Vivek Ramaswamy: Why He's Running for President—and Against 'Woke Capitalism'

The Capitalist Punishment author explains his America First 2.0 agenda, how to fix America's identity crisis, and why he no longer calls himself a libertarian.

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Vivek Ramaswamy: Why He's Running for President—and Against 'Woke Capitalism'

Today's guest is Vivek Ramaswamy, an Ohio-based biotech entrepreneur and best-selling author who is running for the Republican presidential nomination. His America First 2.0 platform combines some libertarian elements (prioritizing economic growth, opposing central bank digital currencies, shutting down whole federal agencies) with others that are anything but ("using our military to annihilate Mexican drug cartels").

He tells Zach Weissmueller and me why Donald Trump has accomplished as much as he ever will as president and why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—who, like Ramaswamy, opposes woke corporate activities—is simply "responding to what the base wants, jumping like a circus monkey without actually having independent thoughts about what our actual principles ought to be." He discusses why he thinks Julian Assange should be pardoned and why the FBI, IRS, and other federal agencies should be shuttered. And he explains why he no longer calls himself a libertarian.

We also discuss his new book, Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For, a critical analysis of ESG rules and what he calls "lurking state actions" that he says are driving corporations to develop policies to ward off government interference.

This is a podcast version of Reason's weekly livestream, which takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Comments

[Naime Bond]

Probably quit being libertarian for the same reason one who aspires to elected office would leave e.g. the Church of Scientology. He also needs a clever and short nick name so that it can printed on lawn posters and flyers so people reading it will think he's a real 'American'.

[DarrenM]

V for Vendetta (or something).

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[Gaear Grimsrud]

Wasn't a problem for Barack Hussein Obama

[CE]

Change his first name to Victor, or better yet, Victory. Make people think he's a winner.

Or choose something even more multicultural, like that Irish Robert Francis O'Rourke guy, who goes by "Beto".

[Derp-o-Matic 6000]

Viva Vivek!

[Overt]

"a critical analysis of ESG rules and what he calls "lurking state actions" that he says are driving corporations to develop policies to ward off government interference."

This is the key point. Governments in the US heavily regulate around 70% of the economy, when you account for ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, Dodd-Frank, SEC, and Public Education. In this landscape you cannot give the benefit of the doubt that companies are merely exercising free choice. Some companies are acting on values their officers genuinely have. Some companies are acting on values in an attempt to placate the government- including appointing board members and hiring officers that will promote these same values.

This is what fascism is. And it is no surprise that this is being driven by leftists with the same political ancestry that respected Mussolini and his political ideology that aligned the private sector with the public. We cannot blindly insist these are "private actors" when the government has coerced private industry to adopt the people and tactics of government cronyism.

Ramaswamy has decided that the fight to roll back government is a losing one, given the current state of things. Corporations have already been captured by the government, and so- in his mind- the only hope is to restrain them using what government his side can wrest control of.

I still hold out hope that government can be rolled back, but that does not invalidate the point he has made about creeping fascism in this country.

[JesseAz]

The roll back won’t start until the bleeding is stopped. Forcing government to stop what you describe above, fascism, is the first step. Passing laws to disallow government to do these things shouldn’t be required, but it is a step to enforcing it and creating means to stop the unelected state as well.

I would rather have a candidate putting the individual in front of influenced business than pretend business is not influenced like many libertarians seem to do.

[Red Rocks White Privilege]

Roll back historically never happens without some kind of societal collapse, though. That's the insidious part of allowing a society to become increasingly complex--it takes on a governing apparatus to reflect that complexity.

When the western Roman empire finally ended on a de jure basis, the areas of Europe outside of Constantinople's control didn't just fall immediately into feudalism. They simply operated Roman administrative systems on a smaller, regional scales. It really wasn't until around the 700s that what we came to know as feudalism really established itself.

[Overt]

"Passing laws to disallow government to do these things shouldn’t be required, but it is a step to enforcing it and creating means to stop the unelected state as well."

I tend to agree, though I think the political capital spent on some narrow legislation would be better spent making broader reforms. For example, I think the time is right to use CRT/Queer-Crazy indoctrination in schools to do more of the stuff like AZ is doing- pushing full voucherization of schools.

[CE]

Except they're not "developing policies to ward off government interference." They're caving in to their progressive employees and Grievance Studies HR staff, to push for social justice faster and harder than the clowns in the state government, who have to at least try to appeal to centrist voters sometimes.

