Biden, Identity Politics, And An Arrogant Rejection Of America–Race And Gender Über Alles

In perhaps the most cynical move of his presidency, Joe Biden selected a black, lesbian woman as his new press secretary – a woke trifecta and a statement to the nation that race and gender come before all.  It was reported that he had wanted a Latino to add to his winnings, but time was short and there were too few women who fit the bill.  “She will have to do”, Biden said to his aides.

There were rounds of applause in the progressive community.  Finally their president had acted fully in accordance with their contract with him.  They would help him get elected if he promised to further their agenda, and Biden had fulfilled his obligations.

There were howls of anger in the rest of America which saw in Biden’s continuing capitulation to his woke handlers a betrayal.  It was one thing to appoint a tough-guy transgender woman to a minor position in the sub-cabinet, but another altogether to reject the longstanding American principle of merit first, all else second 

Not long before his press secretary appointment Biden said he would nominate only a black woman to the Supreme Court.  Regardless of her professional background, record of jurisprudence, and personal integrity, Biden's choice again raised the ugly specter of affirmative action whereby racial minorities of lesser academic and intellectual performance have been given preference over more talented and qualified whites and Asians. 

By stating that he was choosing his candidate because she was black and a woman thus favoring endangered and protected victims, he automatically raised questions about her qualifications.  She might very well be the new John Marshall, a talented, brilliant jurist; but because Biden made race and gender the issue in selection, he cast a pall over her, impugning whatever skills, insights, and abilities she had as a jurist.

When Biden appointed a black, LGBTQ woman as press secretary from a pool of thousands – the qualifications for press secretary are far less demanding than those for a Supreme Court justice – he once again showed how race, gender, and identity politics are the governing principles of his administration.  It was a slap in the face of all Americans who always assumed that merit, character, and intelligence were the only legitimate criteria for selection to any office.

This one act could be the final straw of Biden’s presidency and the rejection of radical progressivism in the Fall midterm elections.  Enough is enough, say ordinary Americans who feel hectored, browbeaten, and shamelessly marginalized.  The progressive juggernaut, already running on increasingly rough ground, is coming to a stop.

The election of Republican Glenn Youngkin as Governor of Virginia, the aggressive conservative politics of Governors DeSantis of Florida and Kristi Noem of South Dakota, the rejection of race theory in California, the harshly critical commentary of media personalities and Hollywood celebrities who have broken ranks and ridiculed cancel culture, and the newly energized and more confidently loud advocates for religious freedom and conservative values in Texas, Tennessee, and Alaska are all signs of a resounding rejection of progressivism. 

The politics of Biden and his supporters have further divided the country.  Most Americans are tolerant and accepting of racial and gender minorities, and were it not for the in-your-face sexual radicalism and reverse racism of progressives, America would be a more peaceful, unified country.  

The lionization of transgenders, a tiny fraction of the population, and the insistence on promoting such sexual anomalies in primary schools has shown the gender revolution to be political exaggeration, a perversion of original liberal principles of community and social progress.  Similar veneration of black people at the expense of white, the derogation of European civilization and mythologizing the African, and the bald revisionist assumption that victimhood confers superiority stick in the craw of the majority.  

Left alone, Americans would be quite happy to live within the law and let the legal safeguards against prejudice take hold.  It is enough for most people to regard all people as different but equal, endowed with the same rights and privileges, and granted the same opportunities.  Because of the race-gender-ethnicity hysteria of the progressive Left and the Biden White House, Americans have become more intolerant rather than less; more ready to resist the imposition of racial quotas, unfair affirmative action policies, sexual kangaroo courts in universities, and the paper-thin outrage of imagined insults and ‘abuse’.

Middle Americans, ignoring the ignoramus label given them by coastal progressives, know what they see.  Despite the lecturing about the value of black lives, the essence and rightness of black culture, and the historical imperative of restoring blackness to its proper, premier place in culture and society, most Americans, especially those between the coasts, see the consequent ubiquity of black people in the media as curious.  Blacks represent little over ten percent of the population, and that concentrated in major urban areas.

While America’s gay population has never exceeded three percent and the percentage of transgenders within that number only a tiny fraction, given the ubiquity of gay characters on television and social media and now especially in the White House, most Americans are perplexed.  “We get it”, they say, referring to the importance of civil and equal rights and opportunity for all, but we are not ignorant to facts.  The more the majority is badgered by exaggerated claims, anti-historical notions, and outright mockery of religious belief, the less tolerant it becomes.

It is clear to everyone that the progressive Left has arrogantly overstepped its bounds.  Democrats are worried that they will lose the midterm elections because of their policies and the newly energized opposition of the American middle class.  Conservatives are delighted to see that the most impossible programs and policies of the Left are being challenged and rejected. 

Political history is one of ups and downs, predictable cycles, and rises and falls.  It is in the nature of ambitious men to overreach and such overreaching is always their downfall.  It is the story of conservative and progressive, Republican and Democrat.  Yet it is always surprising that this history is ignored.  Today’s Left is absolutely, positively convinced of the rightness of their actions and the invincibility of their notions.  They will always prevail and a brave, new world, a utopia is on the horizon.

Shakespeare five hundred years ago wrote about the predictable fall of arrogant and ambitious characters.  It is fascinating to watch the demise of Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Coriolanus and many others, but their ends are foreordained. Human nature being what it is – aggressive, territorial, self-interested, ambitious, and defensive – will never be changed and the course of human history never rerouted.   Many in this supposedly enlightened New Age have not yet learned.