Last December, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy took to X (formerly Twitter) to share a now-infamous rant about the supposed decay of American culture. With his signature populist edge, he claimed the United States “venerates mediocrity” and punishes ambition, arguing immigrants from Asia (and their American-born children) outperform multi-generational Americans because they come from cultures with higher personal and professional expectations. The takeaway? American culture is broken, and it can only return to greatness by embracing or mimicking the values of foreign cultures, especially certain Asian ones.
The irony here is almost too thick to cut through. Mr. Ramaswamy, himself a product of elite American education, American capitalism, and American celebrity culture, dismisses the very system that enabled his rise. Ramaswamy has had a lot of good arguments on various conservative causes over the years, but on this, he’s spectacularly wrong.
What he mistakes for mediocrity is actually egalitarianism. What he sees as cultural failure is, in reality, the friction that comes with freedom and pluralism. And what he romanticizes in “Asian culture” is, often, a caricature painted in broad strokes, not a photorealistic portrait.
Let’s get something straight: American culture is superior. Not in a jingoistic, myopic way, but in its values, systems, and outcomes. American culture, despite its flaws, is grounded in the idea that individuals should have the freedom to choose their path, to fail, and to try again. As my 10th-grade Math teacher liked to say, “This is America. We believe in 2nd, 3rd, and hell even 4th chances.” It’s a culture that supports curiosity, rewards innovation, and protects dissent. These aren’t weaknesses; they are why American universities dominate global rankings, why Silicon Valley exists, and why people from every continent dream of coming to the United States.
Ramaswamy’s claims, including insinuating that “a culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” also ignore the reality that America does value academic excellence, just not only academic excellence. Why else do students from around the world clamor for a spot at Harvard, Yale, or Princeton instead of universities in China and India? Why else do American parents of every race invest (or try to invest) enormous resources into their children’s education, from tutors to test prep to college counseling? Why else do universities across America (including Princeton) face pressure to increase class sizes to accommodate the ever-increasing number of Americans who want to receive a Bachelor’s degree? The narrative that America rewards mediocrity only holds water if you confuse lack of access with apathy. America tries (however imperfectly) to offer everyone a shot, which can look like a lack of standards to those who view hierarchy as a virtue. It’s true that Americans oftentimes don’t consider education to be the be-all, end-all of their lives, and that’s okay. That means we’re less likely to have students kill themselves over unideal SAT scores or not getting into a certain university (as is frequent in parts of Asia).
Moreover, America’s broader embrace of excellence in all fields—sports, arts, entrepreneurship, and science, among others—has served it extremely well. The United States consistently leads the world in Olympic medal counts (2,793 and counting), Nobel Prizes (423 and counting), and major technological innovations, reflecting a culture that nurtures many forms of talent, not just academic achievement.
As for the claim that Asian immigrants succeed despite American culture? Well, that misunderstands both sides of the equation. Asian immigrant success is real, yes, but it doesn’t prove Ramaswamy’s point. In fact, it proves the opposite. The American system gives those immigrants opportunities they would not have had back home. Let’s not pretend Asia, as a region, is a monolith of success. If “Asian culture” was so definitively superior, the question wouldn’t be “why immigrants from Asia succeed here,” it’d be “why they’re leaving Asia for America in the first place.” The United States’ GDP per capita dwarfs that of most Asian countries (and even most European countries). Even in places like China or India, whose economies are growing fast, corruption, censorship, and inequality remain entrenched. Meanwhile, although countries like Japan and South Korea boast high educational outcomes, they also wrestle with crushing conformity, mental health crises, and demographic collapse.
That’s not to bash Asian cultures. Indeed, they have their own strengths, including discipline and respect for education. However, cultural superiority isn’t a scoreboard. It’s measured by the ability to foster creativity and compassion, ambition and individual dignity. On that front, American culture still leads. Ramaswamy’s mistake isn’t just factual; it’s philosophical. He looks at the U.S. and sees a culture that’s soft. In reality, American culture, in all its complexity and contradictions, has proven time and again to be a powerful force for innovation and progress. It encourages individuality, creativity, and the freedom to pursue personal dreams, which are traits that have shaped the world’s most dynamic institutions and industries. While no culture is perfect, and there’s always room for improvement, the adaptability and resilience of American culture continue to make it a beacon of opportunity, attracting people from all corners of the globe. It’s this very openness and spirit of reinvention that makes American culture not just great, but exceptional.
Image Credit: “Men of Progress” (1862), Christian Schussele — Wikimedia Commons
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