By Virginia Drye
Eagle Times Staff
While making several campaign stops in New Hampshire just two weeks after the First Republican Debate, Vivek Ramaswamy hosted a Town Hall at the Newport Opera House on Saturday night. Laura McCrillis Kessler, the Executive Director of the Opera House, said there were about 200 people in attendance; it was the first event held at the Newport Opera House since it closed in April for construction for an ADA-compliant ramp and steps in the back of the building. Kessler added, “It’s wonderful to see life back in the building.”
Ramaswamy introduced his ten truths at this event, noting that they are “the things people agree on in private but are too afraid to say in public.” His ten truths included the following:
1. God is real.
2. There are two genders.
3. Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.
4. Reverse racism is racism.
5. An open border is no border.
6. Parents determine the education of their children.
7. The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.
8. Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.
9. There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.
10. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedoms in history.
Ramaswamy introduced himself as the son of immigrants who followed the American Dream and founded multiple-billion-dollar cooperations. His message centered around the idea that America is in the middle of a National identity crisis. “Faith, patriotism, hard work, and family these things have disappeared, only to be replaced by new secular religions in this county…Do you think it’s an accident that we see the rise of these secular cults at the same time in our national history? It’s not; these are symptoms of a deeper void of purpose and meaning in our country.”
The topics that he covered included immigration, eliminating DC bureaucracy, and the revival of founding principles of the American Revolution.
Several of the questions asked were from college students from Dartmouth and teenagers asking him about his opponents in the primary race, Ukraine, law and order, and his religious faith—most of the questions were for clarification of previous statements made during interviews.
He concluded the Q&A portion by saying, “We’re taught to believe that we are a nation in decline. That we’re at the end of the ancient Roman Empire. I don’t think it has to be that way. I don’t think we have to be ancient Rome. I don’t think we have to be a nation in decline.” And compared the nation to being in adolescent hood. “And when you do it that way, it starts to make sense because when you go through your adolescence, you go through that identity crisis, like you lose your sense of who you are. Lose your way; I did, and maybe a lot of you did too… But I don’t think we have to be that nation in decline. The truth is, we can still be a nation in our ascent.”
“[We are] still a shining city on a hill that country where we can look our kids in the eye in good conscience and tell them that this is the country where no matter who you are or where your parents came from or what your skin color is, for how long your last name is and you still get ahead in this country with your own hard work your own dedication your own determination and that you know what you are free to speak your mind at every step of the way that is the American dream that is what we are running to do and that is what we together will revive to save this great nation.”
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