Krauthammer 7/3/09

Civil Rights Should Not Be Extremist

My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: In New Haven, Connecticutt, no blacks scored high enough on the firemen's promotion test to qualify, so the test was thrown out and no promotions were made. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the white firemen.

Quote:

The defenders of the old racial order, led by Ginsburg, objected sternly, declaring that the white firefighters "had no vested right to promotion." Of course they didn't, but they did have a vested right to fairness, to not being denied promotion because of their skin color.

My Views: Note that the policy of reserving jobs for blacks does in fact give a vested right to promotion based on skin color.

It is this kind of stuff that causes Americans to not give the Civil Rights issue the respect that it is due. Left wingers need to moderate their stridency of rhetoric and their extremist policies. This kind of stuff ought to be labeled with that word "extremist" and then disgarded by the Civil Rights leadership. Then concentrate on common-sense battles to fight. Goodness knows, there's plenty of them to fight on the Civil Rights front!

---

Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.