Mom Confessions

Ramaswamy was there to do what people with ambition, a thirst for the spotlight and an overflowing sense of self-confidence occasionally go to Iowa to do. He is exploring a run for president, testing, among other things, whether his warnings about the dangers of “wokeism” and socially-responsible investing — in business vernacular what’s called environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing — has political currency with Republican politicians, business leaders and, yes, farmers.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... n-00082414

Another example of conservatives using the word Woke without it having any relationship to what he’s talking about.

At an evening reception with Iowa politicos of both parties that night, Ramaswamy eagerly worked the room but was met with some surprise from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who asked him why he was in the Midwest.

“I’m from the Midwest, I’m from Ohio,” he gently replied, before getting into a substantive conversation about ESG, what “Scope 3” emissions are and how it’s hard for farmers to calculate their contributions to climate change.

In a brief interview afterward, Grassley was complimentary about Ramaswamy but told me that the average Iowan won’t care about ESG “for 10 years until it starts affecting them.”

“Knowing the problems that this ESG thing is causing for agriculture, I consider him a breath of fresh air and a real person needed to bring common sense to this whole discussion,” he said. But does Ramaswamy have a future in politics? “I don’t think he wants a future in politics,” Grassley said. “I think he wants to make the free market work, and ESG is counter to the free market.”