Michael Barone has a great post on the affirmative action fraud perpetrated by Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren.
Excerpt:
... what may undermine racial quotas and preferences most effectively is ridicule. For isn't the idea that the blond, blue-eyed Warren suffered some terrible disadvantage and is in need of special preference because she is 1-32nd Cherokee just laugh-out-loud funny?
It seems not to have troubled Warren at all that by flopping her paste-white derriere in her endowed Harvard chair she necessarily displaced a genuine "minority" applicant who maybe had a little more than 3% Cherokee genome, even the rare applicant who perhaps might have faced some actual adversity due to their particular heritage.
Elizabeth Warren is an uncommonly smarmy practitioner of the affirmative action con-game. She used it for personal gain, unconcerned about who she walked over to get her sinecure, and she now dissembles, calls critics "anti-woman", and whines about getting caught-out as a hypocrite.
Did I tell you that she was a liberal Democrat? You probably already guessed that.
Affirmative action is racial sifting and the bestowal of favors and impediments based on race. In other words, affirmative action is racism. Ms. Warren's affirmative action ruse is a particularly repellent form of racism-- particularly repellent because it lacks the only positive attribute racism can have, which is honesty.
"Elizabeth Warren is an uncommonly smarmy practitioner of the affirmative action con-game. She used it for personal gain, unconcerned about who she walked over to get her sinecure, and she now dissembles, calls critics "anti-woman", and whines about getting caught-out as a hypocrite."
ReplyDeleteEverything you say about her is true. And yet she will still get elected here in Massachusetts. We elected Ted Kennedy year after year, Dukakis three times. We elect idiots here in the Bay State.
Not that Scott Brown is hot stuff.
TRISH
I have problems with affirmative action on principle, but things like this just go to show that affirmative action is a big joke, even beyond beyond racist and sexist discrimination.
ReplyDeleteIt's all about collecting victim points like some kind of cereal boxtops. It's so vulgar, it just makes me sick. "I'm a victim! You owe me!"
TRISH
Michael,
ReplyDeleteRegardless of whether affirmative action is good policy or not (and I don't think that it is; there's something perverse in treating one candidate unfairly in order to give preference to a candidate from a minority group which has been disadvantaged historically), it's a little silly to concentrate on one liberal Democrat doing the wrong thing.
It's extremely likely that Republican politicians, if you hunt around for them, will be found to have done dubious things (I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I'm certain someone will provide instances).
Agreed. Affirmative action should be discontinued, and the best candidate for a position, whoever that might be, should be selected.
Also, referring to a professor receiving a 'sinecure' is wrong. A sinecure is a salary paid in a position that requires little or no work. Do you think that professors employed by universities aren't required to do any work to obtain their salaries?
TRISH,
ReplyDeleteIn my view, there is a direct thread that connects slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow, Bull Connor and affirmative action. After all, each of these things has been a bedrock policy of the Democrat party at one time or another.
AA is not the opposite of Jim Crow. It is an extension of Jim Crow and all Democrat racist policies. In the past, it helped Democrats to discriminate against blacks. Now it helps them to discriminate against whites.
They are equal-opportunity opportunists.
You nailed it, Dr. Egnor.
DeleteThe Democratic Party has always been the party of racism. They don't like to admit this, often preferring to re-imagine history the way they wished it had been.
I remember when Rachel Maddow got herself all in a snit that Republicans were talking about secession. What a concept!
Maddow: "Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, appears to have his sights set on higher office. What is higher office if you're already governor in Texas? Of course, that would be president of Texas. The return of Confederacy in American politics as seceding from the Union comes back into Republican fashion."
Back into Republican fashion? The way leftist like to imagine the civil war, it was the Republicans who seceeded from the union, not the Democrats. And the way they imagine reconstruction, it was the Republican-spawned KKK that terrorized Democrats, not the other way around.
When confronted with the historical facts--that it was Democrats who supported everything vile and racist that you can find in American history, from slavery, to Jim Crow, to the KKK, they often argue that they've "changed" and that "the roles have been reversed now".
The only thing that's changed is the color of the people they want to discriminate against! Nothing else has changed. Nothing at all. It's all the same old racist baloney: voter intimidation (Philadelphia New Black panthers), lynch mobs (Martin/Zimmerman), racial discrimination (AA).
TRISH
>>And the way they imagine reconstruction, it was the Republican-spawned KKK that terrorized Democrats, not the other way around.<<
DeleteYes, I know, Trish.
A bit of history that sometimes gets forgotten: There have been two KKK's. One existed in the South during Reconstruction. The other was founded in the South in 1915, then spread to the rest of the country, then--thankfully--shrinked back to its hole, where it now exists as a shadow of itself with no particular power to speak of.
The first klan was racist, to be sure. They didn't like blacks and would sometimes terrorize them. But blacks were not the primary target. The primary target was...wait for it...Republicans!
JQ
When confronted with the historical facts--that it was Democrats who supported everything vile and racist that you can find in American history, from slavery, to Jim Crow, to the KKK, they often argue that they've "changed" and that "the roles have been reversed now".
DeleteHow do we know the "roles are reversed now"? Because the racist southern Democrats you decry mostly switched to the Republican party - with Strom Thurmond leading the charge. You can pretend all you like that the Republicans of today are the Republicans of the 1880s, 1920s, or 1940s, but they aren't. You can pretend that the modern Democratic party is the same as the party of the 1930s, but it isn't.
Robert Byrd, Klegal of the Klan and segregationist, died a Democrat.
DeleteAl Gore, Sr, segregationist, died a Democrat.
J. William Fulbright, segregationist, died a Democrat.
George Wallace was a Democrat, then formed his own American party, then had a serious change of heart and appointed numerous blacks to state-wide positions. He was never a Republican.
