"But today in The Free Press, one Republican takes a different view. Former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says weirdness is actually a good thing. More than that: it’s deeply American." Oliver Wiseman
John Adams was an abolitionist when slavery was the norm and a self-taught Hindu scholar. In other words, like the greatest Americans, he was a total weirdo.
America the Weird Vivek Ramaswamy "When I grew up in southwest Ohio in the 1990s, my immigrant parents always reminded me: if you’re going to stand out, you might as well be outstanding. They said it with a thick Indian accent, but I view their advice as quintessentially American.
"It’s what distinguished America’s Founding Fathers. The Old World was one that aspired to a certain form of normalcy—one where people stayed in their respective lanes. An inventor was an inventor, a lord was a lord, a philosopher was a philosopher. Much of this was determined at birth.
"But our Founders were different. They didn’t believe in those boundaries.
"Benjamin Franklin was not only a co-author of the Declaration of Independence but also founded hospitals and universities; dabbled in medicine; created a musical instrument that went on to be used by Mozart and Beethoven; designed the lightning rod, bifocal spectacles, and the Franklin stove. Robert Livingston helped design the steamship as a side project while serving as an ambassador to France. Roger Sherman was a self-taught attorney who never had any formal education. Thomas Jefferson was fluent in four languages, wrote nineteen thousand letters by hand, and invented prototypes of the polygraph and the swivel chair. Oh, and he designed the architecture of the Virginia State Capitol building.
"They were weird. Often the ones who said the weirdest things adopted some of the weirdest viewpoints by the standards of their day. John Adams was an abolitionist during an age when slavery was the norm the world over. He was also a self-taught scholar of Hindu scripture and wrote letters to Thomas Jefferson about the Bhagavad Gita." . . .
"But alleging “weirdness” is a troubling form of political argument. It’s anti-American, on at least two levels."
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