Latest news with #EquityActionPlans
The Hill
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
In a liberal society, equity is a false idol
Over the last two decades, progressive activists have introduced lots of sententious words and euphemisms into the U.S. political lexicon. Examples include microaggression, intersectionality, cisgender, BIPOC, Latinx, 'the unhoused' (that is, the homeless), returning citizens (ex-convicts) and 'pregnant persons' (formerly 'women'). For those not up to speed on the latest academic conceits and ideological fads, including non-college voters streaming out of the Democratic Party, progressives might as well be speaking Esperanto. They have also infused old words with new meanings. Take 'equity.' Specifically, it means ownership in a house or stocks. But in its new meaning, it is used more generally as a synonym for fairness. Now, it has become a pillar of DEI — the hallowed trinity of diversity, equity and inclusion that defines today's 'social justice' ethos. In this context, 'equity' conveys a demand for something stronger than mere equality. The National Association of Colleges and Employers, an enthusiastic advocate of DEI, parses the difference by defining equity as 'fairness and justice' that is 'distinguished from equality.' 'Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances.' After the George Floyd-Black Lives Matter summer of 2020, bureaucracies set up to inculcate DEI spread like kudzu throughout government, colleges and public schools, philanthropies and private companies. Job applicants were taxed with describing how they would endeavor to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in their daily work. Democrats duly clambered aboard the equity express. On his first day in office in 2021, President Biden ordered federal agencies to develop Equity Action Plans to advance 'racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government.' But DEI's reign was brief. Working class voters, across racial lines, saw it at best as a distraction from their struggles with high living costs and worries about immigration and crime, and at worst as a coercive regime set up by self-righteous elites to correct their thoughts and speech. Their antipathy toward progressive moralizing played a significant role in sinking Kamala Harris and the Democrats last year and returning the failed coup plotter, President Trump, to the White House. The president believes he won a mandate to stamp out all vestiges of DEI in America. His minions are firing anyone in the federal government associated with diversity and affirmative action programs. In yet example of executive overreach, Trump also is threatening private colleges, businesses and civic institutions with political retribution if they don't fall in line. How should Democrats respond to this MAGA version of cancel culture? The same way they should have responded to the left-wing original — by standing up unequivocally for liberty of conscience and free speech. But they should also reflect on the ferocity of the public backlash against a sectarian identity politics that subordinates the general welfare to the pursuit of 'equity' for favored groups. Maybe it wasn't such a bright idea for progressives to abandon Martin Luther King's dream of a colorblind society in favor of group preferences, DEI, critical race theory, and related ideas that fragment Americans along lines of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Fixating on the differences between groups makes it impossible to build a broad, center-left alliance, especially when non-college Americans, a majority of the electorate, are either left out of the left's hierarchy of victimized groups or assigned the oppressor role. Democrats, however, should reject race essentialism and equity not because they're unpopular, but because they are illiberal. In America's liberal tradition, individuals have inalienable rights and liberties, not groups. That many originally were excluded from equal citizenship is reason to apply these principles universally, not discard them. Liberals from Jefferson to Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama also have drawn a clear line between the aspirational goal of equal opportunity and utopian guarantees of equal outcomes. Show me a country that claims to have achieved the latter, and I'll show you a totalitarian society that oppresses its subjects and relies on a privileged class of apparatchiks to rule them. The late sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset (a mentor and friend) identified our native strain of liberal anti-statism as the reason European socialism never took deep root here. Americans, he noted, invested heavily in universal public education to give everyone an even start, while Europeans built welfare states to 'correct' markets' failure to distribute wealth evenly. The Mandarin left deems Europe's social democracy as morally superior to America's liberal democracy. But U.S. working families don't rank reducing inequality as a top economic priority. They're more interested in pro-growth economic policies that generate abundant opportunities for upward mobility, keep inflation and debt down, lower the cost of life's essentials, curb illegal immigration and help them acquire the skills necessary to get ahead in a fast-changing economy. To them, equity connotes elite attempts to rectify past injustices at their expense. Social reform movements in this country succeed when they invoke the liberal universalism of the American creed rather than imported political doctrines like democratic socialism. That's why liberals and Democrats should depose the false idol of equity and rededicate themselves to fighting discrimination in all forms, promoting equal opportunity and advancing the common good. The old rallying cry of Jacksonian democracy still illuminates the way forward: 'Equal opportunity for all, special privileges for none.'
Fox News
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
USDA's woke boondoggle spent taxpayer dollars on DEI insanity
The billion-dollar diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) industry has infiltrated every sector of society, from corporate boardrooms to government agencies. In the public sector, it has morphed into a boondoggle, funneling taxpayer dollars into products and programs aimed at indoctrinating Americans under the guise of progress. A recent X post by Secretary Brooke Rollins at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) exemplifies this overreach, exposing how the Biden administration politicized even the most basic agricultural resources — seeds — turning them into vehicles for DEI propaganda. Rollins recently posted an image of USDA tomato seed packets found behind a door emblazoned with the words, "These seeds are for growing, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility at USDA." With the seeds were decorative note cards that stated: "If You Can Be Anything, Be Inclusive At USDA." The DEI seed initiative seems to have been an outgrowth of President Joe Biden's Executive Order 13985, signed in January 2021, which mandated equity action plans across federal agencies. Biden's EO was issued to encourage workers to seek ways of embedding DEI into their agencies. It no doubt is responsible for much government waste, and, as Rollins said, "There will be no more American taxpayer dollars spent on DEI initiatives or #WOKESEEDS at the @USDA." In the meantime, farmers dependent on USDA to focus on its mission suffered along with other Americans. According to data gleaned from the U.S. Bureau of Labor, while farmers grappled with real challenges — food inflation surged 23.5% between February 2020 and May 2023, and fertilizer prices spiked 300% in 2022 — the USDA diverted resources to ideological endeavors. The department's agenda ranged from items such as the seeds to a study with the claim, "It is also important to recognize that transgender men and people with masculine gender identities, intersex and non-binary persons may also menstruate." The result? Wasted taxpayer money and propaganda infiltrating even the seeds meant to grow America's food supply. This isn't just about a waste of taxpayer dollars; it's a betrayal of public trust. During Biden's tenure, farmers faced supply chain disruptions and regulatory burdens, yet the USDA prioritized DEI initiatives over practical support like securing food supply chains or reducing red tape. The absurdity of DEI seed packets — some users even questioned if they could be used to grow tomatoes — underscores the overreach of the previous administration's woke agenda. A 2025 White House directive, which terminated all "Equity Action Plans" and related grants, labeled such initiatives as "immense public waste" and discriminatory, aligning with Rollins' move to end this spending at the USDA. This policy shift, reinforced by the America First Investment Policy introduced in February 2025, redirects resources to agricultural innovation, not ideological agendas. The USDA's DEI seeds are a microcosm of a larger problem: the billion-dollar DEI industry has overstepped, using taxpayer dollars to push propaganda at the expense of practical governance. Rollin's approach is balanced and practical. USDA should focus on food security over symbolic gestures like DEI seeds. Rollins' decision to expose the waste and reassure Americans of her commitment to running a responsible Department of Agriculture is a healthy signal of a return to accountability that will ensure that taxpayer dollars support American farmers, not ideological indoctrination. Ferreting out wasted funds that undergirded the politicized agendas of the Biden administration sends a strong message to other federal agencies that they too need to closely examine their agencies. This should guarantee that commonsense and accountability are working together to ensure that legally prohibited, divisive DEI initiatives are being brought into alignment with civil rights laws and constitutional protections.
