Vivek Ramaswamy in Nashua

 

2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy came to Nashua last night for a Meet & Greet at the home of Eric and Kathy Park.  I wanted to hear him speak, but more than that I wanted to see the beautiful house I often drive past just so I can get a look at it.  I was not surprised by the beauty of Eric and Kathy's home.  I was surprised by Vivek.  (He pronounces it ViVAKE with the emphasis on VAKE.  I heard people calling him Vake for short.)     The surprise?  What Vivek proposes might just work, but as he said last night, there is a window of opportunity that is rapidly closing.

Like Trump, Ramaswamy recognizes that the Swamp is the problem.  He described our government as having evolved into an unaccountable mess.  It now has four branches:  Executive, Legislative, Judicial, and an Administrative State branch that actually runs things and is accountable to no one.  Unlike Trump, Ramaswamy has no plan to work with Congress to enact necessary reforms.  That was Trump's mistake.  Trump came into the presidency promising to repeal ObamaCare, and in the end, he wasn't able to get it done, thanks largely to the late John McCain.  Vivek plans, instead, to rein in the bureaucracy through the use of his executive powers.  He will start by getting control of the budget process.

At some point in our history, he said, the wording in our budgets went from "may" spend to "shall" spend.  Permission to spend public funds became the mandate to spend public funds.  Ramaswamy believes that as president he will have the power and the will to reverse this through executive powers.  It's an ambitious start, one that would return substantial power to the Executive branch.

Our bureaucracy has grown beyond the point where it can be reformed, he said.  Reform can only happen by shutting down bloated agencies and rebuilding them from scratch when required.  He mentioned the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, the Department of Education, the FBI, and the IRS as some of the ones that have to go.

Vivek's campaign website lists 25 policy commitments:

01 REVIVE AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY

• Use the military, including drones, to secure our southern border
• End affirmative action: repeal Lyndon Johnson’s executive order 11246
• Protect American children: ban addictive social media under age 16 & gender confusion “care” for minors
• Make political expression a civil right & end unlawful DEI indoctrination
• Withhold federal funding for cities that refuse to protect Americans from violent crime

02 UNLEASH THE AMERICAN ECONOMY: ACHIEVE >5% GDP GROWTH

• Drill, frack & burn coal: abandon the climate cult & unshackle nuclear energy
• Put Americans back to work: dismantle Lyndon Johnson’s failed “Great Society”
• Incentivize trade schools over hollow college degrees (sorry, gender studies majors)
• Launch deregulatory “Reagan 2.0” revolution: cut >75% headcount amongst U.S. regulators
• Limit the U.S. Fed’s scope: stabilize the dollar & nothing more

03 DECLARE INDEPENDENCE FROM COMMUNIST CHINA

• Hold the CCP accountable for Covid-19: use all financial levers
• Achieve semiconductor independence: secure our modern way of life
• Stop CCP affiliates from buying American land
• Use our military to annihilate Mexican drug cartels: defend against the CCP’s opium war
• Ban U.S. businesses from expanding in China until the CCP stops cheating

04 DISMANTLE MANAGERIAL BUREAUCRACY

• Shut down toxic government agencies: Dept of Education, FBI, IRS, and more (and rebuild from scratch when required)
• End civil service protections for bureaucrats: 8-year term limits instead
• Eliminate federal employee unions: repeal JFK’s executive order 10988
• Move >75% of federal employees out of Washington D.C. & end pro-lazy “remote work” option
• Cut wasteful expenditures: White House, not individual agencies, will submit budget requests to Congress

05 END WEAPONIZATION OF GOVERNMENT & FINANCIAL MARKETS

• Pardon defendants of politicized prosecutions: Trump, Mackey, and peaceful Jan 6 protesters
• Hold Congress accountable for “hush money” fund: taxpayers should not subsidize sexual misconduct
• Publish the Jeffrey Epstein client list: government should not use police power to shield select elites
• Rescind Biden’s ESG rule for retirement funds: get politics out of corporate America and capital markets
• Oppose CBDCs: fight all plans for digital currency, a dangerous scheme for government control over our bank accounts

Vivek Ramaswamy is a smart guy who built a billion-dollar company.  What he said last night made sense to me.  His plan for turning the country around sounded possible.  However, there were some in the crowd who wondered aloud if he, or any other Republican, can win the presidency with current state of our broken elections.  Never mind the election, Ramaswamy is a long shot to win the Republican nomination, even though he says he plans to win.

So two questions came to mind after the evening was over and I had time to think about what he said.  How does he plan to fend off the inevitable attacks, and how will he avoid the inevitable negative branding from the establishment?  His plan strikes me as more threatening to the Uni-Party than even Donald Trump was, and look what they've done to him.  They will be worse with Ramaswamy.

Second question, what if Trump wins the nomination again?  Will Ramaswamy fold his tent and go home, or will he find a way to work with Trump in a new administration?

The home of Eric and Kathy Park

I asked the videographer recording the event if the recording would be available on Ramaswamy's campaign website.  He said it would, and it would also be on YouTube.  I haven't found it yet, but when I do, I'll post it.