Affirmative Action is a bulldozer plowing under elite opponents.


“Race is a ‘bulldozer’ that destroys other subjects.”

— Stéphane Beaud and Gérard Noiriel, Race et sciences sociales: Une socio-histoire de la raison identitaire


In his book Age of Entitlement, Christopher Caldwell showed (see previous blog) how race has dominated national debate since the 1960s. Affirmative action’s advancement has created an alternate U.S. constitution to the document Americans have fought and died for over 230 years.

Our credentialed elite stands behind the change. They believe in meritocracy; cream rises to the top. That’s a problem in a democracy where most are the milk below, but hold the votes. Wanting control, the elite has seized on affirmative action as the means to divide and rule.

Coming out of the Vietnam disaster, progressives worried about ordinary Americans destroying Earth’s future, creating an ecological crisis. Too many people. Zero Population Growth seemed an answer, along with legalized abortion. But politically, depopulating your own base .   .   . not too wise.

The women’s movement provided the vote-generating response. Using tools developed in the civil rights struggle, women — technically a majority — advanced affirmative action’s drive for employment equity, seeking more females in better jobs. Other minorities, most notably Hispanics, joined the affirmative action coalition.

Affirmative action’s bluntness — forced bussing, exams weakened so Blacks could pass, informal quotas to force-hire women, an open southern border — generated a backlash even as the coalition moved forward, with gays joining in.

This religious-like drive for justice, as Caldwell wrote, underpinned the coalitions. Progressives know their cause is right -- persecuting minorities is wrong -- leaving them free to objectify their opponents as bigots, racists, misogynists, white supremacists. Government, the courts, even the media must force change, including on corporations.

Historically, the elite was politically divided with business on one side, and liberal-led government on the other. Today’s elite is nearly united in seeking government power to fix society. Elite intellectuals know best. By qualification, they should rule. Business is outside — selfish, immoral and either repentant or beyond the pale.

Top-down rule by highly educated, largely married White progressives rests on these basics:

1. People at the top, as with most of us, care about family first. Having gained power and wealth, they want it for their children. They believe they rose by merit. Yes they go after their enemies, but do so in the nation’s best interest.

2. Elite fight harder to hold what they have than do those fighting to take their place. Progressive leaders understand they must shape today’s political battlefield to block a Newt Gingrich-like U.S. House or another Trump-like presidency. They realize voters sitting around their kitchen tables are gripped by fear and greed. Fear — loss of a government job, return to poverty, hit by poor health, forced to watch a daughter fail in life. Greed — give us wealth redistribution.

3. The elite “religion” of racial equity is both morally justified and good politics. Emphasizing race draws one’s tribe together. Faced with iPhone-induced anomie, tribal identity offers comfort. Tribes turn the progressives’ coalition against a common enemy inflicted with a “white fragility” that blocks “minority” progress.

4. The elite deflects attention away from their privileged status by invoking the racial injustice leaders will overcome through affirmative action. As to the better economy promised by opponents, progressives will fix that by taxing the unlikely-to-suffer-anyway 1%, sparing almost all the elite below.

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