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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
-- Daniel Webster
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Monday, June 30, 2003 :::
Eugene Volokh fills in for Reynolds at MSNBC, and writes about Clarence Thomas and affirmative action. In particular, he takes on Moreen Dowd for saying, "It's impossible not to be disgusted at someone who could benefit so much from affirmative action and then pull up the ladder after himself." His main argument is that in a lot of other cases -- e.g., male judges in the 70s ruling against sexual discrimination from which they've benefited -- you don't get that reaction.
I'll bet that most of Thomas' critics (the ones that make the criticism with which I started this post) don't think there’s anything remotely wrong with people trying to overturn these unfair advantages, even when they themselves had benefited from them. In fact, many would think such actions are especially worthy, because the judge or legislator would be voting out of principle, and against policies that might unfairly benefit people with whom he'd feel close...
I've always thought that F.W. de Klerk seemed to get too little credit for the end of apartheid, relative to Nelson Mandela. Mandela had suffered more, obviously, and the simple fact that de Klerk had reached the position he had probably indicates that he had been part of the problem (though I don't know all of the details of his career), but as of the early '90s, he was fighting his own unfair advantages, and ending his hold on power. The first is a hard task for anyone, and the second anathema to a successful politician.
::: posted by Steven at 1:42 PM
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