It is often said that success has many fathers but failure is an orphan. Our liberals, however have reversed this truism.
On The Weekly Standard’s blog today Michael Goldfarb makes an excellent point (HatTip to Robert VerBruggen):
Sotomayor’s supporters — most of whom support racial preferences — insist that Sotomayor is so smart and capable she would have succeeded regardless of any affirmative action policies. And maybe she would have, but it’s clear she never got the chance. Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court is precisely the kind of outcome liberals were hoping for when they set up a system of preferences. And it is precisely the outcome [then-Princeton president William] Bowen was hoping for when he implemented a system of preferences. But now that that outcome has been achieved, liberals don’t want to take any credit for their success. It’s a very odd thing to see a social policy become orphaned at the moment of its greatest triumph.
Odd indeed, but not the first time liberals have done this. They also orphaned a social policy triumph when, after the success in the mid-1960s of their campaign that began in the 1830s to have colorblind equality written into the law, they abandoned their offspring and embraced the antithesis of colorblindness, racial preference.
You’re exactly on point, John.
I wrote a piece in the late 1980s that advocated giving the Equal Protection Clause a chance, because it never had been implemented as written (and still hasn’t, to this day).
Prior to 1964, we had segregation and Jim Crow. After ’64 it’s been all about preferences, affirmative action, and “diversity.”
When are we going to evaluate candidates for college admission, jobs and, ironically, the Supreme Court itself, on their own merits instead of their tribal or gender affiliation?
Mike Bertolone writes:
“When are we going to evaluate candidates for college admission, jobs and, ironically, the Supreme Court itself, on their own merits instead of their tribal or gender affiliation?”
1. First you have to identify who “we” represents.
2. Since it hasn’t happened in 233 years, what makes you think it’s going to spontaneously happen now?
–Cobra