Perspective written by GayJew
I have worked in financial services for almost ten years now. At one of the first financial services firms (a mid-size firm with global offices), I was hired as an entry-level analyst. But I had a goal and a plan: I was going to get promoted.
To this end, I adopted a three-prong strategy:
- Do my current job to the best of my ability
- Learn the job I wanted to be promoted into, and demonstrate that I had the capability to do that job
- Organize DEI events, in order to be a well-rounded employee who would be harder to deny a promotion to
I worked hard to master my job. With the help of a mentor at work, I learned the job that I wanted to be promoted into. I organized several DEI related events, including for pride month, black history month, and lunar new year.
After about a year and a half on the job, I assembled a document package including:
- Recaps of manager reviews from my current job which said I was doing well
- Written recommendations from people who wanted the job I wanted to be promoted to, who wrote about my ability to do that job
- A summation of DEI events of I had organized and held at the office
It worked.
The head of my department sat me down a few weeks later, informing me that I would be receiving a $45,000 pay increase in addition to the title promotion I wanted.
He also mentioned something else. He said my promotion was in large part due to my efforts in DEI, which he said were widely recognized across the organization. It seemed that demonstrating my ability to do the job I was being promoted into, was less important than the DEI events I had organized. My boss didn’t say so, but that I was openly gay in the office probably helped as well.
This was wrong. Very wrong. But who in their right mind would turn down a promotion, even if it was given for the wrong reasons?
Let us now pivot to the Democratic Party.
Joe Biden, early on in his VP search, declared that he was going to choose a woman as VP:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/15/biden-woman-vice-president-131309
Later on, Biden narrowed his search to black women only:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/21/politics/joe-biden-four-black-women-vice-president/index.html
Genitalia and skin color are not qualifications for President of The United States of America. Biden’s selection of Harris as VP was not about her qualifications; there were other more qualified democrats. Biden’s selection of Harris for VP was about appealing to the democratic base, which thinks genitalia and skin color are qualifications for the highest office in the land.
How did that work out, Democrats?
It turns out that swayable voters in battleground states, do not agree that genitalia and skin color are qualifications.
While I preferred Pete Buttigieg to Amy Klobuchar in a vacuum, the fact of the matter is that, of all those running in 2020, Klobuchar was the most qualified person to be VP on Biden’s ticket. Pete is an amazing orator with a tremendous ability to articulate core American values, but he was too young in 2020.
Klobuchar had been in the senate 13 years, compared to Harris’ 3 years. Klobuchar had received votes in the primary, while Harris dropped out before voting even began. Klobuchar was from a moderate Democratic state, while Harris was from one of the most liberal states in the nation.
Klobuchar was not selected because she is white. If she had been any other race, her selection would have been a no-brainer.
I was recently reading an article about Democrat’s selection of its new DNC leader. The article cited rules the DNC adheres to, including that a non-binary candidate had to be included in the competition for DNC head.
As this rule suggests, it is clear most Democrats have learned nothing valid or nothing at all from 2024’s colossal losses. Some others have learned. I have. Pete Buttigieg has; he recently remove his pronouns from his bio on X.
Martin Luther King preached that people should be judged by the content of their character. Until Democrats start evaluating candidates on their merit and qualifications, as opposed to their gender and race, it will be impossible for the best candidates to rise to the top of the Democratic Party and beat Republicans at the POTUS level.
I warily look forward to the democratic primary for the 2028 election. It is my hope that more democrats will have come to their senses regarding their obsession with gender and race.
If they don’t, Democrats are doomed to be an urban party that is completely and totally uncompetitive in the electoral college.
Questions for Discussion:
- Do you think that gender and race are qualifying attributes for President of The United States of America? Why or why not?
- In 2020, what qualifications did Harris have that made her a better VP choice than Klobuchar?
- In 1964, I could see an argument for DEI. It is not 1964 any longer. What argument can Democrats make that genitalia and skin color are valid to consider when selecting a candidate in this era?
R&I ~ MJM
GayJew
Article URL : https://disqus.com/by/TheGayJew/