In Biden’s own words, as summarized by Howard Kurtz:
- the first-ever openly gay nominee to lead a Cabinet department.
- the first ever black secretary of Defense
- the first ever Latino head of the DHS
- the first ever Latino head of HHS
- the first woman…of South Asian American descent to lead OMB
- the first woman and Asian-American to lead [as] the United States trade representative
- the first black woman to chair the president’s Council of Economic Advisers
- the first ever woman to hold Alexander Hamilton’s position as Treasury Secretary
And that’s just for starters.
Notice what Biden is bragging about: the first identity square checked off.
Biden isn’t even picking these folks because they’re politically expedient, or because many of them reprise his BFF ex-President Barack Obama’s (D) administration, an indirect political expedience.
No, Biden is picking these folks in furtherance of his Progressive-Democratic Party’s identity politics imperative—a political expedience of an especially…prejudicial…nature.
Notice, too, what Biden isn’t bragging about: these prospective nominees’ qualifications for the job. In keeping with Party’s identity politics ideology, qualification is centered on identity; actual skill or experience is in the far reaches of the system—if present at all.
Even if these folks could be counted on to put in honest effort, their broad and aggregated lack of qualification, their intrinsic incompetence, will be disastrous for our nation.
He tapped Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico to lead the Department of the Interior. If confirmed, Haaland — who was a lawmaker in the energy-producing state before being elected to Congress in 2019 — will be the first Native American secretary for a department that oversees tribal lands and public lands. She would also become the country’s first Native American Cabinet secretary. Coordinating the climate agenda from the White House will be Gina McCarthy, Biden’s national climate adviser. McCarthy led the Environmental Protection Agency during President Barack Obama’s second term.
McCarthy, at least, was selected on policy grounds and qualification/experience, whatever we might think of Biden/Harris/McCarthy policy or McCarthy’s actual experience or qualification.
Haaland was selected first, if not strictly, on her ethnicity and gender. Qualification for Interior Secretary, if any, was strictly an afterthought.
Eric Hines