cawacko
Well-known member
For those who don't read the WSJ Vivek wrote this piece today on why he's running for President. Obviously with no name recognition his chances are about nil but nonetheless his message here is kind of fascinating. He's the son of immigrants who went to Harvard then Yale Law School. He's an entrepreneur who started a biotech company among other ventures and has a $500 million net worth at age 37. What stands out about this piece is he's first generation American and he's not white. The likely response from those who don't prefer his message is he's spouting white supremacy talking points. That response just rings so shallow.
People talk a lot about the changing demographics in America and the browning of the country. They are correct. The whole BIPOC movement is based on that and the idea that all non-white people are victims of white supremacy and white oppression thus should coalesce together. What they miss and leave out is those who come here all have different backgrounds and experiences and don't only think one way. All non-white people aren't monolithic in their world view. This guy is Exhibit A for that.
Why I’m Running for President
America has lost sight of the ideals that made it great—freedom and merit foremost among them.
America is in the midst of a national identity crisis. We hunger for purpose at a moment when faith, patriotism and hard work are on the decline. We embrace secular religions like climatism, Covidism and gender ideology to satisfy our need for meaning, yet we can’t answer what it means to be an American.
The Republican Party’s top priority should be to fill this void with an inspiring national identity that dilutes the woke agenda to irrelevance. Instead, many top Republicans recite slogans they memorized in 1980 or criticize left-wing culture without offering an alternative. To put America first, we need to rediscover what America is. That’s why I am running for president. I am launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream—one that is not only about money but about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence.
It may seem presumptuous for a 37-year-old political outsider to pursue the highest office in the land, but I am running on a vision for our nation—one that revives merit in every sphere of American life.
We must restore merit for who gets to come to America. My parents entered this country legally, worked hard and raised two kids who went on to create businesses that improved the lives of thousands of Americans. We need more immigrants like them, instead of those who break the law when they enter our country. That means securing the border unapologetically and eliminating lottery-based immigration in favor of meritocratic admission.
We must embrace merit in who gets to succeed in America. The Supreme Court appears poised to overturn racial preferences in college admissions. As president I will eliminate affirmative action across the American economy. Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 mandates that federal contractors—which employ approximately 20% of the U.S. workforce—adopt race-based hiring preferences. Top companies now regularly disfavor qualified applicants who happen to be white or Asian-American, which spawns resentment and condescension toward black and Hispanic hires. I will rescind this executive order and direct the Justice Department to prosecute illegal race-based preferences.
We must revive merit in who gets to govern in America. Democracy depends on a simple principle: The people we elect to run the government must be the people who actually run the government. The next time unelected bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci or Merrick Garland reach beyond their legal scope, I commit to doing what the president is constitutionally empowered to do: fire them. I will repeal civil-service protections for federal employees, by executive order if necessary, and replace these managerial protections with sunset clauses. If the president can’t hold his position for more than eight years, neither should most bureaucrats. I will call on Congress to repeal or amend the 1974 Impoundment Control Act and will stop funding agencies that waste money or have outlived their purpose. I will shut down agencies that can’t be reformed and create new ones built from scratch to replace them.
We must restore merit in determining which ideas win in America. The best ideas are born when no ideas are censored. Yet our government pressures technology companies to censor disfavored political speech and gives them special protections to carry it out. Internet companies are bound by the First Amendment when they act in concert with state actors. As Elon Musk did at Twitter, I will release the “state action files” from the federal government—publicly exposing every known instance in which bureaucrats have wrongfully pressured companies to take constitutionally prohibited actions.
Viewpoint censorship extends beyond the internet and pervades our economy. If you can’t fire someone for being black, gay or Muslim, you shouldn’t be able to fire someone for his political speech. I will work with Congress to enshrine political expression as an American civil right, and I will enforce existing civil-rights laws to protect workers from invidious viewpoint discrimination. The federal prohibition on religious discrimination forbids employers from forcing employees to bow down to any religion, including secular ones as defined by the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Seeger (1965) and Torcaso v. Watkins (1961). The modern woke agenda in much of corporate America fits that bill.
Once we revive our national identity around shared principles, we can muster the fortitude needed to defeat the greatest external threat to America: the rise of communist China. Unlike the Soviet Union in 1980, China today powers the modern American way of life. We must declare economic independence.
We must reclaim global energy leadership by rejecting the demands of a new climate religion that shackles the U.S. and leaves China untouched. We must achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency while vigorously protecting Taiwan. We should prohibit kids under 16 from using TikTok. We must use financial levers to hold China accountable for spawning the Covid-19 pandemic. We must even be willing to bar U.S. companies from expanding into China until its government abandons theft and other mercantilist tactics.