Strom Thurmond was certainly a racist Southern Democrat. But he changed parties when he changed sides of the segregation issue.
As I mentioned, the only thing that has changed with Democrats is the flavor of their racism. They now support anti-white policies, whereas before they supported anti-black ones. And again, it's the Republicans who oppose them. The Republicans have been consistent. The Democrats have been too, changing only the color of their victims.
TRISH
More Democrat racism...
DeleteFDR rounded up the Japanese and put them in camps. There is no blaming "both sides" on this issue. It was accomplished by executive order, with his signature at the bottom. He is still a hero among liberal Democrats.
Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears. Need I say more?
TRISH
The invaluable Thomas Sowell:
Delete"If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today."
Care to respond to that, Anonymous?
Joey
Bill Clinton gave the eulogy at the Robert "KKK" Byrd's funeral. This is how he whitewashed the deceased's involvement with the Klan:
Delete"He once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollows from West Virginia. He was trying to get elected."
He was also a Democrat from a highly Democratic state in which the intertwined Democratic-KKK power structure held court.
In Bill's mind, that excuses him. He needed to get elected! So it's okay to join a racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, organization. Heaven knows Bill would step on his own mother to get to the next highest office, no qualms about it.
Clinton is forgiving of such failures because he used to work in the offices of the segregationist senator, J. William Fulbright. So he knows that segregationists can be fine folks.
JQ
>>You can pretend that the modern Democratic party is the same as the party of the 1930s, but it isn't.<<
DeleteWe don't have to go back that far, Anonymous.
JQ
Joey,
DeleteLove the Sowell quote. Truer words have never been spoken. I don't want anything more than to be judged by merits. If I'm not the best man for the job, I don't want it. If I am, I think I'm entitled to it. What's so hard to understand about that?
JQ
"Care to respond to that, Anonymous?"
DeleteBenefiting from Affirmative Action doesn't seem to have damages Sowell very much. Of course, when he was in his twenties he espoused Marxism, so it was okay then. Its only now after he's established that affirmative action turns out to be a problem.
JQ,
DeleteI think you mean best PERSON for the job! But I agree with your sentiment.
Affirmative action can have mixed results for me. On the one hand, it could benefit me because I'm a woman. On the other, it could harm me because I'm white.
But here's the crux of the matter--I'M STILL OPPOSED TO IT IN EITHER CASE. It's a question of principal, not a shrewd calculation based on my own self interest.
I don't want to get a job just because I'm female. Nor do I want to be denied a job just because I'm white. Take those two factors out of consideration and I'll be happy as a clam. Compare resumes, skills, life experiences, education, test scores, whatever. Just don't take into consideration who's got which genitalia and how much pigment. It's stupid and it's un-American.
TRISH
The vast majority of segregationist Democrats never became Republicans. The only high-profile segregationist to become a Republican was Strom Thurmond. Nearly all the others, from Al Gore Sr. to Bob Byrd to George Wallace to Lester Maddox stayed Democrats for the rest of their lives.
DeleteThank you Trish for so eloquently giving us the history!!!
The real mystery to me:
ReplyDeleteWhy do all the women lefty politicians in the states have the same or very similar unflattering haircuts?
It's a Cherokee tradition...
ReplyDeleteLMAO!
DeleteSilly me. I should have know. Better sign up for some new age, crystal powered, sensitivity training.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeletePlease watch the video here of Eric Holder in front of a Senate committee, in which he freely admits that hate crimes laws are only for designated victim groups--blacks, homosexuals, etc. Then tell me that he isn't a racist.
With a straight face.
http://lonelyconservative.com/2010/06/doj-attorney-resigns-over-new-black-panther-case-blows-whistle-on-holders-doj/
The Torch
Torch,
DeleteI watched it. Oh yeah, justice is "blind" in America.
The AG says quite openly that hate crimes laws are not for all Americans, but only for the poor, downtrodden victims.
That's special treatment.
JQ
There is no evidence that Warrens listing her heritage as Cherokee in a directory had any effect on her career. Charles Fried, a former solicitor general in the Reagan administration was the person who recruited her to Harvard, and he’s said flat-out that Warren’s heritage was not a factor in her hiring.
ReplyDeleteSaying “she necessarily displaced a genuine "minority" applicant” and that she's a “practitioner of the affirmative action con-game. She used it for personal gain, unconcerned about who she walked over”, is just not warranted by the facts. More Egnor conservative echo-chamber bullshit destined to become conservative canon.
Besides, Brown and Warren differ so greatly on the substantive issues you would have to be brain-dead to let Warren listing herself as a Cherokee, or Brown posing for soft-core porn, to be deciding factors for your vote.
-KW
[There is no evidence that Warrens listing her heritage as Cherokee in a directory had any effect on her career. Charles Fried, a former solicitor general in the Reagan administration was the person who recruited her to Harvard, and he’s said flat-out that Warren’s heritage was not a factor in her hiring.]
DeleteI'm sure lefty bootlicking also played a role in Warren's career, but obviously her "heritage" was a big ticket item. She came from a crap law school and got a tenured position in a university in which 99% of faculty went to Harvardyale. Harvard bragged about their one injun. See any connection, genius?
[Saying “she necessarily displaced a genuine "minority" applicant” and that she's a “practitioner of the affirmative action con-game. She used it for personal gain, unconcerned about who she walked over”, is just not warranted by the facts.]
What part of it in non-factual?
[More Egnor conservative echo-chamber bullshit destined to become conservative canon.]
I set conservative cannon? Gee...
[Besides, Brown and Warren differ so greatly on the substantive issues you would have to be brain-dead to let Warren listing herself as a Cherokee, or Brown posing for soft-core porn, to be deciding factors for your vote.]
Massachusetts voters... brain dead...