Merit, Melanin, and the Ugly Side of the GOP
In the wake of Donald Trump’s ascent, the GOP loudly proclaimed that its transformation into the party of merit, ideas, and individual achievement was complete. Success was no longer judged by skin color or surname, but instead, by character and contribution. This was a message championed by the RNC and prominently featured in the Republican platform. The party celebrated the diversity of its candidates with Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, both of Indian heritage, and Tim Scott and Larry Elder, who are African Americans.
One big open tent, right?
And yet, the undercurrent tells a different story.
On May 26, 2025, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy shared a moving story on the X platform. He recounted how, in 2011, he asked a brilliant medical student named Apoorva to go hiking in the Rockies. A blizzard cut their summit short. She took his hand and told him they had a lifetime to finish the climb. Fourteen years, two children, and ten years of marriage later, they returned to finish it. The post was deeply human—about love, patience, and commitment. The kind of story Americans of any background could recognize and admire.
Instead of celebration and praise of the touching story, Ramaswamy was greeted by replies that were anything but admirable.
Unfortunately, these weren’t isolated trolls. About half of the replies came from self-identified “America First” accounts, many of them bearing flags, crosses, or slogans like “Christian Nationalist,” “Pro White,” or “Pureblood.” They weren’t challenging his ideas. They weren’t critiquing his record. They were rejecting his very presence.
The tragedy is not merely that bigots still exist online, we know that is a given in the internet age, but that many of these voices are now within the same coalition that claims to stand for meritocracy. These are people who proudly wear the Republican label and loudly proclaim themselves patriots. And yet, to them, Ramaswamy, an American-born child of immigrants, a biotech entrepreneur, a father and husband, can never be one of us. His success, his values, and his love for country are meaningless next to the color of his skin and the sound of his name.
This is not just hypocrisy. It is rot, and it’s sickening.
If the Republican Party truly believes in merit, then it must defend the very people it claims to uplift against the onslaught of prejudice. Ramaswamy embodies every quality the GOP claims it loves: child of immigrants, private sector success, family man, American dream incarnate. If he isn’t accepted by some in the conservative movement because of his ethnicity as opposed to his ideas, then the party must ask itself a hard question:
Do we truly stand for meritocracy or has it simply found a more polite way to play identity politics of its own?
Some will argue that these are just internet trolls who don’t represent MAGA conservatives, and to some extent that may be right. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: silence is complicity. If the GOP does not draw strong public moral lines against this kind of rhetoric, it allows it to fester. It is unacceptable that one of the leaders of the Republican party posts a heartfelt tribute to his wife, and half the responses suggest he leave the country, solely based on his ethnicity.
To be clear, this is not a problem exclusive to the right. Woke leftists have struggled with their own toxic identity politics, often reducing individuals to racial categories, grievance points, or victimhood status. However, if Republicans truly wish to offer the alternative of a party where anyone can rise, and everyone is judged by their values and contributions, then they must make good on that promise. That means strongly responding as one voice in protecting the dignity of people like Vivek Ramaswamy when they are attacked for their identity, not ignoring it because it’s politically inconvenient.
The conservative movement has always claimed to value culture, tradition, and family. Ramaswamy’s post represented all of those through an immigrant’s lens. It should have been celebrated. That it wasn’t, by some, tells us what those voices truly mean when they say “America First.” They don’t mean shared values. They mean shared ancestry.
This country was never about shared ancestry. Quite the contrary. It was about shared aspiration. When we lose sight of that fundamental truth, we give the left the fuel it needs to run their engine of hate and divisiveness by frightening minority groups into believing Republicans want to put them in a gulag.
Our ideology of meritocracy, ideas, creativity and work ethic must apply to all Americans, and we must continue to condemn those who claim they are with us, but instead, strive to subvert the goals we have worked so long and hard to achieve.
If we allow skin color to override merit, if we let ethnic insults pass unchecked and unchallenged, and if we allow quiet racism to speak louder than achievement, then the Republican Party is not what it says it is.
It’s just another tribe.
