FORT MADISON – Vivek Ramaswamy says America can handle the truth.
It’s on the side of his campaign bus and it’s part of his stump speech, but at the end of his presentation Friday morning at Kingsley Inn, the 2024 presidential candidate said America is very young.
The truth that Ramaswamy hurls is aimed at eliminating 75% of the bureaucracy that he claims runs the country rather than elected officials.
That downsizing includes cutting out all but 15,000 of the staff at the FBI and redistributing those remaining staff among agencies that he says are better at fighting crime such as the DEA and the Securities Exchange Commission.
He also wants to disband the Department of Education and give the $80 billion back to parents to educate their children. He also wants to eliminate the Internal Revenue Service. He not only wants to finish the border wall on the border with Mexico, but he wants to build one on the north border, as well.
Radical is a term he used several times in his talk with about 50 residents over breakfast at the Fort Madison hotel.
“We’re going through our own version of adolescence and figuring out who we are really going to be before we grow up. When you do it that way it makes sense to me,” Ramaswamy said.
“You go through that adolescence, that identity crisis, and you lose your self-confidence. You do some stupid things. I did. Most of us did. But we are stronger for it when we get to our adulthood on the other side.”
He said American doesn’t have to be a nation of decline, but a nation in ascent. He even said the country may be in the very early stages of its ascent, possibly still at basecamp.
“On our way still, yes, to that shining city on the hill. That country where we can still look our kids in the eye and tell them in good conscience, that the United States is still the nation where no matter who you are, or where your parents came from, or what color your skin is, or how long your last name is, you can get ahead in this country."
“You’re free to speak your mind every step of the way. That is the American dream. That is what we’re running to.”
Ramaswamy is one generation away from immigrants from India. He’s Harvard- and Yale-educated and has had financial success investing in bringing pharmaceuticals to market, and fund management.
The Republican said Iowa has a chance to make history on Jan. 15 when voters gather in caucuses to officially kick off the 2024 campaign.
“If you believe with me that our best days can be ahead of us, then I’m here to ask for your help. You all go first for a reason. So we’re trusting you. No social medium algorithms in the air between us. No tv screens between us. I’m speaking the truth and I believe it,” he said.
“Let’s do it here in Iowa and prove that somebody coming from the outside can actually still lead us not to victimhood, not to vengeance, but to greatness again in this country.”
The 38-year-old from Dayton, Ohio is the youngest candidate in the field and rails against what he calls the “woke smoke”. Ramaswamy said the country needs to get away from economics and capitalism that’s aimed at societal ills.
His America First 2.0 platform aims to shut down the Administrative, Deep State; Declare Independence from Communist China; Unleash the American economy to achieve GDP growth by more than 5%: and revive America's national identity.
In his Truth Platform he says, among other things, that the nuclear family “is the greatest form of governance known to mankind” and parents should determine the education of their children. He also says reverse racism is racism and human flourishing requires fossil fuels.
Ramaswamy is fourth in the latest Fox polling of Republican voters favored candidates, with Donald Trump, Ron Desantis, and Nikki Haley in front. Haley passed Ramaswamy in the latest polling data.
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