In a new essay for the New York Times, Vivek Ramaswamy has made what amounts to a declaration of war against the “Groyper” Right. The piece lays out two incompatible visions for the Republican Party: blood-and-soil white identity politics versus ideals-based Americanism. It is the most explicit acknowledgement yet from a major GOP figure that Nick Fuentes and his movement, far from being mere trolls, are gaining real ground in the battle for the soul of the party.

Ramaswamy, who is running for Ohio governor, describes a base where “hundreds of slurs” about “pajeets” and “street shitters” flood his social media mentions. His X feed, he writes, is littered with calls to deport him “back to India”, despite the fact that he was born and raised in Cincinnati and has never resided outside the United States. Conservative writer Rod Dreher, who visited Washington last month to survey the situation, estimated that a sizeable minority of Republican Gen Z staffers are Fuentes fans.

The proposed solution is class-based and largely colourblind: condemn the excesses of the loudest Groypers, reduce the cost of living for all, and create universal wealth participation through “American dream birthrights”. It is technocratic optimism pitted against ethnic tribalism. Ramaswamy wants Republican leaders to “condemn without hedging Groyper transgressions” and act as good fathers who set “firm boundaries for young followers”.

There’s one problem: Ramaswamy will likely lose this bet. His name recognition and MAGA credentials give him a good shot in the gubernatorial race but, when it comes to the larger ideological battle, the direction of travel is clear. One such indication came in October, when Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts initially defended Fuentes as a victim of cancel culture after Tucker Carlson’s friendly interview with the streamer.

Increasingly, the likes of Carlson and Fuentes, with their huge online popularity, are more appealing to sections of the Republican base than model-minority figures such as Ramaswamy or a bunch of pro-Israel donors. The party which once competed to show the most fervent support for Israel now frames antisemitism as a free-speech issue. Roberts, before apologising, had argued that “cancelling” Fuentes “is not the answer”, and warned against attacking friends to the Right rather than political adversaries on the Left. He accused Carlson’s critics of being a “venomous coalition” of “globalists” and “mouthpieces in Washington”.

Vice President JD Vance embodies the contradictions at work here. His wife is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was raised Hindu in California. Fuentes has called Vance a “race traitor”, asking: “Do we really expect that the guy who has an Indian wife and named their kid Vivek is going to support white identity?” When pressed on Face the Nation last year, Vance called Fuentes “a total loser” and said such views “don’t have any room in the MAGA movement”. His advice? “Don’t feed the trolls, and they largely go away.”

But the trolls have not gone away and Vance has remained notably silent on the Groyper question since the Carlson interview. Dreher, who claims to have personally warned the Vice President about the movement’s rise, reported that Christian faith has not inoculated young conservatives against antisemitism. One can walk through the White House’s West Wing, Dreher wrote, and hear the podcast voice of Fuentes or Candace Owens coming from the desktop speakers of staffers. Vance’s multiracial family may make him an unlikely vessel for Groyperism, but if the party’s base and youth are trending toward Schmittian friends-versus-enemies politics and what amounts to white affirmative action, that is the direction in which the GOP will ultimately move, regardless of who leads it.

Some have pushed back on Dreher’s estimates, arguing that familiarity with Fuentes has been confused with sympathy. One UnHerd report suggested the actual number of committed Groypers among DC staffers is closer to 10%. But even that figure would be significant in the institutions that staff Republican administrations and draft conservative legislation.

In any event, the tribal divide Ramaswamy identifies will not be solved by cheaper eggs and Robin Hood stock portfolios. Distrustful young voters understandably need someone to blame for their inability to afford homes, their crushing student debt, and their dim prospects in an AI-disrupted labour market.

Ramaswamy seems to have finally accepted that he cannot win over the Groypers through charm or policy virtuosity. His debating skills are useless against an audience which views his very ancestry as disqualifying. He is asking the Republican Party to choose between two irreconcilable futures. The truth is that much of the party’s activist base has already chosen. And if Vance’s strategic silence is any indication, so has its leadership.

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Oliver Bateman is a historian and journalist based in Pittsburgh. He blogs, vlogs, and podcasts at his Substack, Oliver Bateman Does the Work

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