Oct 16, 2023
Vivek Ramaswamy Defends Forcing Voters To Take Civics Test
Ramaswamy said he wants to raise the voting age to 25.
- 5 minutes
You would like to disenfranchise
voters between the ages of 18 and 25.
>> Wrong.
>> You want to increase the voting age
to 25 years old,
why do you want to do that?
>> Speaker 2: Well,
I don't wanna disenfranchise anybody, but
I do think that we need to revive
civic duty in this country.
[00:00:16]
So right now I think we suffer a crisis
of national pride in the United States of
America.
So the same logic that we apply to who
want to come to this country to say that
you have to know something about the
country before you vote in that country.
I think it is fair to apply that same
logic to somebody who turns 18 and
[00:00:36]
acquires their citizenship that way, and
if not that, then at least to serve
the country in some minimal way.
So if you ask me, are we better off or
worse off as a nation,
if every high school senior has to pass
the same civics test that every immigrant
[00:00:52]
has to pass in order to
become a voting citizen.
I think that will make
our country stronger,
I think that will make our country more
united, I think that will make our
voting populace more informed,
people more proud to be an American.
There was a ten year old girl who
approached me in Iowa last week having
[00:01:08]
heard about this policy and some of the
criticisms from the left and otherwise.
She printed out the 100 question test,
she scored 100%, 60% surpassing score.
If a ten year old girl in Iowa can do it,
yes, every high school senior can and
should, too, that's not a Republican
idea or a Democrat idea.
[00:01:25]
Now, I personally believe that
voting rates amongst young Americans
will actually skyrocket once we revive
that sense of civic pride and civic duty.
I also favor making election day
a national holiday, we should
make voting in this country a civic
ritual, that it should mean something,
[00:01:45]
it unites us to say that we take
the time to know about our country,
our constitution, and
then participate in our republic.
And so I'm not saying you have
to agree with me on that, but
I do think that if you're not
gonna agree with me on that,
then I challenge you to find a better
idea, and I'm open to it myself for
[00:02:02]
how we revive that missing
civic pride in our country.
But one way or another, we're gonna have
to think outside of the existing box
to do it, and
that's part of where I'm leading the way.
>> Speaker 3: So Vivek I wanna ask
a follow up on that, I have an idea that
I've discussed on the show before I think
that after people leave high school,
they can go to the military,
Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, etc.
[00:02:20]
I think it unites the country, so
I understand I have a different idea-
>> Speaker 2: I think that's interesting.
>> Speaker 3: Okay now, in terms of
the you say they need to know civics, but
you know that if you knew civics that this
country also has a history of poll taxes,
literacy tests, etc.
To specifically disenfranchise
some voters, and
[00:02:39]
you know that the Republicans are losing
under 25 year old voters in a massive way.
And that is absolutely clear based on the
demographics, on the polling information.
So it looks really convenient that
all of a sudden you don't want as
[00:02:55]
many young voters, etc.
But then here comes the question,
so if we did your literacy test,
your civics test, and it turned out
that 80% of Republicans don't pass it,
but 60% of Democrats do pass it, so
it's a massive,
massive disadvantage for Republicans.
[00:03:14]
You just can't get your ignorant
young folks, it's a hypothetical,
ignorant young folks that are Republicans
to pass any of these tests.
Are you still okay with saying, no,
80% of Republican voters that are young,
you can't vote because
you're too ignorant.
>> Speaker 2: I'm okay with it regardless,
and
[00:03:29]
I think that the reason we applied
the standard is think about the logic.
The poll taxes, a lot of those were
made with the explicit purpose of
disenfranchising specific groups of
people at a point in our national
history when we were coming off
of some inequitable treatment.
[00:03:45]
Historically, in the eyes of the law,
thankfully, we've moved forward this
country many decades past where we were
even in the civil rights movement.
Now today we do, I will remind you
there's a reason why we require every
immigrant to this country to know
those things before they vote.
[00:04:01]
That's a good thing, by the way I think
that's important, but that same logic,
if an immigrant knows has to
know it in order to vote.
I don't think it is wrong to say
no matter what your skin color or
what your political affiliation,
you should know the same things about
the country at minimum to vote.
[00:04:17]
And to those for whom you say tests aren't
everything, there's a separate point I've
built in six months of service to
the country in a first responder role or
a military role.
But the point is you've got to
have some skin in the game or
else you really have no
way to play in the game,
I think English should be the only
language at the voting box.
[00:04:35]
>> Speaker 3: [CROSSTALK] So Vivek,
if you don't know that there is
no such thing as fake electors,
then I guess we would disqualify
almost all Republican voters, right?
>> Speaker 2: Look, I think that you could
take that civics test, see how you do,
I challenge you to do it, my sense is,
my guess you'd probably do pretty well.
[00:04:53]
>> Speaker 3: [CROSSTALK] I already
took it, I'm a national US citizen, so
yes I can, I crashed it and I guarantee
you I would do it much, much better than-
>> [CROSSTALK] So
you yourself were an immigrant to this
country, great, my sense is that many
people find this a little too frightening
until they take a look at it.
And then you say, hey, if somebody's
voting for President of the United States,
[00:05:11]
do we think it's important that they
know what branch of government the US
president leads.
I think most people think
that's a legitimate thing for
somebody to know when they're voting for
the US president.
>> Are you positive Donald Trump
would pass your test?
He took a dementia test and thought it
was an IQ test, he thinks you could
suspend the Constitution for no reason,
he thinks you could do martial law,
[00:05:30]
I'm sorry that's the greatest
president of the 21st century.
>> Speaker 2: I think I'm interested
in the future of the country, but
I'm not interested in particularly
psychoanalyzing another individual who
seems to be your obsession for the day,
when there's actually a lot more to
talk about the future of the country.
>> [CROSSTALK] I don't know why you're
even running yes and when you say,
[00:05:46]
he's the greatest
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