Vivek Ramaswamy
Don’t be fooled, Vivek Ramaswamy is not the next leader of our generationScotty Olson/Getty Images
Carter Willis, Sports Editor
Who is this young, skinny guy with a funny last name consistently polling in second place in the Republican primary and apparently using strikingly similar phrases to former President Barack Obama? His name is Vivek Ramaswamy, and he recently used former President Obama’s now famous opening line from his 2006 Democratic National Convention speech at the Aug. 26 Republican debate about being a skinny kid with a funny last name.
Ramswamy’s introduction to most of America was the viral opening line from the Aug. 26 debate, during which he was likened to the AI platform ChatGPT by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The ChatGPT reference was a clear target for the newcomer on a debate stage amongst career politicians who made it clear from the opening statement that they were each the most gifted communicator on the stage. But where did this political newcomer come from, and why did every other candidate on the debate stage see him as a threat?
Being on defense for his political views is not something that is not new to Ramaswamy. While at Harvard University, he was a brash, outspoken Libertarian who enjoyed debating. After attending Yale University Law School and voting for the Libertarian nominee in the 2004 election, Ramaswamy turned apolitical until supporting former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election cycle. During the time he was apolitical, Ramaswamy became incredibly wealthy working as an investment banker from 2007 to 2014 and then as the CEO of his pharmaceutical company, Roivant Sciences.
Using the wealth he accumulated, Ramaswamy launched his campaign for President of the United States in February 2023. Ramaswamy’s wealth has allowed him to wear his outlandish policy ideas on his sleeve just as he did at Harvard because, as Ramaswamy puts it, he’s not “bought and paid for like every other candidate.”
At 38 years old, Ramaswamy is the youngest candidate in the race, yet the policies that he so proudly touts could not be further on the political spectrum to his own age group. For example, climate change is the number one issue for youth voters, and Ramaswamy has called the climate change agenda a hoax. Not only that, but Ramaswamy also wants to raise the voting age to 25 unless voters pass a civics test, and he is openly anti-LGBTQ+ when more of today’s youth are openly LBGTQ+ than ever before. Despite Ramaswamy’s seemingly anti-youth campaign, Ramaswamy is doing very well amongst voters under 40 years old polling at around 20 percent according to FiveThirtyEight. Ramaswamy’s success amongst youth comes down to a mixture of polling around 10 percent nationally.
That said, a lot of young voters see Ramaswamy as a young, well-spoken candidate whom they can align with on a few issues. Without looking much more into Ramaswamy, these voters are encouraged to see a young and energetic man running for office for a change. And to be fair, who can blame them? Besides Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Generation Z has not had a candidate who represented them before. After two presidents, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, at 80 and 77 years old, respectively, young people are hungry for their own hip president to represent their generation just as Bill Clinton did with the Baby Boomers and Barack Obama did with Generation X. At first glance, Ramaswamy seems to be just the guy to have a similar ascension to the White House as Obama and Clinton, with his smooth talking and rapping Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” at the Iowa State Fair being reminiscent of Clinton energizing a crowd and playing the saxophone or Obama’s basketball skills.
However, young people would be mistaken to make this man the next president of the United States. I understand that Ramaswamy offers something new and youthful to politics but he is not the right person to lead our generation, much less our nation. I sympathize with young voters who no longer want to choose between two candidates who could just as easily be in assisted living as living in the White House, but trust me when I say Ramaswamy is not the answer. Rather than voting for a candidate who does not hold any of our generation's values, we should focus more on running young people for office and pushing for age and term limits for elected officials. Our future lies in our hands- the generation that will tackle the climate crisis, not the one that calls it a hoax. The generation that will continue to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, not openly bash it. The generation that will change the notion that young people don’t vote, not raise the voting age to 25. The generation that will take us through the 21st century as a stronger, more progressive nation, not lead us back to the pre-civil rights era of the 20th century.
