Vivek Ramaswamy calls Juneteenth 'useless' 2 months after posting a video celebrating it

www.nbcnews.com Ramaswamy Calls Juneteenth Holiday ‘Useless’

Vivek Ramaswamy suggested canceling Juneteenth, calling it a “useless” holiday in a conversation with Iowa voters, NBC News reports.Less than two months ago, however, he posted a video on social media celebrating the day.

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"I know what's best for black people."

-- So many non-black conservatives
- What makes this way spicier is that he's black. He's running for office while trying to abolish the holiday that celebrates his freedom in the country he's running for office in.
  
  Ramaswamy is South Asian, not black.
  
  How high are you right meow?
How useful is Veterans Day or Labor Day? They're all useless. We don't have them for their usefulness.
I’m all for adding more holidays. A voting holiday is an easy win. No need to replace or remove holidays.
- I would love for someone to interview racists who gets Juneteenth off for work. I'd be interested to know how committed some people would be being racist.
- Agreed
If you're suggesting cancelling Juneteenth because it "overlaps" ("" because I don't really agree with that) MLK day, wouldn't you cancel MLK day instead? Emancipation was a little more a step forward than the civil rights movement...

Of course, if you consult the experts on cancelling shit, they'd most likely say that Columbus day might be a better fit in the chopping block, and IF we need to "make room on the calendar" (also bullshit) in order to make voting a legit day off (is it not? If someone who works for me asks for time off to vote, I'm going to ask them if they need a fucking ride to the polls... Come on people...), I kinda gotta go with Columbus being the least relevant current federal holiday...

Just my opinion, mind, but cancelling the new shit because "muh traditions" is fucking dumb... Be better...
- Columbus day shouldn't exist because he really didn't discover America in the first goddamn place
  
  "But it's for Italians."
  
  Okay, Columbus wasn't from Italy and Italy didn't even exist yet when he was alive..
  
  Even if he did, he didn't mean to. It would be like if we landed on Mars but still celebrated the moon landing.
  
  yeah, the Vikings did. we need a Viking celebration day
  
  What did he discover?
- Technically Columbus Day is now Indigenous People’s Day since Biden changed it in 2021, so something much more worth celebrating IMO
  
  Lol, so they already cancelled it? Meh...
  
  It's funny though... I live smack in the middle of a reservation, and I've never heard of this indigenous people day. I kinda don't think any of the tribe here gives a shit... They have their own government, and at least in our area, thats the only one they give a fuck about :)
Hypocrisy: the most Republicanist thing ever.
This is the best summary I could come up with:

“Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up,” Ramaswamy told an applauding crowd gathered at a welding company here.

Asked by NBC News to clarify whether he thought Juneteenth was a “useless” holiday, Ramaswamy said, “I basically do.”

“We don’t just look back and flog ourselves,” Ramaswamy said in the video June 19, which was posted to his account on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.

As the National Museum of African American History and Culture notes, Juneteenth celebrates the anniversary of when Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, and announced a quarter-million Black people had been freed by executive decree.

One of his competitors, former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, who is biracial, criticized Ramaswamy for saying he "hopes to cancel a holiday that celebrates equality and freedom."

On Juneteenth two months ago, the NAACP issued a statement saying, “Today we celebrate our emancipation while also acknowledging that we are still fighting for true freedom.”

I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Flippetyflop hippetibob, do the Politickster!
I'm confused why this guy is getting any attention. He's running the most obvious "fake primary campaign with no intention of winning in order to get a bunch of donations from rubes" con I've ever seen
- Most of the GOP field wants Trump to pick them as Vice President. That is why they don't criticize Trump.
  
  This guy doesn't want to be VP. He just wants to con a bunch of donations money and disappear after Iowa.
Every holiday is useless. Even Christmas. You need a holiday to gather with family and exchange gifts?
He knows what Trump wants. No other reason.
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- I'm curious, what do you think the voting age should be raised to and why?
  
  Republicans want to raise voting age because young people are increasingly realizing that Republicans are authoritarian bigots.
  
  I'd love to know too, cause I'm actually for lowering it. If there are 15 year Olds working jobs at fast food restaurants or wherever, they should either a) be able to vote, or b) not have income tax taken out. No taxation without representation.
  
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- Why raise the voting age? Are we not paying income tax at 18 anymore?
- All 3 are crazy, you just happened to find the one that was too crazy for you.
- Less than half of 18-24 year olds even vote* and you want to decrease that further?
  
  *source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096299/voter-turnout-presidential-elections-by-age-historical/

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