Seeing the Round Corners

March 11, 2019

WHEN A GOOD THING IS REALLY A BAD THING
As a member of the profession claiming to be journalists, this writer cringes at the arrogance shown by on-air news readers/interviewers, especially to President Trump. The $30 million Megyn Kelley/NBC matter says it all, and should speak volumes to other stations.

The election of Donald Trump to be President of the United States was, to put it mildly, one of those events that could only be classified as shocking, if not unfathomable.

The sad commentary on the 2016 presidential election is what it says has taken place in this country since the likes of former Presidents Clinton and Obama brought on to the country. By no means is this writer saying Obama is in the category of sliminess that Clinton was known for and has come to light in recent years.

But, what Obama brought to America is a total lack of understanding of what being President was about. Obama’s “claim to fame” was the streets of Chicago as a street organizer, his book about his father who was black and from Kenya, and the unmitigated failure of all too many times failing to acknowledge his Mother was white. Never in all the years of the Obama administration was he referred to as a half white President – always as the first black President of the United States, far too often ignoring his white Mother. Politically correct was always in full charge!

This writer has always found offensive the lack of pride in being an American the Obamas showed –  both Obama and Michelle. Readers will recall Michelle Obama’s statement at the Democratic convention about this “being the first time she was proud to be an American.” President Obama said in his inaugural address. “. . . we are a nation of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus . . .”

Identity politics is not exactly an aggressively covered issue, but one the former President sought to use which would have been an additional step in dividing the American population and away from the unifying notion of “e pluribus unum.” (Refers to the United States as a cohesive single action as the result of the thirteen colonies joining together – a Latin phrase but translated as, “out of many, one).

Last year, the Census Bureau rejected changes to the decennial survey that were proposed by the Obama administration. The Obama administration “proposed artificially creating yet another pan-ethnic grouping for Americans of Middle East and North African descent.” Also in that proposal was “reducing the choices of Americans of Latin American or Caribbean descent (the bureaucratically invented pan-ethnic group the census calls “Hispanics”) to identify themselves as a real race (such as black or white). When the proposal was made, all those in the know were positive a President Hillary would whole-heartedly rubber-stamp the idea.

Like it or not, President Trump has from the beginning pushed for America and the centrality of the nation’s identity. “Make America Great Again” is not just a catchy cliche so hated by the Democrats. Few people realize what that phrase is really about.

“Conquer and divide” is another cliché that comes to mind when issues such as race and ethnicity are pushed by those seeking to turn America on itself. The term “fractured republic” entered into the consideration and discussion when the Census Bureau made the decision to reject changes to the decennial survey that were proposed by the Obama administration.

Noted historian and University of California-San Diego professor John Skrentny writes in his book, The Minority Rights Revolution, about what policymakers and bureaucrats did by carving out and giving “official sanction” to a new category of Americans:  the minorities. Without much thought given to what they were doing,  they created and legitimized for civil society a new discourse of race, group differences and rights. This new discourse mirrored racial talk by reinforcing the racial differences of certain ethnic groups.” The world was shortsighted enough to rush head long like herds of cattle (in writer’s opinion).

Mike Gonzalez of The Daily Signal wrote, “Groups such as LaRaza, NALEO, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Census Project, the Arab American Institute and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights have as their agenda to determine who America is, with their success dependent on brainwashing individual Americans into sorting themselves out by ethnic and social categories, and seeing themselves as members of victimized and alienated minorities who need government protection from a supposedly cruel and irredeemably racist society. Even with the best of intentions, the incentives were all wrong.”

The Civil Rights Movement may have been a good thing, but it also was a bad thing because, as Alice Robbin of Indiana University wrote, “They can be influential beyond their numbers in the public policy, and have made America into an ‘interest group society.’” There should never be compromises where identity is at stake.

The bottom line is, most Americans are uninformed about just how important and significant the census information is:  “The information the Census collects helps determine how more than $400 billion of federal funding each year are spent on infrastructure, programs and services.” 

When the Census Bureau made the announcement about not creating another pan-ethnic grouping for Americans of Middle East and North African descent, the liberal groups objected almost in unison and vowed to take their case to the U. S. Congress.

The reader's comments or questions are always welcome. E-mail me at doris@dorisbeaver.com.