In a society warped by Identity Politics, individual merit; accomplishments and character no longer play as great a role in determining one’s fortunes.
Individual merit is being purposely replaced by racial or other characteristics; factors beyond one’s control, as the principal factor in determining one’s status and opportunity.
Equal protection of individual liberty has been the foundation of American identity; the source of the PERSONAL empowerment to determine one’s own fortunes in life. Defense of each person’s natural rights is the way Justice is defined in both purpose and measure by the American system of governance.
The establishment of the first (of many, it turns out) “protected classes,” was an unintended consequence of well-meaning civil-rights era laws which sought to address the racist residue of slavery. Force-of-law may have seemed the only way at the time and it was, no-doubt, quicker than were the evolving attitudes of society. But solving social problems – even big and severe social problems – by force-of-law is a lot like performing watch-repair with a jack-hammer. While the targeted problem might be addressed, you’re going to break vital components in the process.
The body of law crafted to implement the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause has been used to establish PRECISELY the thing posing the greatest threat to Equal Protection:
A government authorized to engineer social order according to classification.
The equality of persons has been turned on its head; replaced by a force-of-law pursuit of statistical parity among “identity groups” under the header of “Social Justice.”
Membership in a “victim class” has become the “door-opener” to employment, contracts, loans, college admission, etc. It is even the first factor considered in judging the credibility of your political viewpoint.
People considered to be in the majority are labeled “Privileged” by virtue of the characteristics defining them as Majority and are today scorned with the approval of the Left.
No wonder we have people making false claims to minority class status. Those who lay claim to membership in multiple “victim-class identities” have the most status in the eyes of the leftists who dominate media, education and entertainment.
This perverse, Leftists’ version of “count your blessings” thoroughly undermines the PERSONAL empowerment at the heart of American Liberty, doesn’t it? At the same time, it becomes a virtually unlimited grant of power to government; to pursue statistical parity among “identity groups” rather than the equal defense of each person’s natural liberty. This is the Leftist version of “justice.”
If you join me in the belief that your CHARACTER rather than your characteristics ought to be the biggest factor in determining your fortunes in life, then reject the party of Identity Politics.
If you believe that the principal purpose of our government is to defend each of us equally in the lawful exercise of our natural Liberty rather engineer society then reject the party off Identity Politics and the perverse distortions it is advancing.
To put it another way, we are transitioning from a nation where people are expected to promote their economic best interests, to one where people are expected to promote their political self interests.
In nations where people work to promote their economic self interests, you see free markets, whereas in nations where people work to promote their political self interests, you see socialism. And why? Because economic self interest is achieved by creating value for others that they are willing to pay for – to pay more for than the cost of delivering that value – whereas political self interest is achieved by simply taking the economic value of others by legislative fiat and government force.
If the public believes that political self interest is in some way more noble than is economic self interest, free markets are dead, and with them so are our individual freedoms.