I don't know why Senator Jim Webb's oped in the Wall Street Journal prompted me to blog on the topic of affirmative action. Perhaps it's the fact that when Webb was running for Senate everyone on the left swooned for him - a former Reaganite who was disgusted with the modern Republican party, opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, charismatic enough to wipe George Allen off the face of American politics and win in a deep-red state like Virginia.
How deep was the leftist swoon? Ariana Huffington attended his inauguration party in January 2007.
But as a Senator, this guy has been a major disappointment. He's pro-coal, pro-offshore drilling, and whines that "WASP elites have fallen by the wayside and a plethora of government-enforced diversity policies have marginalized many white workers."
A couple of thoughts - one serious and one snarky - on that quote in particular and his general opposition to affirmative action.
My personal bias is the fewer Protestants in the U.S. the better (and this isn't even the snarky response!). But you can make a credible argument that Protestantism, with it's decentralized structure and grassroots organization, helped nurture American democracy in the 18th and 19th centuries. When you compare Protestant nations to Catholic or Orthodox ones (hierarchical and undemocratic churches to say the least), nations that were dominated by decentralized religions developed stronger democratic institutions (elections, press, courts, etc.).
But where Protestantism - and decentralization - was complimentary in the 18th and 19th centuries, it has not been as beneficial to the modern nation state of the 20th and 21st centuries, centuries where America became larger, more diverse, and a strong and more active central government became a necessity. Like it or not, America needed a strong central government to do everything from winning World War II and rebuilding Japan and Europe in our image, ending Jim Crow, establishing Social Security, building the interstate highways and the existing transportation infrastructure, electrifying rural areas, wiping out diseases like small pox and polio, establishing national parks, passing food safety laws, ad infinitum.
So I think the era of WASP domination and WASP ideology - decentralized government with little influence or significance - has thankfully run it's course, a fact that angers Sen. Webb and others (the Tea Baggers, for instance). Interesting to note that the notion of a weak national government started to ebb during the Civil War. Not only did the size of the federal government swell to fight that war, but coincidentally a war fought by an army made up largely of immigrants, the U.S. army, fought and defeated an army of WASPs, the Confederacy.
Of course, the Confederacy was primarily fighting to preserve slavery and by extension white supremacy. And that notion of white supremacy fostered and perpetuated WASP elites. Until World War II and government programs like the G.I. Bill started leveling a variety of playing fields, there was little competition for WASPs in business, government or higher education. All the way back to the 1840s with anti-Irish and anti-Catholic laws, the so-called WASP elites restricted the activities and aspiration of non-WASPs. Jim Crow laws, personal discrimination, immigration quotas, housing covenants, race riots, internment camps, and other un-American indignities plagued every non-WASP group in the United States: Jews, Chinese, Africans, Japanese, Mexicans, Greeks, Italians, Native Americans - everyone who was not a white, male, Protestant.
Not to mention slavery and wiping out Native Americans.
I guess having a Supreme Court made up entirely of Catholics and Jews is proof that WASP elites have fallen by the wayside, but I say good riddance. All hale modern America, a nation still striving - and getting better and better, I'll add; witness our African-American president, the Supreme Court, our female Italian-American Speaker of the House who represents America's gayest city, our Mormon Senate Majority Leader, Oprah, Bobby Jindal, etc. - to fulfill the promise of it's creed, the best creed ever written. Ironically written by a slave-owning WASP; got to love history!
Now for the snarky response regarding 'marginalized white workers.' As you know, I am biased towards immigrants. It's laughable to claim white workers are marginalized. But perhaps they feel that way because they have to compete in a new, open America - and they often lose. Immigrants simply work harder, and they work harder because they believe and validate our national myths - that this is THE land of opportunity and if you work hard - or study hard - you'll get ahead.*
Immigrants chose America, and do not take it for granted. I think WASPs do, and fail to take advantage of the opportunities America affords. That's why most small businesses seem to be started by immigrants, professional schools are full of non-WASPs, etc.
* The exception to 'work hard and you'll get ahead' is the African-American experience. No group has been in America longer and worked harder - as slaves and free people under Jim Crow - for little compensation than African Americans. And until Obama's election their experience also mocked another Americanism: anyone can become President in America.
That cynical experience is precisely why we still need affirmative action. It's certainly not a panacea to the problems that persist in black America, but it IS an appropriate response to the world the lamented WASP elites of Jim Webb created, a world and it thankfully eroding.
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