I mean, when they picked a very qualified Kamala all we heard was DEI hire. It's just an idiotic term brandished about now by the opposite side whenever a woman or minority is hired for anything important. Pretty sad.
Very well qualified? Maybe. Maybe not. But that wasn’t why she was picked. Biden laid out his qualifications.. Woman of color. That was his qualifications. Not.. I’ll pick a supremely qualified person. And Kamala proved to be a disaster of a pick. It became clear .. she was a DEI candidate.
Political appointments are almost never “most qualified”. It’s especially laughable the idea any of our recent POTUS or VP’s were most qualified at anything. Mike Pence was picked to try to lock in the evangelical vote. That makes him a “DEI hire” in the exact same way as Harris. Yet not a single right winger ever called him a DEI VP. Don’t pretend to not know why that discrepancy exists.
IMO, Biden was arguably a DEI pick himself because Obama needed an older White man that made voters more comfortable - despite Biden’s very poor showings in his prior presidential bids. And Biden only later got traction because he had been Obama’s VP. A more explicit example of considering diversity is when Trump pledged to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. He then nominated Barrett. Was that DEI? Was it wrong? Trump vows to nominate a woman for US supreme court vacancy within a week Donald Trump has promised to put forward a female nominee in the coming week to fill the supreme court vacancy created by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, pushing the Republican-controlled Senate to consider the pick without delay. Taking the stage at a North Carolina rally to chants of “Fill that seat”, the president said he would nominate his selection despite Democrats’ objections. After conducting what he joked was a “very scientific poll” of the Fayetteville crowd as to whether supporters wanted a man or a woman, he declared the choice would be “a very talented, very brave woman”. “I will be putting forth a nominee next week. It will be a woman,” Trump said. “I think it should be a woman because I actually like women much more than men.”
I can see your point on Biden.. although I think it’s likely DEI was made to combat Old white guy syndrome And yes… if Trump picked Barrett only due to gender.. that’s wrong. Merit merit merit should always be the answer.. especially when dealing with the Supreme Court and or federal leadership. ( but I believe it should be the answer when hiring a janitor at a school as well.)
Forget politics, even in the real world very few hires are done purely on “merit”. For a janitor it’s more about finding a living and breathing human willing to work a low wage. Some jobs may even be designed to rehabilitate felons. The closest thing is probably big corporates or even govt positions who use specific metrics to weed out “unqualified” candidates before they even get to the interview process. But at the end of the day the hiring decision often comes down to gut feel or who they liked the best. It becomes a qualitative decision rather than purely quantitative merit. The irony is that a lot of DEI type research or people who look at that seriously has to do with why the technically better candidates get bypassed or denied interviews... It isn’t always just “affirmative action” or wanting to hand out jobs to unqualified minorities.
No argument there.. but when you have a high ranking position to fill, one with immense responsibility and people’s lives at stake… stating in public that your criteria is gender and race… (DEI) and not getting the best person for the job.. you are an idiot. When UF actually gets a new AD and hired a new football coach and basketball coach this summer do you want We will hire the very best coach based on his history, coaching record and recruiting background Or We are dedicated to hiring a a person of color with a disability to our new head coach… No one cares about the coaches skin color or if the have a physical disability as long as they are the best candidate for the job. Lane Kiffin could be a purple with blue hair space alien and most around here would welcome him with arms wide open.
Guyz, all important positions must be filled by the most competent professionals in the world. Only elite minds need apply here. Also, I’d like to introduce you to our new Secretary of Missile Defense: Hershel Walker. And also also, we’re going to fire all those pesky elitist phD’s at the FDA and replace with RFK’s brain worms.
Intellectually qualified, yes. Very smart. Politically qualified. NO. Big negative. Never won anything outside of the most liberal state in the union. Not a good speaker. Not likeable.
Still waiting for all the feminists to celebrate the first ever female presidential CoS. And waiting….
She is the one that convinced Trump to tell his voters to vote early in this election. She was able to keep her principal to stick with her plan for the race and not allow the clown car folks back in the tent. Trump is going to Trump in front of the camera, getting him to stick to the plan is not easy. Seeing as she has been with him on the campaign for the last year and half, she probably has a good working relationship with him prior to being chief of staff, which is something that none of his previous ones had.
Interesting (or not) factoid Wiles is the daughter of Pat Summerall the former sportscaster. Edit: Gator Princess beat me too it.
To be fair, because of her horrible performance in the 2020 D primary. It was a little odd to target the 8th most popular person in that race. But, like all things DEI, it's not so much about promoting a person who isn't qualified, but about virtue signaling to a group of people. In 2020, "those people" made the choice of Kamala for VP.