I realized why I like Vivek Ramaswamy when I heard Sen. Tim Scott announce that he’s created an exploratory committee to decide whether he should run for president. Scott speaks like a politician; Vivek speaks like a conservative. The former says what his consultants tell him to say; Vivek offers unfiltered insights into his thinking and is willing to say what politicians have been trained not to say. That’s clear from Vivek’s 25 goals as president and his honesty about so-called “transgenderism.”

Briefly, regarding Tim Scott, I admire him as a person: He’s a highly intelligent man who overcame a difficult childhood to become a successful businessman and politician, and he’s mostly conservative. However, Scott has been marinated in D.C. politics and, to my ear, he’s lost his authenticity. His video about his exploratory committee sounds like it went through two focus groups and three consultants before it finally came out of his mouth:

I will never back down in defense of the conservative values that make America exceptional.

That's why I'm announcing my exploratory committee for President of the United States.

This fight is personal.

I want every American to have the same opportunities I had. pic.twitter.com/HV56pbyKdB

— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) April 12, 2023

The same was true of Nikki Haley’s announcement that she was throwing her hat into the ring. In both cases, they as if you could open a 1970s-style catalog called “Politicians,” leaf through its pages for the “generic conservative” line, and find their pictures. (I may learn to think they’ve got what it takes but, for now, I’m reserving judgment.)

Trump wasn’t and isn’t like that. He is a complete original, an iconoclast who loves his country, makes great deals, and is unfettered by any leftist or Uniparty ideas—something that’s true despite his having been a Democrat. Heck, I was once a Democrat, too.

Image: Vivek Ramaswamy by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.

And it turns out that Vivek isn’t generic either. Maybe a few years in politics will stifle his honesty, courage, and originality, but right now, he’s truly an outsider who speaks from the heart and is willing to diagnose and believe he can fix America’s woes.

Vivek just released a great position statement, which he calls “America First 2.0: Vivek’s 25 Policy Commitments to Take America First further than Trump.” The 25 points are what every conservative has been saying to himself for the past six years:

01 REVIVE AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY

• Use the military, including drones, to secure our southern border
• End affirmative action: repeal Lyndon Johnson’s executive order 11246
• Protect American children: ban addictive social media under age 16 & gender confusion “care” for minors
• Make political expression a civil right & end unlawful DEI indoctrination
• Withhold federal funding for cities that refuse to protect Americans from violent crime

02 UNLEASH THE AMERICAN ECONOMY: ACHIEVE >5% GDP GROWTH

• Drill, frack & burn coal: abandon the climate cult & unshackle nuclear energy
• Put Americans back to work: dismantle Lyndon Johnson’s failed “Great Society”
• Incentivize trade schools over hollow college degrees (sorry, gender studies majors)
• Launch deregulatory “Reagan 2.0” revolution: cut >75% headcount amongst U.S. regulators
• Limit the U.S. Fed’s scope: stabilize the dollar & nothing more

03 DECLARE INDEPENDENCE FROM COMMUNIST CHINA

• Hold the CCP accountable for Covid-19: use all financial levers
• Achieve semiconductor independence: secure our modern way of life
• Stop CCP affiliates from buying American land
• Use our military to annihilate Mexican drug cartels: defend against the CCP’s opium war
• Ban U.S. businesses from expanding in China until the CCP stops cheating

04 DISMANTLE MANAGERIAL BUREAUCRACY

• Shut down toxic government agencies: Dept of Education, FBI, IRS, and more (and rebuild from scratch when required)
• End civil service protections for bureaucrats: 8-year term limits instead
• Eliminate federal employee unions: repeal JFK’s executive order 10988
• Move >75% of federal employees out of Washington D.C. & end pro-lazy “remote work” option
• Cut wasteful expenditures: White House, not individual agencies, will submit budget requests to Congress

05 END WEAPONIZATION OF GOVERNMENT & FINANCIAL MARKETS

• Pardon defendants of politicized prosecutions: Trump, Mackey, and peaceful Jan 6 protesters
• Hold Congress accountable for “hush money” fund: taxpayers should not subsidize sexual misconduct
• Publish the Jeffrey Epstein client list: government should not use police power to shield select elites
• Rescind Biden’s ESG rule for retirement funds: get politics out of corporate America and capital markets
• Oppose CBDCs: fight all plans for digital currency, a dangerous scheme for government control over our bank accounts

The big question, of course, is whether, if he wins, Vivek can achieve any of those goals. Trump tried his darndest, but he didn’t get his second term, and the Biden administration has erased everything Trump did.

Vivek, however, shares two virtues with Trump and enjoys two benefits Trump lacked. The virtues are huge native intelligence and a business background. Both men understand how to get things done.

As for those additional benefits, first, thanks to Trump being the canary in the coal mine (e.g., a conservative outsider in D.C.), Vivek got to see into the heart of the Deep State. He’ll lack Trump’s dangerous naivete. The second is that Vivek, unlike Trump, is a smaller target. In that, he’s comparable to Ron DeSantis because both have unremarkable private lives.

The other thing that really endears Vivek to me is his willingness to state the truth about so-called “transgenderism”: It’s a mental illness. He made this perfectly clear in an email he sent out following the shooting in Nashville:

Ramaswamy said that those who identify as the opposite sex, “more often than not,” are exhibiting “a sign and a symptom that they are suffering from a mental illness.”

“I reject the idea that it is somehow ‘humane’ to affirm their confusion, rather than to actually help them. It’s inhumane,” he added.

And there it is, in simple, accessible words that should end the madness sweeping America and destroying so many of its children.

In case anyone is wondering, I’m not endorsing Vivek, Trump, or DeSantis. All have the potential to win, and all will be better than a Democrat. What I’m trying to do is see the unique benefits those candidates bring to the table. I’ll be watching the debates with interest to see what they have to say and what the other potential Republican presidential candidates have to say.

I do know, though, what I’ll do if my eventual choice doesn’t make it to the top of the ballot. In that case, I’ll swallow my disappointment and vote for the Republican candidate, whomever he or she is. After all, a disappointed conservative’s abstention in November is the equivalent of a vote for Biden (or Harris or Stacey Abrams or Michelle Obama, ‘cause if it’s not Biden, it’s going to have to be a woman who identifies as black).