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Dougal's avatar

The progressive left likes to complexify all issues when it's really unnecessary. You need only one word to describe how hiring and admissions policies should be determined. "Merit."

Even economically disadvantaged students seeking admissions to the most exclusive universities should face that hurdle. Why? Because there are hundreds if not thousands of other colleges and universities in the ratings hierarchy for whom they would not need preferences to qualify for acceptance and yet still receive an excellent education.

The simple fact is that every person deserves to be judged on qualities they have spent their lives developing and perfecting. No one should receive preference over another person based on perceived disadvantages or racial characteristics. Life is hard and achievement is difficult for all people. In America with its diverse set of opportunities at every level, merit based on fairly administered testing and other objective criteria should be the only basis of selection for jobs or admissions. Let the cream rise to the top.

My great aunt was a classical violin teacher who regularly played on radio in the 1930s and 40s. She lived next door to my family in an old converted barn that had a little concert hall. She once told me that her best students in the 50s were white children; in the 60s they were mostly Jews and in the 70s they were Asians. I'm sure there were exceptions, but that was her recollection. Yes, by today's standards, she would be classified as a white, Christian nationalist and proud of it. Her father had been a member of the House of Representatives in Washington.

The point is that she knew who was aspiring for greatness and working the hardest to achieve artistic perfection. And she admired those families for it. She based her judgements on merit. As we all should.

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Larry Schweikart's avatar

Rich, you obviously wrote this before the events of the last two days. First, every single Democrat in the Senate voted to keep MEN in girls' locker rooms. That is the epitome of DEI. Then, every single Democrat, on national TV, could not even stand up for peace in Ukraine or a black kid with brain cancer. Utterly reprehensible.

So here is your problem (well, one of a thousand, many of which I have documented here over the past weeks in terms of MASSIVE GOP VOTER REGISTRATION SHIFTS: even as you and Ruy and a few others make common sense "reforms," the core of the party's ideology is hopelessly toxic. You literally would have to kick people such as AOC, Nancy Pelosi, Al Green and many others out of the party to have a hope in hell. Intellectually sound arguments fall on deaf ears when a vieweing people sees little children in a SOTU speech holding up signs that say "false" (I thought they meant "we are false," to which I would agree) or "pay your taxes," but did not see Al Sharptton anywhere. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a vote is worth a million columns.

You will see new polling showing the Democrats will continue to crater. I expect PA to be +R by December---January at the latest---and NC to be +R by next February. These images will continue to drive GOP voter registration growth, which, BTW, reached +100,000 since the election, net, nationwide.

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