Sword and Sextant

There have been a few flashes from this pan recently, and so it bears mentioning that our President trades in the murky waters of identity politics. What are identity politics, you ask?

Well, friend, allow me to lend a hand. Any time you hear a politician say that a bill is good for the hispanic community, or great for teenage girls, or X for some ethnic/gender/socioeconomic group Y, that’s identity politics. Of course, some of this is the cost of doing business, such as abortion laws impacting women moreso than men, or amnesty affecting mexicans, etc.

However, identity politics has a dark side, and its shadow casts a dread pall over our society. The idea that Sonia Sotomayor is uniquely qualified because she is a latina is not only hurtful to the soul of our society, but also betrays Obama’s belief in the magical power of being a minority. Its not that she is an excellent scholar of the law, or has a great case history, but that she’s a Puerto Rican that matters. Difficult to get more racist than that, to be honest. Watch/read his intro speech about her again. The only two things she has going for her, per Obama, is her personal story, and her race/gender. I’m stoked.

Sadly, this happens in my community all the time, in the worst neighborhoods. Despite the phenomenally elevated poverty and murder rates in those areas, which are above 95% black, the leaders in the black community of Milwaukee continually preach that the white man and the police just cannot understand or help them because they’re different and white. The populace won’t even tell the police if they saw a murder for reasons I can’t fathom. Blatant racism pervades these areas, and prevents the rule of law applying in such dire areas. The answer is that this keeps the leaders of the black community in total power, and nothing has to change. Something like 30% of the leaders are currently in jail, so even that isn’t enough to shield the body of their corruption and greed. Believe it or not, not only old white republicans are greedy. I was shocked, too.

If any brave official or politician challenges the black leaders to make a change for the better, they are summarily drowned in a torrential cry of racism, and those leaders trot their voters out to defame the official, to devastating effect. Of course, that person then goes back to the ghetto to live in abject squalor and danger. Thank God they prevented the white man from… what? Enforcing laws that protect them? They are the biggest losers resulting from their own identity politics, as if whites can’t understand that living in elevated danger should be avoided.

Mrs. Sotomayor has a history of similar sentiment, as well. She upheld a ruling against several firemen who passed a test for a promotion because not enough minorities passed, as well. Equal protection under the law is right near the front of our Constitution, and yet our newest Justice-to-be didn’t care about that. I’d love to hear her explanation for holding those white men back because a few minorities did not pass the test. Clearly, they were only deserving if a black man was with them. Yeah, that makes sense. Oh wait, its racist and embarrassing. The case will almost certainly be overturned by the US Supreme Court, and how ironic that Sonia will be sitting on that body at the time they overturn her own ruling (Nothing new, she is one of the most overturned justices in the US right now).

In short, identity politics is shorthand for reverse racism in today’s world. As we know, reverse racism is simply racism in another direction, except this is put up with on a daily basis, even in our government. Imagine for a moment if John McCain had referenced a “typical black grandmother”. There would be hell to pay, but Obama did the same, and he skates. Its a double standard, its detestable, and it should stop right now.

…if its African-Americans doing the intimidating.

This is so disgusting its surreal. If those dudes with nightsticks were white, they would have been in jail that evening and plastered all over the news as a beacon of proof of the white man’s racism. It would have been the right thing to do, and I’d be breathless distinguishing reasonable people from such horrid people. Problem is, they call themselves the New Black Panther Party and they aren’t white.

As this trial/process was coming to a close, higher ups in the DoJ called off the dogs. This despite the video of proof that was all over the internet on election day showing their intimidation in action. This is on AG Holder and Obama, and gives a pass to the kind of behavior we deride in banana republics.

Add this to the Sotomayor identity politics bullshit, and Obama is showing himself to be a corrupt, race-driven blowhard. Equal protection under the law no longer applies, apparently. Our President is an embarrassment.