Vaddakencherry revs up with Vivek Ramaswamy in US presidential race

WASHINGTON: Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has launched his 2024 presidential bid with a promise to “put merit back” and end dependence on China, becoming the another community member to enter the Republican Party’s presidential primary after Nikki Haley.

Ramaswamy, 37, whose parents migrated to the US from Kerala and worked at a General Electric plant in Ohio, announced his presidential bid on Tuesday during a live interview on Fox News’s prime time show, a conservative political commentator.

The rising right-wing star has pounced on the message of ‘anti-wokeism’ and environmental, social and governance investing. He calls “wokeism” a national threat. “Wokeism” is the promotion of liberal progressive ideology and policy as an expression of sensitivity to systemic injustices and prejudices.

“I think we need to put ‘merit’ back into ‘America' in every spirit of our lives,” he said, adding that he will end affirmative action in “every sphere of American life.”

In an interview with The New York Times, he said that if elected as the president, his first action would be to “repeal Executive Order 11246, which has banned discrimination and required affirmative action for federal contractors since 1965.”

It mandates that federal contractors—which employ approximately 20 per cent of the US workforce—adopt race-based hiring preferences. Top companies now regularly disfavor qualified applicants who happen to be white or Asian-American, which spawns resentment and condescension toward black and Hispanic hires. He plans to rescind this executive order and prosecute illegal race-based preferences.

He said the US faces external threats like the rise of China.

It “has got to be our top foreign policy threat that we've gotta respond to, not pointless wars somewhere else.” “That’s gonna require some sacrifice. It's gonna require a declaration of independence from China and complete decoupling.”

We must reclaim global energy leadership by rejecting the demands of a new climate religion that shackles the U.

S. and leaves China untouched.

In a statement Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison said one thing is clear: The race for the Make America Great Again base is getting messier and more crowded by the day.

His rallying cry has been to denounce everything from climate change policies and socially responsible investing to transgender rights, critical race theory and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The next US presidential election is scheduled to be held on November 5, 2024. Ramaswamy is the fourth Indian-American to run for the White House.