Vivek Ramaswamy may just be the saviour Indians with an American Dream have been waiting for. Or is he the enfant terrible who’s going to ruin it for everyone?
President-elect Donald Trump’s two blue-eyed boys, Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, are currently co-chairing the Department of Government Efficiency. They have openly batted for H-1B visas— visas for high-tech workers, a lot of whom come into the US from India. This has started a civil war among Trump supporters. Trump has been equivocating on the issue ever since he started his 2016 presidential campaign. His ‘America First’ capitalised on his potential vote base’s anti-immigrant sentiment. A lot of his supporters, therefore, have seen his latest statement on how his companies, too, rely on foreign workers as some sort of betrayal.
Rubbing MAGA The Wrong Way
Ramaswamy stirred the hornet’s nest by critiquing the American culture of venerating “mediocrity over excellence for way too long”, as a result of which immigrants are essential for maintaining the country’s growth trajectory. If Ramaswamy were a White Anglo-Saxon Puritanical man, this criticism would have been lumped as a justified, even if tasteless, expression of concern for America’s greatness. But the 39-year-old former GOP presidential candidate is a ‘tataiyya‘ (wasp), and he’s stinging MAGA supporters the wrong way. For his love—even if somewhat qualified—of immigrants, Ramaswamy is inching towards the Democratic line.
Musk and Ramaswamy are both being accused of jeopardising the future of American workers and students. They are now in the enemy camp. But why is it of any concern to those of us in India, especially if we do not have any green card ambitions?
Who Is An American?
This internal strife of Republicans tells the oft-repeated but doomed-to-be-ignored story of the triumph of self-interest over every lofty-sounding principle. Musk and Ramaswamy represent a social class that sees politics as a necessary means to the end. It is the same principle at work when Trump threatens India with trade tariffs despite proclaiming, “I love Hindoo”. Indian-origin supporters of the Republican Party, the smart ones at least, bank on this principle: the self-interest of tech and finance moguls may reign in the racist tendencies of those who see immigrants as a threat.
The utilitarian principle in assessing who is worthy of being an American is on full display here. Tech bigwigs cannot continue to carry on their businesses without highly skilled foreign workers. Small businesses or agriculture entrepreneurs rely on unskilled foreign labourers, ideally illegal immigrants, so that they can be hired for less than minimum wages. Asylum-seekers suit nobody.
The nativists in Trump’s broader support base are feeling let down by his big tech allies and vice versa. But what were these tech moguls thinking? That they would not be resented for their wealth and clout after designing and funding a political campaign that kept hammering on how average Americans have been defrauded of their rightful dues by the ‘outsiders’ and their domestic cheerleaders, i.e. Democrats?
Double Jeopardy
The working class, including immigrant groups such as Hispanics, Asians, and South Asians, rallied behind the Republicans because they felt left out by the broken ‘system’ that Trump promised to fix in their favour. His announced cabinet of millionaires is the first jolt to that promise. Many may be wondering how their concerns around the prices of eggs and bacon can even be understood by those who never think twice before buying islands and social media platforms. And when the same billionaires seem to be threatening their prospects of getting jobs, it’s a double jeopardy.
Indians in Silicon Valley and Seattle may be forgiven for being baffled at the moment. Are they insiders or outsiders? What will it take for them to be seen as the people who are building this country and not “third-world invaders” despite their green cards or even American passports?
Why is anyone surprised that Ramaswamy is facing racial slurs from his fellow MAGA supporters? The adage “nobody is free until everyone is” needs to be paid more heed to make sense of this mayhem. Exclusionary political campaigns have a terrible habit of altering their course to make the shooter the target. Prejudice boomerangs.
As Jermaine, a Jamaican Uber driver living in Florida, says, “They (Republicans) have everything now, the Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court…who are they going to blame for their failures? Us Jamaicans?”
No, Jermaine, they’ll blame each other. Happy New Year.
(Nishtha Gautam is a Delhi-based author and academic.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
