GOP candidate Ramaswamy blames 'deep state,' 'wokeism' for nation's ills

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy explains his vision for America at The Gathering Room.

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy laid the blame for America’s ills at the feet of the “deep state” at a town hall event Saturday in Council Bluffs.

“What does it mean to be an American? It means we believe in this radical dream that our Founding Fathers had 250 years ago — a radical dream that I have as a citizen today — that the people who we elect to run the government ought to be the ones who actually run the government, not the managerial class in the deep state that runs the show today,” Ramaswamy told the crowd of about 100 supporters at The Gathering Room, taking the floor about 25 minutes after the scheduled start time.

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks about his vision for the United States while standing in front of a banner of his campaign's 10 "truths" at The Gathering Room in Council Bluffs on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2023.

In a speech festooned with conspiracy theories, Ramaswamy told the crowd that the United States is “starved for purpose and meaning and identity,” which is what has allowed the “poison” of “wokeism, transgenderism, climatism, covidism, globalism” to fester.

“Do you think it's an accident that we see these different poisons rise up right at the same time in American history? It’s not. These are symptoms of a deeper void, a deeper vacuum in our country,” Ramaswamy said.

Rather than bemoan the state of the county, Ramaswamy said he believes that this vacuum is an opportunity for conservative Americans to “fill that void with our version of what it means to be an American.”

America should be a meritocracy, Ramaswamy said, like the founders fought for in the American Revolution.

“You get ahead in this country not on the color of your skin but on the content of your character and your contributions,” Ramaswamy said. “That is why I've said that I will end affirmative action and racial preferences in all areas of American life. It has been a cancer on our national soul, and we will end it.”

Ramaswamy also said that conservatives need to appeal more to young people.

“We have to actually offer them an affirmative vision,” he said. “The left gives them race, gender, sexuality, climate. What are we doing? We’re saying, ‘Oh no, not all that stuff.’ I want us talking more about the value of each individual, the family, the nation, God. Individual, family, nation, God — that beats race, gender, sexuality and climate if we actually have the courage to stand up for something.”

In his courting of young voters, Ramaswamy didn't mention his proposal to raise the voting age from 18 to 25 unless the citizen serves the country by joining the military, becoming a first responder, or passing a civics test identical to the U.S. citizenship exam for naturalized citizens.

Ramaswamy's “TRUTH” signs and stickers were in abundance, referencing the 10 “truths” of his campaign, which include “God is real,” “human flourishing requires fossil fuels” and “capitalism lifts people up from poverty.”

The son of Indian immigrants, Ramaswamy was raised in Cincinnati,. He received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard University and later earned his law degree from Yale. Ramaswamy’s reported $630 million fortune began by investing in pharmaceutical companies at hedge fund QVT Financial LP.

After being named partner at age 28, Ramaswamy left the hedge fund and co-founded a biotech company, Roivant, in 2014. He later founded an investment firm that stands in opposition to environmental, social and corporate government investing -- usually called ESG -- which says that one should take into account a company’s record on those issues before investing.

Ramaswamy is one of seven GOP candidates so far to qualify for the first debate of the 2024 campaign, set for Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. Other qualifiers are former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Should he become president, Ramaswamy vowed to “abolish” various government departments and agencies “that never should have existed in the first place, or that have become so corrupted that they don’t serve their purpose,” including the U.S. Department of Education, the FBI, the IRS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“When those agencies have lost their way, we cannot just reform them,” Ramaswamy said. “We have to take the step of shutting them down.”

Ramaswamy would also deploy the United States military to the Mexican border, which he said would end illegal border crossings, human trafficking and fentanyl smuggling.

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GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy explains his vision for America at The Gathering Room.