How is it even possible that one of the USA’s greatest assets, diversity, is now sapping America’s dynamism through partisan division? E Pluribus Unum (out of many one) once differentiated America from the other continents of the world. Only in America did diverse immigrant groups faithfully leap into a great Melting Pot and willingly assimilate into the mainstream culture. Diversity worked because ethnic minorities dutifully obeyed majority-passed laws. In exchange, America offered 19th-century Irish economic opportunity and 20th-century Russian Jews freedom from oppression. Every year, opportunity and individual freedom still attracts a million immigrants, who are fleeing want and oppression (source: DHS).
Fortunately, the American Dream attracted cultural, ethnic and racial diversity, which were essential to American dynamism and exceptionalism; and for most of my life, race-creed-gender pluralism marched toward greater justice and equality. Back in 1972, it was unthinkable the left would some day weaponize diversity for political gain. However, the party of Hubert Humphrey and Jimmy Carter turned angry and divisive after the Bush-Gore election. Perhaps Bill Clinton’s center-left success prevented the far-left from engaging in identity politics, but those Democrats eventually poisoned politics and divided these once-united states.
Simply defined, identity-based politics claims a specious moral position and makes a divisive argument that advances one identity group at the expense of another identity group. Claiming the best intentions, many Democrats demonize “advantaged” white police officers to advance the rights of an “aggrieved” black suspect. Is the history of American diversity filled with regional fights and minority struggles? Absolutely, but diversity in the USA succeeded because a codified bill of rights protects all individuals from excessive government intrusion, including police brutality. Identity-based campaigns amplify the actions and situations of individuals to demonize and martyrize entire identity groups – even if it means undermining core American values.
This is where the damage of identity-based politics is done: subverting the rights of an “immoral” enemy based on his or her gender-creed-race identity. This is patently anti-American; such as when Senate Democrats trampled Bret Kavanaugh’s right to presumed innocence to grant Christine Blasey Ford the right to be believed…when Colorado ignored the religious traditions of Jack Philips to recognize the nuptial preferences of David Mullins and Charlie Craig…and when the Harvard admissions department denied Asian-Americans “equal” opportunity to ensure African-Americans “equal” outcomes. Common sense suggests such either-or propositions diminish the long-term health of E Pluribus Unum.
I credit the success of American diversity to the waves of immigrants dutifully obeying existing laws and minority groups willingly assimilating into the mainstream culture. In the 1930s, German Jews overlooked the Anglo-American origins of a justice system that presumed innocence and protected personal property. In the 1970s, Vietnamese refugees overlooked white-informed culture because an open and tolerant America was preferable to the communist re-education camps back home. So – – how did that America, with a “mission statement” promising life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, become this nanny state selling the life you wish you had, the liberty to deny another’s liberty, and guaranteed happiness?
The simple answer is twofold: (1) progressives don’t have a holistic appreciation of diversity and its positive impact upon the American Dream, and (2) Democrats believe their power depends on pitting a basket of aggrieved identities against a majority that has mostly European and Christian roots. Diversity is not just a “desirable” racial makeup at Harvard or gender makeup at MIT. Rather, it is the diversity of experience and aspiration that actually drives American exceptionalism and dynamism. Don’t act shocked, but the “aggrieved” identities of being black or orphaned did not prevent Oprah Winfrey or Steve Jobs from becoming super-successful outliers.
Now, I absolutely believe US laws should preserve nuclear families and remove racial barriers, but I also believe success depends as much on a person’s will to become (the why) as it does on a person’s skill (the how). Furthermore, I have observed liberty and opportunity are more important in the pursuit of happiness than a promise (government guarantee) of equal results.
US citizens have unmatched liberty in a world where 1.8 billion live under sharia (Islamic law) and another 1.7 billion live under totalitarian regimes (e.g. China). US residents (including non-citizens) enjoy an unmatched pursuit of happiness, which is supported by the equal application of law and enough economic opportunity to lift an individual’s income. Sadly, today’s far-left defines “pursuit” as a guaranteed road to desired result, which bears no resemblance to the founding fathers definition of “pursuit” as the protected right to try.
To be sure, progressives hope to engineer outcomes for their “needy” constituents, but their policies routinely over-promise desired results in a nation where “equality” and “failure” are fleeting conditions. I doubt Oprah Winfrey would have been happy with “equality” that restricted her income to the average of all Chicago talk show hosts, or that Sam Walton “failed” for good when Ben Franklin Stores rejected his small-town discount strategy. Too many successful Americans have learned from early failure, and too many outcome policies have failed, for conservative realists to accept demonization by progressive dreamers like Elizabeth Warren (liar) and Corey Booker (sexual aggressor). Shame on them!
I once believed affirmative action was a net diversity-positive policy that helped prevent a permanent under-class. I now believe its benefit has expired because Asian-Americans are being denied equal treatment by admissions departments at America’s best universities. American dynamism is actually suppressed by any policy that disadvantages a fast-growing minority (Asians); so, I am calling BS on progressive Democrats. At the same time they claim to advance our tech-driven economic future, they suppress the intellectual stars who will ensure that future. Either America celebrates and promotes diversity and equal opportunity “as is” – – or wastes time and treasure chasing the fool’s gold of equal outcomes.
An honest embrace of America’s diversity should invite competition and self-motivation, because the USA competes in a global economy where there is no kindness from strangers. Competition makes Americans and American businesses stronger. Self-motivation lifts the entrepreneurs above the clock-punching herd. Did you know an overwhelming majority of Americans (85%) still believe wealth is created by intelligence and hard work (source: Pew Research)? This is good news for conservatives and should remind Washington to focus on equal opportunity and equal application of the law – and leave the driving of the economy to we the people.
