Vivek Ramaswamy calls for revival of American exceptionalism during visit to Liberty University

American businessman, bestselling author, and former U.S. presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy graced Liberty University’s Convocation stage on Wednesday to inspire students to embrace America’s history, restore curiosity and self-confidence, and readopt the patriotic vision of our nation’s Founding Fathers.

Ramaswamy’s visit comes just 33 days before the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, a race in which, at 37 years old, he became the youngest Republican to ever run for the nation’s highest office. His enthusiastic speech at Convocation received multiple ovations as he urged students to revive America’s founding principles.

“When our nation was born in 1776, we were a nation of underdogs,” he said. “We were a nation of insurgence. Our Founding Fathers stood up to the most powerful empire in the world, declared their independence, and then somehow turned assertion into reality. … In order to make America great again, we have to know the story of what made America great the first time around. That’s the story of our nation, that’s the story of our history, and it’s a story that we’ve forgotten.”

Ramaswamy argued that these values have shifted because posterity has overlooked the struggles of America’s past. Today’s generation enjoys unparalleled freedoms without facing the arduous battles that secured freedom’s place in our nation.

“There was something in the (Founding Fathers’) culture that’s different from what we have today. It was a culture that valued education,” he said. “As Americans, we should be inspired to stay true to that founding culture of exploration and curiosity. … Can we sustain that special combination of curiosity and confidence? That, I believe, is the defining question of our era. And it actually starts with all of you — the next generation of Americans.”

To cultivate an environment that prioritizes curiosity, education, and confidence, Ramaswamy encouraged students to leave their comfort zones while in college and join a club, take electives unrelated to their degree plans, learn an instrument, and serve.

“Do not make your own identity a product of your occupation,” he said. “You are so much bigger than the thing you happen to be doing at any one given time. And there is no better time to cultivate that sense of adventure and curiosity than right here at your experience in college.”

In his closing remarks, Ramaswamy reminded students to embrace the ideals of past generations. He said America’s exceptionalism hinges on our ability to remember why our Founding Fathers abandoned comfort to innovate the greatest social experiment the world has ever seen: creating a free nation.

He emphasized speaking the truth with conviction and respect, fighting for conservative issues like the gender binary, securing national borders, protecting the nuclear family, strengthening capitalism to lift others from poverty, and embracing the U.S. Constitution as the strongest and greatest supporter of freedom.

“We fight for the truth. We stand up for the truth,” he said. “That is what won us the American Revolution. That is what reunited us after the Civil War. That is what won us two world wars and the Cold War. That is what still gives hope to the free world. And if we can revive that dream over group identity, victimhood, and grievance, then nobody in the world … is going to defeat us. That is what American exceptionalism is all about, and that is what we will revive to save this great nation.”

Before running for president, Ramaswamy led a lucrative career in business by starting a hedge fund, two technology companies, an asset management firm, and writing books. His most recent book is “Truths: The Future of America First.”