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Vivek Ramaswamy is All American, And Evil

Vivek Ramaswamy is All American, And Evil

Last updated on: October 23, 2026 at 10:57 pm by Mary Pezzulo

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Vivek Ramaswamy is All American, And Evil 2026-10-23T22:57:28-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

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We need to talk about Vivek Ramaswamy.

I know, I know, I don’t want to talk about Vivek Ramaswamy either, but I’ve been doing nothing but that for the past several days anyway, and you need to listen. If you haven’t already, you can refer to my Substack to see my previous remarks. Do give me a follow there if you would; that’s where I put my political writing that doesn’t directly pertain to my Catholic faith. In case you didn’t know: this week, Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor of my home state of Ohio, released an attack ad against his rival, the Democrat Amy Acton. The ad featured Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, rasping that her daughter is a liar who “needs help” and no one should vote for her. Donna didn’t give many specifics, which was puzzling and awkward.

For about five minutes, right-wing pundits were insisting that this would end Amy’s campaign. Five minutes was how long it took for the media to report what was already public knowledge: as a child, Amy Acton was the victim of rape. Her stepfather, Donna’s husband, was indicted for raping Amy, but Donna and her husband fled the state before he could be prosecuted and never spoke to Amy again. Amy and her brother had been removed from their mother’s custody and spent the rest of their childhood in their father’s care. It was later revealed that in addition to standing by her man even after he allegedly committed incest, Donna Arthur has an extensive criminal history. She’s been charged with writing bad checks, theft by deception, and several counts of animal abuse, including leaving a kitten to die in a car. She isn’t a nice lady. Vivek Ramaswamy selected the most hideous person imaginable to rant about her ungrateful daughter on camera for thirty seconds, called it an attack ad, and accidentally reminded the media that his opponent overcame horrific childhood trauma to become a doctor.

The result of this astonishing ad was, largely, an outpouring of support for Amy Acton. Most everyone was horrified at Vivek’s bad taste. Even John Husted, the Republican candidate for Ohio’s Senate seat, and the outgoing Republican governor Mike DeWine, denounced it. Acton saw a surge in fundraising. About the only people still defending the ad are a befuddled President Trump, who snapped at a reporter and called her “fresh” for bringing it up; J. D. Vance, who hates everybody; and Ramaswamy himself. Vivek has doubled down. He’s proud of the ad. He explained that he was pointing out where Amy was “flawed” as if being a victim of childhood sex abuse and incest is a character flaw. This has made the outcry against Vivek even worse, as well it should be. The man should never hold office or manage anything bigger than a lemonade stand. My heart goes out for Amy for having gone through such a tragedy.

I’m not upset that people realize that Ramaswamy is scum. But I’m concerned that people on social media are claiming it’s because he’s Indian-American, and a member of the Hindu faith.

I’ve seen a lot of takes about the supposed dishonesty of businessmen from India, how chauvinistic Indians can be, the way Hindu belief in karma leads to victim-blaming. They think this is the explanation for why Ramaswamy is such jerk. It’s making me awfully uncomfortable.

I’m certainly not an expert in Indian culture. I do like to learn about it; I always enjoy teaching the class on India to my students at the after-school geography club. I am not an expert on Hinduism. I did study it a little in an undergraduate comparative religions course. We read the Upanishads. I liked them. I do have a great deal of knowledge of what it’s like to be an American from Ohio, because that’s what I am. And I can assure you, Vivek Ramaswamy is acting entirely American.

Ramaswamy is a natural born American citizen. Immigrants who become citizens are Americans too, of course, but Vivek was born and raised in Cincinnati. His mother was an immigrant and became a naturalized citizen, and his father is a lawful permanent resident who chose to retain his Indian citizenship; Vivek is a citizen because he was born here. In that way he’s exactly like my Irish great-grandmother who was born in Columbus, who also had a name and a cultural background that American WASPs found silly, and who also was treated like she wasn’t a “real” American. At the time, her Catholic faith was viewed as a frightening foreign religion and not a proper American one, just as Ramaswamy’s Hinduism is being treated now. His experience is quintessentially American.

While in Cincinnati, before he went to Harvard, Ramaswamy happened to attend a posh Catholic prep school, Saint Xavier. In a recent development, Saint Xavier’s alumni have publicly denounced Vivek, by the way. But that’s not my point.

My point is, Ramaswamy is not “acting like a Hindu” or “acting like an Indian” when he behaves so crassly. He’s acting like a rich, spoiled, American prep school kid.

Of course, there are all kinds of nice and well-adjusted people who went to prep schools. I have wonderful friends who went to St. Charles prep school in Columbus, for example. But think of the stereotype for a moment: a rich kid from Cincinnati who went to an extremely expensive prep school and then to Harvard. Always wears a snazzy suit. Weird, slicked back Jimmy Neutron hair. An extremely high opinion of himself. You’re not sure what he does for a living, but you know he’s in “business” and “tech” and other expensive-sounding things. Constantly putting other people down, and especially cruel to women. When he finds out a girl who’s his rival has been poor and a victim of abuse, he decides to bully her in the most sadistic way he can possibly manage. He sides with her abuser. He tries to humiliate her in public and it backfires because most people have at least a smidge of empathy. He does not consider the fact that this makes him look like a monster. To the extent that he understands why people are angry with him at all, he keeps doubling down and finds them unreasonable. He views having been the victim of rape, a character flaw to be made fun of.

What does that sound like?

If you had no idea who I was describing, would you think the stereotype was particularly Indian?

If I said I was talking about a man named Pius Athanasius Maximilian Kolbe Jones, wouldn’t you believe me?

Yes, now we get to the “Catholic” part of “Catholic Prep School.” The fact is, Catholics, of which I am one, have absolutely no business lampooning somebody else’s religion for denigrating a victim of childhood sexual abuse. We’ve been there and we’ve done that. No, we’re not the only ones who have. Protestant churches also have skeletons in their closets. All religions have abusive people in them. But the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and their enablers earned us a reputation. Saint John Paul the Second covered up sex abuse his entire life.

Vivek Ramaswamy isn’t loathsome because he’s Indian or Hindu. He’s loathsome because he’s made terrible choices. And those choices are stereotypical choices of a spoiled, rich American who went to an expensive Catholic school.

Please don’t vote for him. But also, stop making fun of his race and religion. They are beside the point.

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross, The Sorrows an d Joys of Mary, and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.

Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, donate to “The Little Portion” on paypal or Mary Pezzulo on venmo

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