[DarrenM]

I get the impression he's running for Trump's VP, assuming Trump won the Republican nomination. He probably would not be a bad choice.

[JesseAz]

He has attacked Trump many times.

This stuff is easy to find.

https://nypost.com/2023/03/04/vivek-ramaswamy-hits-trump-on-fauci-border-and-nepotism/

[damikesc]

He has, but it is usually along the lines that he took his ideals as far as he could and he could take them further. I wish he had a chance as I think he'd be a quite good candidate. Trump's staffing of his first admin and his COVID actions are going to be massive problems for him.

[Muzzled Woodchipper]

I agree with one of his assessments: I agree that Trump has done all that will do. I’m not sure it’s possible that government and TMITE would allow it. If you thought the TDS of 2016-2020 treated him wrongly, as I do, even if I don’t agree with everything he did, that level will amp up exponentially if he could somehow figure out a way to win the primary. Shit will really hit the fan at that point.

[Public Entelectual]

Why am I not surprised that his new book's first erstwhile reviewer didn't bother to read it :
"Vivek produced another stellar novel! He describes the rise of ESG, or left-leaning investing, done by large asset managers on behalf of everyday American citizens. Bravo, Vivek!"

[Mother's Lament]

Fuck off, Shrike, and stop sockpuppeting.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

This is the immigration success story that Reason should be promoting!

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Yeah I like Vivek Better than Trump or DeSantis at this point but I really want to pull a D ballot in the primary and vote for RFK Jr. just to fuck with them. What to do?

[kcuch]

Pull the handle for the R, and then you can come back and pull the lever for the D as many times as you'd care to.

[aajax]

I had hopes for Vivek but if you listen to him critically, he’s bundle of simplistic solutions with foreseeable contradictory consequences. He is sure he can pick winners and losers as far as what’s good for the country, and should be allowed to execute his choices as president. He can’t, because no one can. His speaking manner is also annoyingly know-it-all, when he clearly doesn’t. On the likability factor, he’s another non-starter Republican.

[Truthfulness]

He's better than Biden, that's for sure.

[Tionico]

prioritizing economic growth, opposing central bank digital currencies, shutting down whole federal agencies) with others that are anything but ("using our military to annihilate Mexican drug cartels").

Yes Yes, Yes and HELL NO. The Mexican cartels thrive because WE support them, WE hold our borders open, WE play footsie at the border and anywhere inland they are to be found, look the other way as they fearlessly and unhindered operate on OUR side the border. CLOSE DOWN that side of things, and don;t try and tell me it cannot be done. it WILL not be done until it is made a prority. But for us to deploy troops deep inside a foreign nation is NOT lawful nor wise. That would break all manner of international law, practice, ethics, and economics.
SEAL our sothern border, then serously begin to track down and send back home ALL the foreign invaders who have come here illegally. But DO NOT send troops south of the Boundary..
CONGRESS are the ones to declare war. This guy cannot, and must not. Such talk would make ke work hard against him
Nowm should he come up with a different pln than invading and taking them out in a foreign country, Id be happy to hear him out.
We are already invlved in prosecutingwars all iver this big dirtball.And hE wants another?
Nope. I'd sooner vote for Biden's dog.

[Tionico]

re: heads up: how about setting up a bot or something where a URL embedded into a post flags it for review, blocking it from visibility ntil after verifying it is not spam? Blocing that poster is useless because the wretch is right back in the net piece with different name. then BLOCK the sending URL from posting here ever again. Spammrs ruin this section. END IT.

[Miss Ann Thrope]

uh, ya know, uh, uh, uh ya know uh ad nauseam

[Spiderwilliams]

Trump spent his last 12 months in office flapping his arms up and down, squawking a lot but doing nothing. He couldn't or refused to even fire Fauci.
Doesn't Vivek know that he can't get the nomination? Ron Paul had record fund raisers, huge enthusiastic crowds and was completely ignored while the media helped to resurrect John McCain's sinking campaign twice. And not calling himself a Libertarian does nothing but paint himself as a sellout. To whom I have not a clue and don't care. All I know is I'm not wasting my vote on a Republican or a Democrat. Dems do the same thing. They and the media ignored former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel when he sought the nomination for President. The hero of The Pentagon Papers who got them into the Congressional Record and risked prison time.

[cavehobbit]

What's a "pion"? Or did I mishear a word?

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