A warped version of “equity” has become political heroin for Biden Democrats.
They inject the black tar into their veins, then become euphoric over the sudden rush of power they get, until the junk wears off. Predictably, they crash. And no matter how big the crash is or how devastating the damage it causes, they don’t stop. They’re hooked now.
To get the same sense of euphoria, they’ll lie, cheat, and steal to keep the smack flowing through their veins. But with every crash, they need more of the stuff to get the same high: racial equity, transportation equity, policing equity, environmental equity, education equity, housing equity, gender equity, infrastructure equity and health equity.
And they seem to have no clue how crazy this stuff sounds. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra recently called a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes “an important step to advance health equity” because it will reduce disparities in tobacco use. Yep. We have disparities in tobacco use. Since menthol cigarettes are used by 85 percent of black smokers, smoking menthols lead to lower quit rates and more black deaths.
Never mind that such a prohibition would drive blacks who decide to keep smoking menthols to black markets which, if they’re serious about the ban, would have to be policed. And never mind that none of this would do absolutely anything to solve the severe problems plaguing troubled black communities. But solving real problems is never the point. The political high is.
So predictably as time goes on, with slurred speech, fried brains, and signs of mental disorder, Biden and his Democrats get sloppier and sloppier – no longer able to meet their national obligations as they swear that they don’t have a problem.
Joe Biden, on the economy: “I’m not concerned about a recession.”
Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security, on the border: “To put it succinctly, the prior administration [Trump] dismantled our nation’s immigration system in its entirety.”
Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General, on domestic threats: “The top domestic violence extremist threat we face comes from … those who advocate for the superiority of the white race.”
Jen Psaki: “Let me first say that Americans are paying a higher price at the pump because of the actions of President Putin.”
It’s shocking how these people can see the catastrophe at the border, the catastrophe in policing, the impending catastrophe in the economy, the catastrophic COVID response, and so many other self-created institutional disasters, and look at America with a straight face and calmly lie about it all. But when they see it all through the lens of equity, things have to get messy for the greater good – creative destruction.
There’s a difference, they say, between equality and equity. Equality means having the same basic access to equal resources or opportunities. Equity means distributing resources in ways that achieve equal outcomes.
An example that proponents give is a depiction of three men standing outside a ballpark behind a solid, wooden fence who all want to see the game by looking over the top of the fence. They have an equal resource – one crate each. The problem? They’re different heights: tall, medium and short. While the tall and medium men have a clear view over the fence, the short man has a very limited view of the game through a small hole in the fence.
How would equity be achieved in this situation? Redistribute the crates. Since the tall man can see over the fence perfectly without a crate, his crate is given to the short man. With no crate for the tall man, one for the man of medium height, and two crates for the short man, they can now watch the game at equal height over the fence. That, for them, is equity. Redistribution of resources in favor of marginalized, oppressed groups at the expense of privileged, oppressor groups.
Another example you’ll find is of two little girls beneath a tree, filled with apples, standing on ladders of equal size reaching up to grab them. The ladders represent equality. The problem? The trunk of the tree bends toward the girl on the left (privilege) in a way that puts the fruit in comfortable reach for her but out of reach for the girl on the right. The solution? Give the girl on the right a taller ladder. They both can now have as many apples as they pick. That’s equity, which helps to achieve social justice, a flat-out Marxist idea – a mangled Frankenstein of affirmative action.
Government throwing money and resources at the have-nots at the expense of the haves – in the name of equity – is not only un-American, but it’s pure poison to the spirit of enterprise and, in the end, cripples the very people it pretends to help. The proof screams from coast to coast.
Money alone, even when it’s inherited, is lost in less than a generation without the same intangible human stuff that’s gotten so-called marginalized groups out of poverty for over two centuries in America: sweat equity (hard work), creativity, drive, faith in the country, and faith in the future.
“The only stable asset among the quakes and shadows is a disciplined brain,” wrote George Guilder in Wealth and Poverty (1981). “Previous immigrants earned money first by working hard; their children got the education. … Nothing is more deadly to achievement than the belief that effort will not be rewarded, that the world is a bleak and discriminatory place …”
The God-given capabilities of so-called marginalized groups, especially blacks, are not diminished one iota by tragic historical events – let alone events they’ve never experienced – more than by politicians and activists who basically tell them that they are subhuman because of misfortunes of the past.
The Biden Democrats’ addiction to a warped idea of equity that pushes blacks onto the government dole, which blights those who depend on it, needs an intervention.
What we need is more sweat equity, and less of the Democrats' brand of “equity.”