The irony of Vivek Ramaswamy attacking DeSantis on free speech
Ian Haworth
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The Republican primary race is already heating up, made up of two lanes of activity. The first lane, occupied by those who could actually win the nomination, is home to just two candidates: former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). The second lane is occupied by everyone else, including entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy.
For me, Ramaswamy is giving serious Andrew Yang vibes — a well-spoken and undeniably intelligent political outsider saying a lot of (sometimes contradictory) things that sound great on the surface, as long as you stay on the surface — marred by the added suspicion of sheer opportunism bred by our celebrity political environment.
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Now, it’s obvious Ramaswamy isn’t really running for president. No one can be as financially successful in the business world as Ramaswamy without understanding basic data, and as of June 5, the entrepreneur was languishing at 3.5% in the polls behind former Vice President Mike Pence and onetime South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Of course, his luck might change, but his odds aren’t exactly promising.
But these days, running for president doesn’t mean you think you can be president. Much like now-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s view of the 2020 race, the national stage provided by such a publicized political battle offers opportunities far beyond the presidency alone.
Put simply, Ramaswamy is more likely running for a spot on Trump’s theoretical Cabinet should the former president emerge victorious. And as part of this grunt work on behalf of the Trump campaign, Ramaswamy has set his sights on DeSantis while continuing to push his own brand of idealistic Yang-like proposals, including his self-designation as a free-speech absolutist.
One example of this is Ramaswamy’s argument that DeSantis signed a “hate speech bill” and that the “answer to bad speech isn’t less speech” but “more speech.”
https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1665004226823483399
Sounds great, sure. Who doesn’t love more speech? But there are two problems here.
First, the bill signed by DeSantis arguably remains fully aligned with the First Amendment, which itself does not protect all speech, with a focus on private property and private events, such as religious worship or funeral services. One must presume that Ramaswamy would protest the intentional dumping of litter onto his property — behavior prohibited by the bill, HB 269 — even if the perpetrator claimed freedom of speech as a defense.
Second, and much more importantly, if Ramaswamy truly believes that the answer to bad speech is more speech, why were editors reportedly paid to scrub inconvenient details from his Wikipedia page?
According to Mediate, an editor removed details surrounding Ramaswamy’s receipt of a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans in 2011, Paul Soros being the older brother of far-left donor George Soros, as well as accounts of Ramaswamy’s work as part of Ohio’s COVID-19 Response Team.
Let’s remember: Ramaswamy has openly celebrated the few remaining platforms for objective debate under the banner of free speech while also, if these reports are accurate, furiously erasing damaging truths from his online profile.
Sure, anyone can understand why the words “Soros” or “COVID-19 Response Team” might be red flags to conservative voters, but how does this mesh with Ramaswamy’s call for “more speech”? Or, like so many politicians, does he just mean convenient speech?
Vivek Ramaswamy might experience success telling conservatives what they want to hear, including pushing his supposed dedication to free speech absolutism, but if that simultaneously involves erasing history, then voters’ alarm bells should be ringing.
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Ian Haworth (@ighaworth) is the host of Off Limits with Ian Haworth. You can also find him on Substack.