BIG RAPIDS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – More than 100 Mecosta County residents and other guests greeted GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy at the Majestic Friesians Horse Farm to speak in support of those opposing the proposed Gotion Electric Vehicle Battery plant Wednesday evening in Big Rapids. 

“I am going to ask all of you to all stand for a certain pledge of allegiance, that I read, from a certain company,” Ramaswamy began his speech. “I volunteer to join the CCP, uphold the party’s platform, observe the party’s bylaws, carry out a members duties, carry out the party’s decisions, strictly observe the party’s discipline, be loyal to the party, fight for communism as long as I live, and be ready at all times to sacrifice everything for the party and never betray the party,” Ramaswamy continued as crowd members who were standing quickly sat down. 

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He added that the pledge he read was what the parent company of Gotion in China made their employees read. 

“Over my dead body will that come here to the United States of America, it is not going to happen,” he said. “We will not let our children become a bunch of Chinese serfs in this country,” Ramaswamy added. 

According to Ramaswamy there is a war for America that pits those who advocate for constitutional principles against a “fringe minority.” 

“On the other side of this is a fringe minority in this country, that has the Democrat party including your disastrously failed Governor, Gretchen Whitmer [in a choke hold],” he added. “Who believe that your identity is based on your race, your gender, and your sexuality.” 

Ramaswamy later criticized the same group for advocating for a purely carbon free standard. 

“[The same group] who believe we have to abandon carbon emissions in the United States even if we are shifting those same carbon emissions to places in China,” he said.

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The event was sponsored by the Mecosta Environment and Security Alliance (MESA). 

“What we’re trying to do, there is a two faceted part to that committee,” said MESA  President Jason Kruse. “One is to make sure our environment is kept clean and we have the right fit for our community here in Mecosta county and the other part is to make sure that we have the proper people coming into our country.” 

He added that those people would not be terrorists, and “we shouldn’t work with aggressing nations to our country.” 

Ramaswamy also voiced his disfavor of subsidies for foreign governments that were opposed to America. 

“We cannot depend on our enemy for our modern way of life,” 

“Why is it that the very people who are most strongly opposed to carbon emissions, are also most strongly opposed to nuclear energy- the greatest form of carbon free energy production known to mankind.” He said, “It’s because it might be too good at letting the US get ahead of China, while China is building Gen-4 nuclear reactors that we don’t have in this country.” 

He also called for an end to subsidizing Electric Vehicles. 

“We’re declaring independence from this anti-carbon cult,” Ramaswamy said. “You want to buy an EV, I’m fine with that, we don’t need to use our taxpayer dollars to subsidize it; we’re not just subsidizing EVs at home, we are subsidizing the CCP. Because those EVs require batteries made in China.” 

Farm owner, Lori Brock, shared briefly some remarks about her stance on the Gotion plant which is located across from her property. 

“I hope you’ll enjoy the beauty of this special place as much as I do,” she said. 

She also addressed why she is fighting so hard against Gotion, “It’s because I believe in our home, our community, and our nation,” said Brock. “You see this isn’t a fight against the factory, it’s a fight to preserve our way of life- we are rural America and we love the way we live, and we love our community, and we love our land.”