Vivek Ramaswamy has had enough. He sees an avalanche of racist abuse on social media, and he doesn’t like it. It’s time for the GOP to excommunicate the racist haters, he says in a column in the NYT; they’re as bad as the crazy wokesters on the left. And let’s get rid of the idea of “heritage Americans” once and for all; if you’re a responsible citizen who pays his taxes and agrees with democracy and the rule of law, it doesn’t matter when your family moved here.
Ramaswamy never mentions the name of J.D. Vance, but this is a frontal assault on the VP, who is more closely associated with the concept of “heritage Americans” than any other politician. He does, however, refer to Vance’s Indian wife with approval.
The NYT column raises two questions for me. First of all, it suggests that Ramaswamy will be vulnerable to a challenge from the reactionary right during the campaign in Ohio. Second, I can’t help wondering if Vance’s marriage can survive years of this kind of attack; his family is a living repudiation of his ideology and his ambitions. Wouldn’t divorcing your Indian wife in the name of party unity be the ultimate right-wing Sister Souljah moment?