Vivek Ramaswamy with a more competent answer than Haley's

Short, quick video of Vivek Ramaswamy (I saw this video on New Year's Eve) fielding the same question on the Civil War that bogged down Nikki Haley:

I've given my own reasons for seeing slavery as the fundamental cause of the Civil War, and I've cited Alexander Stephens's unsubtle cornerstone speech as my reason why (Stephens was vice president of the Confederation under Jefferson Davis). I think that speech laid out the South's mindset pretty clearly. At the same time, I realize there are other schools of thought out there, and there's room for discussion. A lot of people—mostly conservative and largely Southern—think the issue comes down to states' rights. Ramaswamy's answer diplomatically weaves among several possibilities when he refers to "fundamentally different value systems" and then says, "a powder keg was in the air; slavery was the match that we lit that caused it to boil over." For Ramaswamy, then, slavery is less a cause than a catalyst (def. 3) igniting a volatile set of preconditions.

I am, though, somewhat disturbed that "What caused the Civil War?" is becoming some sort of litmus test for one's trustworthiness. I think there are more useful questions, such as:

• What's your plan for the open US-Mexico border?
• What will you do to stop inflation?
• What can be done to reduce the $33T national debt?
• Can education be reformed such that we don't all have to turn to homeschooling?
• What's your opinion of the drugs/feces/homelessness problem in several major cities?
• When will we see gas and grocery prices go down?
• What can be done to make health care less expensive?

• Can we stop the wild-eyed urge to pass further legislation on guns?

• How do we stop the inappropriate teaching of any sexuality to our youngest?

• How do we stop the left's hijacking of English through nonsense concepts and terminology?
etc., etc.

Haley is on record saying that her Civil War question was asked by a Democrat plant in the audience. When I hear that, all I think is: Excuses, excuses.