We can rise to this occasion if we rediscover who we really are. America’s strength isn’t our diversity but the ideals that unify us across our differences. These ideals won the American Revolution, reunited us after the Civil War, won two World Wars and the Cold War. They still give hope to the free world. If we can revive them, nothing will defeat us.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-im-running-for-president-c4a8ea7?mod=Searchresults_pos4&page=1
People talk a lot about the changing demographics in America and the browning of the country. They are correct. The whole BIPOC movement is based on that and the idea that all non-white people are victims of white supremacy and white oppression thus should coalesce together. What they miss and leave out is those who come here all have different backgrounds and experiences and don't only think one way. All non-white people aren't monolithic in their world view. This guy is Exhibit A for that.
Why I’m Running for President
America has lost sight of the ideals that made it great—freedom and merit foremost among them.
America is in the midst of a national identity crisis. We hunger for purpose at a moment when faith, patriotism and hard work are on the decline. We embrace secular religions like climatism, Covidism and gender ideology to satisfy our need for meaning, yet we can’t answer what it means to be an American.
The Republican Party’s top priority should be to fill this void with an inspiring national identity that dilutes the woke agenda to irrelevance. Instead, many top Republicans recite slogans they memorized in 1980 or criticize left-wing culture without offering an alternative. To put America first, we need to rediscover what America is. That’s why I am running for president. I am launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream—one that is not only about money but about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence.
It may seem presumptuous for a 37-year-old political outsider to pursue the highest office in the land, but I am running on a vision for our nation—one that revives merit in every sphere of American life.
We must restore merit for who gets to come to America. My parents entered this country legally, worked hard and raised two kids who went on to create businesses that improved the lives of thousands of Americans. We need more immigrants like them, instead of those who break the law when they enter our country. That means securing the border unapologetically and eliminating lottery-based immigration in favor of meritocratic admission.
We must embrace merit in who gets to succeed in America. The Supreme Court appears poised to overturn racial preferences in college admissions. As president I will eliminate affirmative action across the American economy. Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 mandates that federal contractors—which employ approximately 20% of the U.S. workforce—adopt race-based hiring preferences. Top companies now regularly disfavor qualified applicants who happen to be white or Asian-American, which spawns resentment and condescension toward black and Hispanic hires. I will rescind this executive order and direct the Justice Department to prosecute illegal race-based preferences.
We must revive merit in who gets to govern in America. Democracy depends on a simple principle: The people we elect to run the government must be the people who actually run the government. The next time unelected bureaucrats like Anthony Fauci or Merrick Garland reach beyond their legal scope, I commit to doing what the president is constitutionally empowered to do: fire them. I will repeal civil-service protections for federal employees, by executive order if necessary, and replace these managerial protections with sunset clauses. If the president can’t hold his position for more than eight years, neither should most bureaucrats. I will call on Congress to repeal or amend the 1974 Impoundment Control Act and will stop funding agencies that waste money or have outlived their purpose. I will shut down agencies that can’t be reformed and create new ones built from scratch to replace them.
We must restore merit in determining which ideas win in America. The best ideas are born when no ideas are censored. Yet our government pressures technology companies to censor disfavored political speech and gives them special protections to carry it out. Internet companies are bound by the First Amendment when they act in concert with state actors. As Elon Musk did at Twitter, I will release the “state action files” from the federal government—publicly exposing every known instance in which bureaucrats have wrongfully pressured companies to take constitutionally prohibited actions.
Viewpoint censorship extends beyond the internet and pervades our economy. If you can’t fire someone for being black, gay or Muslim, you shouldn’t be able to fire someone for his political speech. I will work with Congress to enshrine political expression as an American civil right, and I will enforce existing civil-rights laws to protect workers from invidious viewpoint discrimination. The federal prohibition on religious discrimination forbids employers from forcing employees to bow down to any religion, including secular ones as defined by the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Seeger (1965) and Torcaso v. Watkins (1961). The modern woke agenda in much of corporate America fits that bill.
Once we revive our national identity around shared principles, we can muster the fortitude needed to defeat the greatest external threat to America: the rise of communist China. Unlike the Soviet Union in 1980, China today powers the modern American way of life. We must declare economic independence.
We must reclaim global energy leadership by rejecting the demands of a new climate religion that shackles the U.S. and leaves China untouched. We must achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency while vigorously protecting Taiwan. We should prohibit kids under 16 from using TikTok. We must use financial levers to hold China accountable for spawning the Covid-19 pandemic. We must even be willing to bar U.S. companies from expanding into China until its government abandons theft and other mercantilist tactics.
We can rise to this occasion if we rediscover who we really are. America’s strength isn’t our diversity but the ideals that unify us across our differences. These ideals won the American Revolution, reunited us after the Civil War, won two World Wars and the Cold War. They still give hope to the free world. If we can revive them, nothing will defeat us.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-im-running-for-president-c4a8ea7?mod=Searchresults_pos4&page=1
