To give a substantive answer, I don’t think Ramaswamy would come to Taiwan’s defense in the event China attacked. He wants to cut off funding for Ukraine and appears to be an isolationist when it comes to foreign involvement in military conflicts. That’s useful for some things like avoiding another Iraq misadventure, but certainly doesn’t fill me with confidence for me living in Taiwan.
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I clicked @SuiGeneris ’s link and this seems a very cynical way to make and dispose of alliances. He wouldn’t help us if the USA doesn’t need our semiconductors, so if he becomes Prez I guess we just have to pray that China tries to kill us before ‘Murica gets its semiconductor factories up and running.
“Also, he says that the U.S. should defend Taiwan from China until the U.S. no longer depends on Taiwan for semi-conductors, but Taiwan should defend itself after that point.”
Why would anyone trust us as an ally under these conditions?
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He has a libertarian background, I read in Wikipedia the other day.
A big part of the problem with Ramaswamy, regardless of politics, is he’s just naive and ignorant about a lot of these things (unless he’s lying, or playing a different game). If he’s elected, there would be a lot of trump like “who knew it’d be so hard?” moments (everyone! everyone knew!). Like he’ll cut off aid to Israel by 2028 because it won’t be necessary due to the stability there (that he’ll presumably facilitate). Or thinking that China is ahead of the US in nuclear capabilities. It’s way out there for anyone paying vague attention. Then things like that whole black people securing their freedoms via 2nd amendment after the civil war thing. Don’t know if that’s stinky bait, ignorance, or something else.
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Definitely, and the blithe way he rattles this stuff off is highly unsettling.
This may seem like a small thing to some, but his conception of “TRUTH” is too much for me. Number one in his scheme is “God is real”. Lots of people have faith or belief in God and you can proclaim it as loudly as you like for all I care (hell it is the USA after all). However if we’re talking about me being governed by your personal “TRUTH” in the absence of proof then I have to oppose you. I was disappointed Maher didn’t call him out on this the other day.
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I feel this to be the case with his stance on China and Taiwan, and with libertarianism in general when applied to this issue. Every inch that the US gives will be quickly taken by China, and before you know it, a year or two or three will have gone by, and the world will find itself in a different global situation. I don’t think the US and other countries should leave any vacuum that will quickly be filled by China. Certainly this shouldn’t be done voluntarily by simply walking away from situations. That’s the danger of libertarianism in today’s world.
Libertarianism provides for a much-needed dissenting voice in the US, and works well for, say, the Korean peninsula, but not with respect to China.
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This is also a bit disingenuous considering he’s a Hindu and presumably doesn’t believe in “God” but rather a whole pantheon of gods.
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I know nothing about Hinduism. Is there any overarching deity concept?
It’s complicated. Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva are the big three, but there are tons of other major gods, and different traditions within Hinduism place different deities (or none) at the top.
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If your number one priority is appeasing a God, I don’t care whether it’s the Judeo-Christian one, the Hindu one, Islamic one, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. You’re not the candidate for me.
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I don’t recall him saying anything about appeasing. Presumably he knows about the separation of church and state. In any case, his inclusion of God on the list is likely just an appeal to the evangelicals.
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I thought all those gods are merely manifestations of Krishna.
Or Krishna is merely one avatar of Vishnu, depending on which sect you belong to.
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Exactly. Like he’s basically just given a pretty clear death blow to strategic ambiguity Re Taiwan. Why the fuck would you ever ever ever say this?! He clearly has no idea about anything surrounding cross strait affairs, beyond China wants to invade Taiwan and, well, we’re just fairweather friends, right haha?
Not surprising, but another drop of disappointment to put in the toilet that is Maher. Guy is to me in political comedy what Joe Rogan to podcasting. He gets big name guests and huge views but my god has a thought ever passed through that skull? And they both basically also just accept grandstanding or bullshit totally at face value.
At any rate, and speaking of grandstanding, thats what I see Vivek as. Also, I keep reading his name and thinking of the similarly named god (Vivec) from Morrowind, but that’s off topic. He’s got a broad and very identifiable platform: he believes in the fantasy that the US was a nice little isolated island back when it was just the little boy with his rampant free capitalism growth and when people could really decide for themselves what rights others deserved. Basically, he’s Trump but isn’t such a fucking loudmouthed shitbag. Hell, both are businessmen who think that because they’ve got the skills or inheritances to conduct successful business, they can certainly run a country with no experience! Right?! Otherwise, it’s all about God, the Children, etc who fucking cares about that shit still Jesus.
Let’s run the list:
1. God is real.
The first one and I can already tell these are going to be hyper-turboretarded but slightly more diplomatically phrased Trump-isms
2. There are two genders.
Oh wow so brave, thanks for your opinion Vivek. Now please fuck off
3. Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.
And your party sure does love oil lobbyists!
4. Reverse racism is racism.
Sure. Broken clock and really a nothingburger of a statement
5. An open border is no border.
Our border is open? Why are all those silly Hispanic people lining up at it? And when do we impose martial law on the border to make sure it’s secure?
6. Parents determine the education of their children.
Oh he’s anti doe because of the liberals trying to socialism-ize the kids. How noble. And bullshit.
7. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.
Literally gobbledygook but presumably virtue signaling to straight couples and religious conservatives
8. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.
Easy for you to say while inflation stagnant wages and income inequality nearing that of the great fuckn depression is around. We love our anti-elite Elite candidates, because God forbid we talk about class consciousness 
9. There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.
I … Don’t even know what that means? Is this just deep state signaling but like, in a really very particularly retarded phrasing? It’s kinda cringe. He needs to rebrand that
10. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.
Yeah there’s some pretty stiff competition for that one and I think that given all it’s been through, probably not the case. Especially the part where it pretty specifically didn’t guarantee freedoms for a very significant section of the pop when it was written.
And like, abolishing the DoE? Jesus. As if inner city students weren’t screwed over enough by supreme court decisions and the remnants of redlining, let’s throw the Betsy solution at them. Take your underfunded public schools or your roll of the dice on a charter (if there’s room!), either way they’re getting fucked.
And this isn’t mentioning the whole raising voting age thing, which wouldn’t be a problem if the republicans would drop the evangelical bullshit as each progressive generation quite literally strays further from God. And then there’s the military service nonsense.
SERVICE GUARANTEES CITIZENSHIP
(would you like to know more?)
And for some reason these appeals to evangelicals tend to restrict certain things for certain groups of people. Yeah forgive me, but if they tow that line, it’s theirs to fucking carry. Trump never went to church much, but he clearly was constantly speaking in tongues – right to them. You wine’d them, and I’ll expect you to dine them, instead of just assuming it’s a harmless popularity play.
And being non white and thus more obviously non Christian, he’s got a harder sell for those popularity points. Not saying racism because we’ve been through that; it’s the fact that his name and skin makes more people wonder exactly which god he’s referring to. See what you yourselves have been doing. Now imagine people who are much more inclined to look at Hinduism and see idolatrous heathens and all the unpleasant other associations that come with that.
I don’t really see the appeal. At least trump was, unintentionally, funny 
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Then move on. He’s not for you. Order something else.
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So either way, they’re all manifestations of one God, whatever his name is. So Vivint isn’t wrong.
Uh, no.
Taiwan starting about 26:00. He fleshes things out a bit more than I’ve heard
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Interesting character.
Come on. What 24 year old wouldn’t accept 90K for free to go to school? Any school?
Give me 90K and I’ll take Mesopotamian basket weaving!