Jeb Bush

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Because you”€™re not allowed to do that anymore. It would be political suicide for any candidate”€”but especially a white male”€”to even suggest that they explicitly support the interests of whites or males. It’s OK to tout the fact that you”€™re a woman, but you still have to downplay the “€œwhite”€ part, which is presumably why Elizabeth Warren pretends she’s an Injun. It is also probably why Jeb Bush has resorted to pretending he’s Hispanic.

Way back when, I was one of the gullible youngsters who swallowed the idea that liberalism was all about getting rid of tribal identities. However naïve that was of me, and no matter how much it ignored the possibility that tribalism had biological and thus ineradicable roots, it seemed like a good idea. I”€™d rather deal with people as individuals than as team members. The problem with that scheme is that individuals are rare. Most people would have no idea how to function as individuals, which is why their natural tendency is to huddle within tribes.

But I can”€™t fathom the naiveté required to believe that this egregious double standard”€”i.e., tribal identity for everyone except white males”€”will end in harmony rather than disaster. It horrifies me to ponder the gullibility you”€™d need to think that one day, all women and nonwhites will suddenly say, “€œIt’s cool, white dudes”€”we”€™re even. The score is settled. The historical scales are balanced. Everyone’s equal now.”€ Anyone with the most basic grasp of human nature knows that people never truly grow out of infancy”€”both as individuals and in groups, they will grab more and more candy until someone finally prevents them.

What will become of this escalating putsch to demonize and eradicate the merest suggestion that it’s OK to be white and male? Maybe it”€™ll be irreversibly successful and white dudes will be the global serf class of the next thousand years. Or maybe it”€™ll all backfire. If you push people into a corner long enough, they start to get a little defensive. If you herd them together into a group and keep spitting on them, they might start thinking as a group. Ironically, this relentless effort to deny white males any positive group identity may be the very thing that creates it. And for better or worse, that’s when the real fireworks would begin.