Republican candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, has released his “10 Commandments “ of Truth that will surely appeal to conservative voters.
Ramaswamy’s TRUTH:
- God is real.
- There are two genders.
- Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.
- Reverse racism is racism.
- An open border is no border.
- Parents determine the education of their children.
- The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.
- Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.
- There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.
- The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.
Here we go…
1)God is real. To whomever so wishes to believe. The Constitution protects that, as well as the belief that God is not real or no more than a figment of organized religion. That is as fundamental as freedom can be and any governmental authority over the free exercise of religion contradicts the Constitution
2)There are two genders. Actually…gender is only a concept. Gender can be broadly defined as a multidimensional construct that encompasses gender identity and expression, as well as social and cultural expectations. Consciousness evolves while societies fight for the status quo. Within this conflict is a changing understanding of who we are against those expectations.
This isn’t going to be easy but the LAST thing we need is for government to legislate in ways that harm and diminish others.
3)Human flourishing requires fossil fuels. No. Fossil fuels are certainly a short cut to energy but are also proven to be environmentally devastating. This position of his only exists to pander to that industry. It is preposterous to take his position from any rational point of view.
4)Reverse racism is racism. Cute. I get his point. I’ve heard it many times. But it is kindergarten logic. “Reverse racism” is an idea that action to counter systemic racism is itself discrimination towards a certain racial group (for the most part, white people). But it ignores racism’s central ingredient – power. Prejudice and discrimination are inherently tied to historically institutionalised forms of systemic racism and racial hierarchies, injustices and power imbalance. Countering this (things like Affirmative Action) may change power structures (that’s the intention) but regardless of whether it’s lawful or not, is not racism. It is, to make a pun, designed to “reverse” racism. It is not racism.
5)An open border is no border. Great point. I wonder what it pertains to. Because we don’t have open borders. We never have. No one is suggesting it. There is a process by which to enter the United States. That process has been violated and our systems of immigration is in dire need of reform because without better immigration procedures people become desperate and often break the law.
So what Ramaswamy, and others, are saying is that anything short of a wall is an open border. Sadly they will not do the research that shows that an expensive and nearly impossible wall to build across the entire border, does not curtail the issues that concern them. It is not on the backs of desperate immigrants that drugs are predominantly smuggled nor are they, even when “illegal “ bleeding our public services or raising our crime rate.
6)Parents determine the education of their children. Ideally, in a way, yeah. But let’s get real. Most parents are not educators. They aren’t even necessarily good parents. In a stable household the responsibility of parents is to instill the value of learning and their influence to guide moral principles is foundational. But in a healthy and stable household, they partner with professional educators who take learning beyond the obviously limited scope of any mom and dad. In the field of education there are tools to expand knowledge and critical thinking. It’s why we no longer live in caves and now have smart phones on our lap. So…let’s just get real here.
7)The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind. I agree. But that isn’t the government of a nation of many families. And the nuclear family model didn’t break because of social mores, it broke because of economics in a money driven society that replaced community values with financial hierarchy.
8)Capitalism lifts people up from poverty. Capitalism does create wealth no question. But capitalism without market regulations is an oligarchic construct that also puts people so far below economic standards that zero becomes an achievement.
Capitalism sustains only with models that protect the working class above the class of wealth accumulation that currently puts nearly half of America’s holdings into the hands of 1% of the population. That isn’t capitalism that lifts people up.
9)There are 3 branches of government, not 4. Ok. Not sure what he’s talking about. Is he talking about the administrative agencies? Probably. Maybe we can have a good conversation about redundancies.
I pray he isn’t talking about the media.
10)The US Constitution is the greatest guarantor of freedoms in history. I agree! ….when it’s understood…and when it’s understood that its authors included Article 5 because they knew their guarantor of freedom had to grow in understanding along with its country.
I agree that it is a brilliant document designed with some vagaries so that questions could be answered by an interpretation of intentions. But when we betray those intentions with theocratic, human rights diminishing, hatred protecting, agendas, then no constitution , no matter how brilliant, can guarantee freedom.
My commandment? It’s only one: Truth matters.
(And it ain’t Ramaswamy’s)
