Sarah Palin and the Republicans' Favorite Sport: Extreme Affirmative Action!

Usually, Republicans hate affirmative action. A core Republican message is that they are the sole protectors of embattled white men against the forces of entitled minorities and aggressive women unfairly going after their turf. This message is picked up and amplified by Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, and the like.

Republicans hate affirmative action. Until they think it will work for them. Then they just love it, in a big way. Look at Sarah Palin.

Affirmative action means making special efforts to increase the representation of targeted groups in schools, workplaces and government. It usually involves two practices: (1) engaging in outreach, to find potential applicants for opportunities that might not otherwise come over the transom; and (2) using a more subjective idea of merit when considering who would best fill a position.

Most people think of affirmative action as something that relates solely to ethnic minorities. In fact, decades of research has shown that the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action have been white women. When Hillary Clinton attended Yale Law School, it was 10% female. Now Yale Law is fifty percent female. That didn't happen by accident. Women and to a lesser extent minorities have made advances into the work world over the past four decades because nearly all academic institutions, all large companies in America and the entire military have made it a priority to increase their their inclusion of people who were previously underrepresented.

Which brings us to Sarah Palin. John McCain's choice is a big-time affirmative-action choice! Palin has done some interesting things but she is certainly not the most qualified Republican to be vice-president.

Sarah Palin is not the most conventionally qualified. But she offers other attributes that are important to McCain: she's a right-winger who will appeal to the base; she presents the "gal/guy you want to have beers with" mystique that is so weirdly important to Republicans; she's a big gun nut; and she has a reputation as a reformer (of sorts), which matches McCain's desire to repurpose the Republican Party away from the crony capitalism of the Bush years and back into the good governance folks we knew sixty years ago. (You may recall that it was Eisenhower, a Republican who warned of the dangers of the growing military-industrial complex. Those were the good old days.)

Oh, did I mention that Sarah Palin is also a woman? The value of this is not that she's going to pick off any of Hillary Clinton's 18 million voters -- that seems very unlikely to me -- but rather than she makes John McCain seem -- to his party -- cool. And mavericky. And young. And dare I say it? - interested in diversity. Keep in mind that these messages are primarily for the Republican base, not for the average Huffington Post reader. The primary value that Sarah Palin brings to the Republican effort is that she makes them interesting. She has a good narrative. And in that respect, she's far more qualified to meet McCain's needs than Mitt Romney and crew.

One reason affirmative action works is that once people see black, or Latino, or Asian, or female, or handicapped people in positions of authority, they start noticing the ways they are succeeding. So as Sarah Palin takes on a more national presence, more of America will start seeing her as vice-presidential material simply because that's how she will be introduced. Because the Republicans want to win, they will start attributing positive qualities to her, which in turn will increase her confidence and capabilities.

To be sure, Sarah Palin would be a terrible vice president, but not because she's stupid, incompetent or inexperienced. She'd be a terrible vice-president because she has a wacked-out belief system and would make bad decisions based on that belief system. That's different from simple incompetence or inexperience.

Sarah Palin is only the latest in a series of Republican extreme affirmative action hires. When Reagan tapped Sandra Day O'Connor to be a Supreme Court justice, the first woman so chosen, she was a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals -- not even the Arizona Supreme Court. She was a competent judge, who in fact had been held back by sexism -- the first job she was offered after graduating third in her class at Stanford Law School was as a legal secretary. But she didn't have nearly the credentials of others up for the job. But she's done well for herself.

When Bush Sr. put Clarence Thomas up for nomination to the Supreme Court, Thomas had sat for less than a year on the D.C. Circuit Court and had written fewer than a dozen opinions. That was the sum total of his judicial experience. No matter - to the right wing he's been a great success story. According to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, he's proven himself to be a "principled and scholarly jurist."

Wanting to hang on to the angry white male vote, Republicans will continue to belittle affirmative action. But in their hearts, they know it can work -- maybe not for the benefit of America, but for their own interests. That's why they practice it. When they think no one is looking.

Follow Michael Melcher on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MichaelMelcher

Comments

[test10022]

"having attended five institutions of higher education before receiving a BA. I don't know why the many schools, she seems very bright"

This is usually an indication of being a member of the working poor. They transfer schools when they change jobs so they may attend school near their current employer.

As far as the overall discussion of Affirmative Action, there's a big difference between offering consumers racial variety (ie in food or music choices, or even in entertainers and politicians) to appeal to their demographic group--which the Republicans are doing--and forcing affirmative action with statistical measurement like the Democrats do. Basically, if the job is public facing "variety" (meaning less than 10% of the job candidates) makes sense. Beyond that percentage, choose the most qualified.

