCINDING LBJ’S EXECUTIVE ORDER 11246
1. “As president I will eliminate affirmative actions across the economy. Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 mandates that federal contractors — which employ approximately 20% of the US workforce — adopt race-based hiring preferences.”
2. “Top companies now regularly disfavor qualified applicants who happen to be white or Asian-American, which spawns resentment nad condescension toward black and Hispanic hires.”
3. “I will rescind this executive order and direct the Justice Department to prosecute illegal race-based preferences.”
FACING UP TO CHINA — A DECLARATION OF ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE
1. “Once we revive our national identity around shared principles, we can muster the fortitude needed to defeat the greatest external threat to America: the rise of communist China. Unlike the Soviet Union in 1980. China today powers the modern American way of life. We must declare economic independence.”
2. “We must reclaim global energy leadership by rejecting the demands of a new climate religion that shackles the US and leaves China untouched.”
3. “We must acheive semiconductor self-sufficiency while vigorously protecting Taiwan. We should prohibit kids under 16 from using Tik Tok. We must use financial levers to hold China accountable for spawning the Covid-19 pandemic.”
NB: “We must be willing to bar US companies from expanding into China until its government abandons theft and other mercantilist practices.”
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/21176084.Vivek_Ramaswamy
Opinion | Why I’m Running for President
Opinion | Ramaswamy Reaches for the Presidency
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Be thine own palace or the world’s thy jail.” John Donne
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, 11/17/20
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to political process or campaign strategy or 2020 candidate selection or anything else for that matter.
This is your chance to make some one else’s day or change their thinking. Or to consolidate in your own memory something worth remembering that might otherwise be lost. Or to clarify or deepen your own understanding of something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
