It looks like the GOP Presidential race is catching what VDARE.com calls “Indian CEO Virus.” Besides Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy joined last week, seeking to become the 47th president on an “anti-Woke” message. The diminutive Ramaswamy made his name by calling out Woke Capitalism, leading to prominent air time on Fox News. But while he says the right things about Affirmative Action and corporate leftism, he’s completely wrong on immigration. He wants to let more Viveks into this country, while at the same time calling for a revival of American national identity. Those are conflicting principles and will make him one of the worst 2024 GOP contenders. His “Anti-Woke” agenda means the replacement of the Historic American Nation.

Ramaswamy is not an elected politician. He spent most of his time in the private sector before political commentary became a side hustle. In 2021, he published Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam, a New York Times bestseller that made him a conservative media fixture. He soon launched his own firm, Strive Asset Management, that’s dedicated to combating environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) policies. Last year, he published a second book, Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence.

The 37-year-old’s pitch focuses on the threat “wokeness” poses to the American Dream. “America today is so hungry for meaning and identity at a moment in our history when the things that used to fill that void of purpose—be it faith, patriotism, hard work, family, you name it—those things have disappeared,” he told Axios’ Josh Kraushaar. “What the conservative movement needs to do is more than just criticize the poison that fills the void but fill the vacuum with a vision of American national identity that runs so deep that it dilutes these other religions, from Wokeism to Islamism” [“Woke, Inc.” author launches GOP presidential campaign, February 21, 2023].

His announcement video emphasizes his focus on this identity crisis:

We’re in the middle of a national identity crisis. Faith, patriotism & hard work have disappeared. Wokeism, climatism & gender ideology have replaced them. We hunger for purpose yet cannot answer what it means to be an American. We long for that answer. That’s why I’m running for… pic.twitter.com/aado2DzvNu

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023

Ramaswamy says some good things, particularly on Affirmative Action. He says he will eliminate race-based hiring practices and repeal the laws that mandate it. With Affirmative Action on the docket at the Supreme Court, it’s nice to hear a Republican presidential candidate make this critical issue a core part of his campaign.

I will end affirmative action in America. I will repeal Executive Order 11246, which mandates race-based quotas for government contractors—that’s 20% of the US workforce. Every Republican since Lyndon Johnson had the opportunity to do it. I’ll do it without apology. Full stop. pic.twitter.com/8ybzGibVlS

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 23, 2023

He also says Affirmative Action is “anti-white,” which few Republicans have the nerve to say. But he weirdly claims the Affirmative Action backlash will lead to more “anti-black racism.”

Affirmative action is a cancer on our national soul. It’s not just a form of anti-white & anti-Asian racism. It fuels a new cycle of anti-black racism in response. There’s no better way to fuel grievance against a race than to take something away from another based on skin color. https://t.co/B2b8C2ZyRz

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 23, 2023

And he even purloined a Dissident Right talking point and said “diversity is not our strength.”

“Diversity” is not our strength. Our strength is the set of ideals that unify us across our differences. Without that, “diversity” is meaningless. pic.twitter.com/RFwKK2HutT

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023

Despite all that, we still have, oddly enough, a brown man with an unpronounceable surname who is running for president and claims he can restore American national identity. Nobody named Ramaswamy can do that. American national identity is not a set of ideals that anyone can adopt. It’s specific to the white men who founded this country and made it great.

If Ramaswamy promised an end to mass migration and Affirmative Action, his pitch would be more legitimate despite his name and ethnicity. But he’s actually a major proponent of mass immigration and wants to increase it.

America’s strength is not our diversity but the ideals that unify us across our differences. Merit. Free speech. Truth. Accountability. I believe deep in my bones these ideals still exist, and I am running for President to revive them.https://t.co/LcDB04ihNQ pic.twitter.com/ijVRyawQPZ

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023

He opened his announcement appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight by saying he wants to bring back “merit” and boost immigration. “I think we need to put merit back into America in every sphere of our lives,” he said:

I mean merit and who gets into this country. Let’s start with that, OK. I think more people like my parents can be a good thing for this country. But people whose first act of entering this country as a law breaking one, we should say a hard no to that. Not just who gets in but also who gets ahead.

