GOP 2024 hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy slammed woke capitalism on Sunday as “bad for business” and “bad for our civic culture” as Bud Light and Target sales continue to fall after aligning with LGBTQ communities in their brands.
“My view is that businesses have a purpose – it is to provide products and services to customers who actually need them and yes, to make a profit unapologetically,” Ramaswamy said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
“And when those businesses wade into social disputes, not only is that often bad for business – just look at what happened to Bud Light. Look at what’s happening to Target,” he added.
Ramaswamy’s comments come in direct opposition to billionaire “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban’s statements to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this past week, wherein he claimed “woke” agendas have proven to be good for business.
“There is a reason almost all the top 10 market cap companies in the U.S. can be considered ‘woke.’ It’s good business,” Cuban said.
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Ramaswamy, who has placed culture wars among his top priorities since announcing his candidacy, also argued woke capitalism is “bad for our civic culture” and American democracy.
“What we need is apolitical spaces that bring people together, whether they’re Black or White or Democrat or Republican. The private sector – the sports stadiums of this country, the labs of this country – that’s where Americans unite, regardless of their partisan or identitarian affiliations,” Ramaswamy said. “And so I think woke capitalism is bad for capitalism, but it’s also bad for American democracy.”
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The presidential hopeful further emphasized the need for reinforcing American values in the younger generations, saying the country is “in the middle of a national identity crisis.”
“Young Americans across this country are no longer proud to be American. I am,” Ramaswamy said. “And as the first millennial ever to run for president as a Republican, I think it is part of my responsibility to revive that civic pride in the next generation.”
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“And the beautiful thing about America is that we’re not a country founded on an ethnicity or on a single language or a monarch. We’re a nation founded on a set of ideals that brought together a divided group of people 250 years ago,” he continued.
The GOP candidate and author of “Woke, Inc.,” which makes the case for ridding corporate America of politics, previously told Fox News Digital he believes companies can step back from their ventures into the culture wars.
“I think that there’s an opportunity for companies to set their course straight,” Ramaswamy said while on his campaign bus in New Hampshire. “I believe in companies learning from their mistakes.”
“The free market is really working,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital. “I’m optimistic that if we change our culture, if we end this victimhood culture among the next generation of Americans, the demand side might not pay off as well for companies.”
Fox News’ Kasey Dillon contributed to this report.
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