If the job ISN'T public facing, the "marketing" arguement for affirmative action makes no sense. And the "variety" arguement can't be made when 40% of the population is eligible. So the Republican version of affirmative action is this:

If the person is being used to target a group from a marketing standpoint, or if they offer the consumer variety (meaning less than 10% of job candidates) then lowering the bar for that individual may be justified from an economic standpoint. But requiring 40%--soon 50%--of the slots to go to minority groups as the Democrats require can't be considered variety nor a marketing necessity and has no ECONOMIC justification.

[shirleyj]

This article is right on point. Women have benefited from affirmative action more than any other group and the Republicans cynically have used it on many occasions. Sandra Day O'Connor and Condoleeza Rice are two of the most prominent examples of affirmative action. Actually, I believe these two were qualified and therefore reflected the intended use of affirmative action: to give people who had been historically excluded, but who were QUALIFIED, an opportunity to compete. The Sarah Palin example is one of the most cynical examples of what I would call "preferences" instead of affirmative action. She can only be called marginally qualified, since according to the Constitution you only have to be 35 years of age. Clearly, her gender was the primary motivation, not her experience and credentials, having attended five institutions of higher education before receiving a BA. I don't know why the many schools, she seems very bright. However, is she really someone you want to take the reins of power if McCain is incapacitated? This is indeed extreme preferences!

[djcrsn]

Gov. Palin has more experience as an executive (mayor and governor) than does either Sen. Obama or BIden (who entered the U. S. Senate at the minimum age of 30).

[test10022]

So when your kid gets a perfect score on the SAT, and Princeton declines them (they currently decline half of the white and Asian applicants with perfect scores) you'll understand. It's your fault, because you like Mexican food once in awhile. You said you liked variety in your food choices, right? And you even occasionally listen to rap and jazz. So don't be calling us racist when we say more than 50% of the Ivy League college students must belong to minority groups."

Um...how did you ever pass a logic class? Might I suggest you were the beneficiary of the (democrat version) of affirmative action?

[test10022]

This is ridiculous.

Republicans aren't practicing affirmative action when they select a highly qualified female candidate to appeal to female voters. They're picking the most qualified person for the task they're trying to accomplish.

The DEMOCRAT version of affirmative action is much more extreme. It involves statistical measurement and defacto quotas. It involves "diversity" where diversity serves no benefit.

[cascot]

What a load of crap; referring to the article and the 3 above comments. It is obvious that your opinions are twisted. Obama's actual days he WORKED(or attended the Senate) are a measly 143 actual days. Now THAT'S what I call experience! Palin has had executive experience with far reaching goals achieved. John McCain knows a lot about the military that he will be commanding, unlike Obama and Biden, AND he is on record for supporting the surge that has turned the war around. I remember Bush saying that the American people were going to have to have an attention span, for this war, longer than a commercial. He has held that course when Obama would have pulled us out with a loss, creating a vacuum for the Iraqi government--they didn't show signs that they were capable of taking over their country until just recently. Iran SURLEY would have come in and taken over--it's the oil fields.
No, I'm not for the fix it now, or declare defeat crowd, a.k.a. the democrats.

[TexasDem0]

Maybe you could list some of Gov. Palin's specific accomplishments, rather than simply boast about them.


By the way, the power vacuum was created when the BushCo Crime Syndicate naively invaded Iraq and destroyed the government without any thought of the consequences other than the Oil Grab.

[nk007]

Michael

I think Republican practice of affirmative action is cynical. They loudly proclaim that they are for a meritocracy and yet they turn around and chose the most unqualified minority/women simply because they subscribe to right wing ideology. Witness how viciously they demean Sen. Obama. Here is a man, who is Columbia and Harvard educated, graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, was President of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, served eight years in the Illinois senate (same as Abraham Lincoln), was elected Sen. from one of the largest states (pop. almost 13 million) and has served in the senate for almost 4 years (two more years in Congress than Lincoln), and yet he is repeatedly portrayed as an "empty suit." The tragedy, of course, is that the vast majority of American people are not aware of the right wing Republican hypocrisy.

[kristycu]

I know- all they do is tell black people you need to stop blaming "the Man" for your issues and go to school and get a job. and when we do it, the demean the effort- there has to be a stronger word than Hypocracy

[abyfyre]

I agree that she'd be a terrible vice-president, not necessarily because of her belief system (as you mentioned), but rather that she wants to codify her belief system into policy on issues such as teaching creationism and abstinence-only sex education, both of which are a little light on the science.

From what we know about her, it doesn't sound like she has spent much time outside of Alaska. Does she get it that there is a large amount of diversity in the lower 48, and that those people don't necessarily share her specific beliefs? Has someone clued her into the fact that she will represent ALL of the U.S., not just the part closest to Russia?

She doesn't care and neither do the folks at the RNC who are putting on their happy faces and going along with this charade -- she's making the religious extremists ecstatic. Country First My A**!