Ramaswamy tries to frame his immigration message in conservative terms. In this tweet sharing an appearance with non-woke leftist Bill Maher, Ramaswamy almost sounds like a restrictionist. He says he wants to secure the border and eliminate lottery-based immigration. That sounds nice, until you listen to the clip. He says immigrants do not come to America as victims but as “underdogs” who can be the “lifeblood of the American dream.” “We should open the door to more immigrants,” Ramaswamy declared.

We must restore merit for who gets to come into America. That means securing the border unapologetically and eliminating lottery-based immigration in favor of meritocratic admission. Full stop. I say this as the kid of immigrants. pic.twitter.com/E6oYGv7k0s

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 23, 2023

He kept to these talking points in an interview with the Epoch Times—a newspaper founded by a Chinese immigrant. He didn’t tell the paper whether he wanted more or less immigration. He just said he wants “an unapologetic points-based system for who gets into America”:

That’s not racist. It’s not discriminatory. It’s just what putting America First means—pick the immigrants who are going to make the greatest contributions to this country, who are loyal to this country, who want to be part of this country.

[Vivek Ramaswamy Answers Critics, Outlines 2024 Vision in Iowa, by Nathan Worcester, February 23, 2023]

And merit would not just include credentials. It would also assess whether a potential newcomer will be patriotic. Ramaswamy also said he is a “hardliner on illegal immigration” and wants to use the U.S. military against the drug cartels at the southwest border.

Ramaswamy is smart enough to not directly say he wants to increase immigration. But he lets it slip.

The points-based immigration system he supports would lead, unsurprisingly, to more Indian immigration, in keeping with his desire to import more people “like my parents.”

Similarly, Britain’s former home secretary, Priti Patel—no Anglo-Saxon, either—explicitly stated that a points-based system benefits her people. “We have introduced a points-based immigration system, a brand-new digital immigration system,” she said. “That is up and running, it’s working. And, the nationality that tops the list is India. It’s a high skill, sponsored by employers to work across a range of sectors” [India dominates our immigration system, says UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, Economic Times, June 30, 2022].

Ramaswamy wants to bring that system here to ensure that his people monopolize our immigration system. It’s rank ethnic nepotism disguised as a boost to the American dream. It certainly offers the American dream to South Asians, but not to the Historic American Nation. And it mirrors the Indian green-card giveaway that Treason Lobbyists in both parties support.

Another curious feature about Ramaswamy: his intense opposition to white identity. He devoted an entire chapter in his latest book to denouncing “conservative victimhood” and how awful white grievances are. He shared his view that white victimhood is equally as problematic as minority victimhood. It’s wrong for whites to notice their discrimination, he avers, and paint themselves as victims of the present system. Apparently, that results in everyone losing.

We need to be able to talk about black victimhood in the open. And the same goes for the nascent white victimhood culture we’re seeing in response. There is no gold medalist in the Oppression Olympics. America loses in the end. pic.twitter.com/fkD3s0XNp4

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) September 26, 2022

So the U.S. might one day share the grim fate of Great Britain, where a disproportionate share of the political elite is South Asian. Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy both base their campaigns on being the children of immigrants.

Ramaswamy is certainly more interesting than Haley, who is running as John McCain in a dress. The Indian businessman at least takes strong stands against Affirmative Action and diversity training.

But ultimately, his chief goal is to make America more like India, something he has in common with the other Indians in public life, from educators and politicians to public officials and Big Tech CEOS.

Ramaswamy might get rid of ESG, but he would also swell America’s emerging Indian Overclass.

That’s a death sentence for the Historic American Nation.

Washington Watcher II [Email him] is an anonymous DC insider.