OPINION:
Former President Barack Obama’s closing argument to voters in Virginia last month was to ignore the phony outrage over the “trumped-up culture war.” Fortunately, Virginians ignored him instead. Radical societal transformation through social engineering is a leading goal of the far Left. Cultural Marxism requires dramatic shifts in societal norms to divide and shift power to institutions run by elites.
One of the components of this “woke revolution” is embedding the philosophy of intersectionality into all aspects of American life. Sometimes commonly referred to as identity politics, it is much more insidious.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ historically low poll numbers demonstrate a rejection of this dangerous philosophy and its incompatibility with American life.
The term intersectionality was conceptualized by leading critical race theory expert Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in the late eighties. For the uninitiated, intersectionality breaks individuals and society down by factors of advantage and disadvantage, including gender, sex, race, class, sexuality, religion, disability, physical appearance, and even height. Yes, height. Value is placed on having one or more disadvantages to create a hierarchy of victimhood or oppression.
For the woke in control of Washington, Big Tech and the education complex, we’re not all Americans. We’re not even men and women. We are a laundry list of classifications that determine our value.
There is no national or even group unity with an adherence to intersectional philosophy. Groups are divided against each other, often multiple times, so the larger cohort’s power is diluted. Historical affinity groups are even pitted against each other, causing resentment and disconnection. For those who ascribe to the philosophy, the world is stovepipes of the oppressed. For the rest of us, it is intended to breed contempt.
After all, anyone can be a victim - unless you’re a straight, white, Christian, middle-class male with a steady job. Government programs, financial assistance and legal preferences are extended to an increasing number of aggrieved groups – who are expected to then vote to sustain the far Left’s agenda.
Jimmy Kimmel and the drones in the left-wing media say Ms. Harris’ poll numbers are due to racism and sexism. The folks in the West Wing, who seem to be dealing with a “clean-up on aisle two” scenario almost daily at this point, know the truth.
Here’s the good news. The Biden administration demonstrates the risks of intersectionality, and Americans are starting to wake up to the dangerous ploy that it is. Ms. Harris isn’t unpopular because she’s a Jamaican-Indian woman. She’s unpopular because she’s not seen as competent or qualified.
People are smart enough to know she got her job because she checked the right identity boxes. They are uneasy knowing she is a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s handling of the supply chain crisis has also drawn criticism, but we’re supposed to ignore it because he’s a married gay man with twin babies. He, too, isn’t qualified to lead his agency, as evidenced by the President’s appointment of Mitch Landrieu to oversee the execution of the massive infrastructure bill.
Speaking of checking identity boxes, we’re also not supposed to care about the qualifications or record of Dr. “Rachel” Levine, the newly minted transgender four-star admiral in charge of the nation’s public health service. Questioning the substance of that intersectionality gold medalist will get you vilified, canceled, or worse.
Corporate America is also getting into this new ’acceptable discrimination’ gambit.
You have to hand it to the far left. They found a way to discriminate against vast swaths of the population, embed their followers in every corner of American life, create more dependency and drive division all in one felled swoop.
America’s future demands that people of quality and stature lead our communities, schools, industries and governments. In this country, those people can be from any background. Intersectionality is not American pluralism. It’s the exact opposite. Biden’s administration will spur more Americans to reject it. Let’s hope it’s a long-term trend.
• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” and “Wake Up America Weekend” on Newsmax Television, author and former Bush Administration official.
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