Curt Smith: Vivek Ramaswamy is a rising conservative star

Keep your eye on Vivek Ramaswamy, the Cincinnati entrepreneur, author and not-for-profit executive traveling the country with a new vision of what it means to be a conservative.

It is a compelling vision, and he is an articulate and winsome champion of this common-sense, populist approach.

He spoke recently at Hillsdale College in Michigan to an eager and engaged audience of perhaps 1,000 who warmly received his message and embraced his views.

The university’s lovable, languid president, Larry P. Arn, interviewed him following his remarks and asked the question on most minds in the room.

“So, when are you running for president?” Arn asked.

Ramaswamy demurred, saying politics has limits and that he hopes to be a change agent in other ways. But what he did not say is that he could barely run in 2024, as he is only 37 years old. The U.S. Constitution, which his remarks demonstrated he knows well, requires presidents to be 35 years old before assuming office.

Perhaps he will run for the U.S. Senate in Ohio in 2024 or for another office, but whatever venues he chooses, Ramaswamy is a future force for conservative values and views.

For example, he advocated repealing a law that compels presidents to spend all the money Congress appropriates. The act, passed in 1974 as part of the titanic struggle between Congress and President Richard M. Nixon, changed the power dynamic between these two branches of government. Ramaswamy gave an able and perceptive diagnosis of the spending problem, though he did not explain how he would persuade Congress to yield such power to a future president.

He also championed limiting the time anyone at any level can serve in the federal civilian workforce to eight years, under the theory that, if presidents are limited to eight years, should not that be the standard for all? Again, applause from the crowd without the details one needs for serious policy proposals. But this is not the time for coalition-building and think-tank papers. Now is the time to build a political consensus, which Ramaswamy seems well on his well to fostering.

He also advocated for retaining the focus of corporations on earning money for their owners, better known as shareholders. He rejected the so-called DEI (diverse, equitable and inclusive) and ESG (environmental, social, governance) movements, citing a 1919 Michigan court case that involved Henry Ford and the Dodge brothers, titans of the auto industry that still dominates the Michigan economy where Hillsdale resides.

He has written several books on these themes, including “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam” and “Nation of Victims,” for those interested in learning more.

And Indiana even got a shout out, too, which pleased this Hoosier audience member. He was explaining why his parents settled in Cincinnati after leaving their native India in the early 1980s. It was to be close to a relative who had emigrated earlier and settled in Indiana. That begs the question, why Indiana, he added? “She looked on a map and saw that Indiana contained the word India,” he quipped.

Vivek Ramaswamy is a tough ballot name, but Barack Hussein Obama showed us Americans will vote for new names. But far more important, Americans are looking for new ideas, new voices and new ways of thinking. On that score, Ramaswamy is compelling.

But his new approach is really the old, time-tested truth at the heart of the American founding of hard work, market-based economies and the rule of law. That is why this new leader has such promise and potential to help foster old-fashioned success in his beloved America. And he has lessons to teach America’s aspiring future leaders, if they will listen and learn.•

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Smith is chairman of the Indiana Family Institute and author of “Deicide: Why Eliminating The Deity is Destroying America.” Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.

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