Diversity

The United States comprises slightly more than 4% of the world’s population, yet as a nation, Americans have won 35% of all Nobel Prizes ever awarded, a statistic that goes far beyond mere happenstance.  And to be clear, there is a very good reason for this, the United States of America has afforded more Freedom, more Opportunity, and more Self-determination to its citizens than any nation on earth. 

Those who understand history know the American Revolution began in response to the absence of those virtues, which is why the Founders created a nation where equal opportunity, not equal outcome, was the imperative.

~ Enter the Biden Administration ~

Unfortunately, the Biden administration doesn’t view society through the prism of the Founders, and instead prefaces just about every statement and policy with the implied, “unless you agree with us your ideas are a threat to democracy.”  With its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity, the administration has been obsessed from its outset, with assuring everyone achieves the same outcome and is included in the greater tribe.  Well almost everyone, because there’s an important caveat to the woke perspective, i.e., diversity, inclusion, and equity must be focused on the color of a person’s skin.

I liken this perspective to a Cuisinart food blender; it removes the bright colors of respectful debate turning all thought into a bland pablum of progressive ideology which clips the head off innovation and considers merit irrelevant.

Perhaps the most glaring example of this phenomenon is the president’s cabinet, where the only qualifications are an individual’s minority status vis-à-vis attributes such as competence, experience, and accomplishment.  And the president’s promise to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court is the epitome of this fool-hardy reasoning, or perhaps it’s better to say his non-reasoning.

Black women comprise 6% of the American population; doing the math, Mr. Biden has chosen to eliminate 94% of all Americans from consideration for a lifetime appointment to highest court in the land because of gender and skin color.   So, allow me to ask, is this really in the best interest of the country?  Would you choose an oncologist for your 9-year-old granddaughter by eliminating 94% of all the qualified oncologists in America, or might you consider the physician’s, education, experience, and reputation?

To use an old expression, “the proof is in the pudding,” so let’s look at the results of developing policy predicated on a single point of view, and where thought, ideas and concepts are hammered into their lowest common denominator.

With the most “diverse” cabinet in history we find our nation beset with inflation, a supply chain crisis, rising energy costs in a country with arguably more energy resources than anywhere on earth, more fentanyl crossing the border than any time in history, a CDC that changes guidelines predicated on what the teachers’ unions tell them, illegal immigration at record highs and rising crime, all of which all be traced back to decisions made by this group of “diverse” individuals.

And while the term diversity has a nice ring to it and continues to be vogue in elitists circles, I have yet to find a single peer reviewed study that objectively proves its benefits.  To be clear, diversity of thought and perspective are not to be welcomed, they need to be embraced, but in today’s woke world, diversity focuses solely on skin color.  And not since the fascists of Europe in the 1930s has an ideology focused so much of its attention on race as have the progressives in 21^st century America.

A country that is consumed with diversity, inclusion, and equity deliberately lowers the bar for everyone.  Sadly too, diversity has now become the secular religion that has led to every kid getting a trophy, everyone making the team, and where no one is recognized for excelling.

The former Soviet Union practiced this religion and honed it to a fine art.  The mass leveling of achievement, enforced by strict rules on outcomes, payment and services turned that country into a grey society where an orderly earned as much as a brain surgeon, “not that there was anything wrong with that” goes the mantra of the woke crowd; but there is something desperately wrong with that.  Where is the incentive for innovation, industriousness or even living morally?

This administration has abandoned the essence of what made this country great.  We are not a nation without flaws but allow me to ask, “As compared to what?”  At the epicenter of wokism is the American experience with slavery, as if that institution was a creation of the Founders.  Lest we forget, slavery existed in the United States as a nation for 75 years before Americans fought a Civil War to rid the nation of this evil – meanwhile, slavery has existed on planet earth for nearly nine thousand years and continues to this day, and almost exclusively among ‘black and brown’ nations.

So, please Mr. President, instead of focusing your administration’s energy on equity, try expanding opportunity for minorities because nothing lifts the human spirit as does accomplishment; and accomplishment is something that is earned, not given.

Quote of the day: “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment”—Jim Roan