background
Another TV duel is coming up in the US primary election campaign. Currently, 38-year-old Vivek Ramaswamy is considered the Republicans’ great hope. Who is the biotech entrepreneur and does he have a chance as a newcomer?
“We are in the middle of a national identity crisis,” is how Vivek Ramaswamy began the video message with which he declared his candidacy: faith, patriotism and hard work have disappeared and been replaced by new, secular religions. For example through the Covid cult, climate change cult or gender ideology.
So much for the usual right-wing populist lament that Donald Trump has introduced into the Republican Party.
But here it doesn’t come from the mouth of one of the proverbial “old, white men”, but from an extremely good-looking, vital man in his late thirties with a winning laugh and clearly non-European roots. From the perspective of many, the most exciting newcomer on the US political stage.
immigrant child, Billionaire, Hindu
“Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?” asks a television presenter on behalf of many Americans. His answer: He is the child of immigrants, his family comes from India, he has enjoyed the American dream to the fullest and is a solution-oriented entrepreneur.
In fact, Dr. Ramaswamy a kind of prodigy. His parents were not yet US citizens when he was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1985. At a young age he was a top student, was considered a tennis star and a gifted pianist.
This was followed by years of study at the most prestigious US universities, obtaining degrees in law and biology. Then he switched to business and founded a company: Ramaswamy became a billionaire with pharmaceutical products. He saw himself as a believing and practicing Hindu, as an “instrument of God”.
A kind of Obama
Faithful, wealthy, political career changer and father of two sons: that’s the stuff the heroes of Republican America are made of.
With Ramaswamy, his freshness and his irrepressible energy are added: like a kind of Obama the Republican, he speaks freely at campaign events, improvises, immediately connects with the audience and even raps, like at the Iowa State Fair.
If it weren’t for the bulwark of Trump, one might think that Ramaswamy was unstoppable.
No end to oil and gas
Politically, he is fully in line with Trump supporters who adhere to the “Make America Great Again” philosophy. These include the principles “abortion is murder, the Washington establishment is corrupt and climate change is inflated.”
Ramaswamy never tires of emphasizing that more people die from the end of fossil fuels than from global warming. With the help of oil and gas, a lot of suffering could also be alleviated in poorer regions of the world.
Stop aid to Ukraine
And then there is Ramaswamy’s demand for a stop to aid to Ukraine. The person who is completely unfamiliar with foreign policy considers this to be a waste of money.
Ukraine should give up Crimea and NATO membership: In return, Putin would then withdraw. And with a little negotiating skills, you might even forego the alliance with China.
Ramaswamy repeatedly warns that after the war, US military high tech could end up in the hands of unpredictable war lords, as happened in Afghanistan.
Speculation about office as vice
It is striking that Ramaswamy spares no competitor in the election campaign, except one: Donald Trump.
And so there has long been speculation as to whether the 38-year-old would take a detour to the White House: through the office of Vice President. In any case, the self-made billionaire does not lack the necessary self-confidence.