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Ramaswamy says identity politics endanger immigrants
His recent Opinion piece in NYT says online movements threaten ideals-based American identity for immigrants and their children.
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Pranavi Sharma - Thu, 18, Dec 2025
- 04:25 EST
- 20
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Vivek Ramaswamy. / File Photo
Indian American Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says a growing split on the American right over national identity is putting immigrants and their descendants, including the Indian diaspora, at risk of being treated as perpetual outsiders.
In an opinion essay published in The New York Times on Dec. 17, the former Republican presidential candidate wrote that the right is dividing between two irreconcilable visions of what it means to be American, with direct consequences for citizens of immigrant origin.
ALSO READ: Ramaswamy hails American religious freedom
Ramaswamy argued that one vision, increasingly visible online, defines Americanness through “lineage, blood and soil” and promotes the idea of a “heritage American.” He attributed the spread of this view to the Groyper movement, which he described as a “rapidly ascendant online movement that argues for the creation of a white-centric identity.”
He contrasted that approach with what he called an ideals-based understanding of the nation. “Americanness is binary: Either you’re an American or you’re not,” he wrote, grounding national identity in citizenship, allegiance and belief in constitutional principles rather than ancestry.
Drawing on his own experience as “a son of Indian immigrants,” Ramaswamy described how his social media feeds are “littered with hundreds of slurs,” including references to “pajeets” and demands to deport him “‘back to India.’” He noted that the attacks persist despite the fact that he “was born and raised in Cincinnati and ha[s] never resided outside the U.S.”
Ramaswamy said such rhetoric shows that under a blood-and-soil framework, even native-born Americans of Indian descent are treated as permanently foreign. He placed this hostility within what he described as the broader normalization of extremism online, including rising tolerance for antisemitism and ethnic insults, even among young conservative activists.
While saying these views do not represent most Republican voters, Ramaswamy warned that mainstream conservatives’ reluctance to confront them mirrors Democrats’ earlier failure to rein in identity politics on the left. He concluded that the growing influence of exclusionary online movements threatens the ideals-based national identity that has historically allowed immigrants to fully become American.
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