I admit I haven't been following the confirmation hearings much. I see some press accounts, recognize that they are false, and go do something else.
Trump's nominees will all likely be confirmed, and it is what happens next that interests me.
As expected, every single one of them has been denounced as a racists, sexist or homophobe. This is because name-calling is all the Democrats had left. It didn't work in the election, and it's even less likely to work now.
I must admit I'm getting very cynical in my old age. When I was a kid in the 70s, there was lots of talk about racial healing, and it seemed very sincere. All over the popular culture we celebrated racial integration. I suppose there was a certain amount of race-baiting in politics, but the civil rights laws had been passed, the race-riots were over and people seemed happy to move on. A bright future beckoned.
Now, I'm not so sure. For whatever reason, the deep thinkers of the left have given up on a post-racial future. This is strange, because the left traditionally was about class, not race. In fact, old-school leftists were all about racial integration because they understood that national and racial divisions weakened the proletariat.
There's been much talk about the "top-bottom" coalition, which is kind of a misnomer. The "emerging Democrat majority" hasn't come into being and I don't know if it ever will. It seems predicated on creating a coalition of all minorities that will be led by wealthy white liberals against remaining whites.
Like all leftist ideas, it is completely unworkable over the long term. Racial set-asides could only work in a time and place where the ethnic minority felt obligated to support them. When the country was 90% white and 10% black and the civil rights movement was fresh in the mind, it was an easy sell. Sure, some whites might lose out, but those were incidental losses in the road to racial integration and reconciliation.
Thanks in part to the left, we are now far more multi-ethnic, and the surging numbers of east and south Asians along with the growing Latino/Hispanic population have destroyed the consensus for giving blacks special treatment.
The Democrats tried to co-opt all these groups based on historical grievances: Chinese coolies built the railroads; Japanese were interned during World War II; the Philippines were occupied for decades; Vietnam was devastated by a pointless war; Mexico had its land and people stolen - and so on.
The problem with all these grievances is that they offset the sense of guilt over slavery. None of these people feel any responsibility for the plight of black Americans. In a racial-based spoils system, the losers are naturally going to break away from the coalition, which is what is starting to happen.
I think there is also a certain awareness among the black community that their position as the primary wards of the Democrat Party is also coming to an end. Barack Obama was not one of them - he was half-white and lived a life of privilege. He visited the black ghetto as a tourist and far from booting black America, his presidency has been an unmitigated disaster for his alleged people.
The other consequence of the Democrats' racial strategy has been to radicalize whites. When you call people "racists" every time you disagree with them, the label eventually loses its taint. The sorry display of Democrats castigating people they once praised as unrepentant bigots was only the logical conclusion of this strategy.
In fact, by hammering Republicans who worked for racial reconciliation as racists, the Democrats have destroyed any incentive to continue the work. Why bother listening to John Lewis and cooperating with him when he'll denounce you anyway as soon as he sees political advantage in doing so?
Why cooperate with Cory Booker to help inner-city blacks when he'll happily launch into an unprecedented personal attack on you to further his ambition?
A rational person would say: To hell with all of this.
The actions of John Lewis are dismaying and shameful, and an insult to the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Black America is shrinking and arguably worse off than it was in 1964. One third of black children are aborted - in fact, in some jurisdictions, more are killed than born alive. After years of progress, crime is surging and blacks are the overwhelming majority of both perpetrators and victims. A clear majority of black children are born outside of marriage, which condemns yet another generation to lower incomes, and poorer opportunities. Economically, blacks are falling further behind and black unemployment is at incredible (and unsustainable) levels.
Nothing the Democrats propose will solve any of this.
The only principle the Democrats have not betrayed is their faith in abortion. If anything, they are doubling-down, trying to increase the number of dead infants in poor communities. I can't help but wonder if their ultimate "solution" for the black underclass is to abort them out of existence. That would fit nicely with the goal of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger.
As black families disintegrate, the state takes a larger role in their upbringing. We've gone well beyond free school lunches - there are now free breakfasts and dinners as well. These also continue during breaks and summer vacation. A generation fo inner-city black children are growing up more dependent on the government than their parents.
The classic Democrat remedy to crime is strict gun control, but how would this be enforced? Let us assume that the Second Amendment is repealed or negated in some way. The only practical way to remove the guns would be stop-and-frisks or house-to-house searches, both performed by the police.
Given all the ire directed at law-enforcement, it is hard for me to understand why Democrats would want the equivalent of martial law imposed on Chicago, Detroit, etc. If black incarceration is a problem, what will mass arrests do to improve things?
Educationally, there is no place for black Americans in the Democrats' vision of the future. They want a world of global mega-tech firms, whose products are manufactured in Mexico, China and India. The black working class is expected to die off while living on public assistance, the same as the white.
Sure, the Democrats make lip service about helping blacks get into college, but the Democrat-controlled inner-city public school systems are completely decrepit and corrupt. Even the principals are on the take.
This is a far more pessimistic post than I wanted it to be, but the facts are what they are. If Democrats had set out to ruin a people, they could hardly have done more to accomplish their mission.
Hopefully the next administration will be an improvement, because ultimately we are all stuck in this together. There is no reason why all Americans can't share prosperity. That was the message of Dr. King and why it still resonates today.
Recent Comments