Category: Politics Politics by Richard R. Tryon and others
About the loudest liberal battle-cry of the past has been been the one for expanded civil rights- especially the rights of so-called racial minorities. Strangely, the statistical work of these specialists seems to show that the Chinese and other Orientals have no real problems in the liberal perception of a racist America. The Hispanics seem to do quite well too and in fact, so do the majority of those who come in various shades of dark skin, who are lumped together for the statistical purpose of defining a group to be known as "Black Americans" as distinguished from all others. Read here how a Compassionate Conservative feels for the underprivileged Americans and how to determine that a helping hand is useful.

Compassionate Conservatism and Minority Politics
or How to deal with the lingering hunger for divisiveness via racism

By Richard R. Tryon

Under the guise of its worn out claim to being the party that cares for the poor, etc., the liberal wing of the Democrat party has encouraged an endless stream of minority advocacy groups. The oldest of them must be the so-called feminist groups, which probably want to claim linkage to the first major change to the U.S. Constitution- the right for women to vote!

In the past 40 years this group has experienced a considerable power trip while agitating for several ideas that seem to be, at least superficially, driven by the power of simple logic. Thus, the quest for the ERA Amendment was the first major direction taken by the emerging of such organizations as NOW. It took some significant effort by some very clear thinking women to stop this amendment from becoming a reality to replace all of the body of law in place that has protected women from much abuse for a long time! Ratification failed only after the chance had been extended by a questionable legal decision which could have sparked a rather fascinating Court battle. Had ratification happened, albeit after the conventional period for acceptance, Court challenges would have put the Supreme Court to the test of deciding if the process was flawed.

Fortunately, women like Phyllis Schafly got many others to encourage men as well to let this flawed special interest demand lapse. Few women spend time now agitating for a revival of ERA. Instead new fragments have come forth to petition for the rights of females who prefer to be lesbians and want their preferred sexual orientation to be given a set of perceived ‘equal rights’.

Another special group agitates for “Equal pay for equal work”, but can’t quite find a way to measure what is equal? Or another wants to break through a perceived ‘Glass ceiling” in corporate career development. It is hard to imagine how we can get some to understand that the rules for success in business are common to both men and women. They are not men’s rules- just the rules that work!

The Civil War, which was initially fought over the right of the agriculturally dominated Southern states to have jurisdiction over their economic affairs to balance the industrial Northern states. In time it became the battle to free the slaves and indeed more Americans on both sides died in this war than in any other in our nation’s history.

It is not surprising that the push for civil rights took another hundred years to emerge in a way that did not reignite the fighting. When it came, the Democratic liberals were ready to ride with it and so many groups flourished that it is tough to name them without leaving out one or more major ones.
From the NCAAP to the various coalitions the movement has agitated for more laws than perhaps any other cause in American history. Compassionate Conservatives do not find fault with the fact that enormous changes were needed, and they can even thank the liberals for sparking them!

However, they can also reach out and ask when is it time to assimilate, integrate and put aside the need to have endless accounting of bodies in one pigeon hole or another? When is it time to recognize that far more minority folks have achieved assimilation than have not.

With successful Chinese now being discriminated against in college entrance exams because they outperform all others, when do we stop and let merit determine scholarship without regard to special quotas or racial or sex preferences? It won’t happen until the majority comes to accept that compassionate conservatism is not trying to outperform the liberal notions of redistribution of intellectual ability is no different than their notions of redistribution of wealth. Somehow they are determined to achieve the Marxist ideal without each contributing according to his ability and taking according to his need, by simply making everyone the same! Without cloning of one standard model - bisexual to avoid invidious comparisons- the liberals will be always confronted with genetic differences, even if they can achieve equality of housing, income and education.

It is time for the CC to put forth that it recognizes that the majority of all identified minorities are not inferior and are performing quite well. It is the lower 20% of all individuals that are proving that the Bell curve is hard to avoid. These folks are not just victims of injustice by others. They must take charge of their own lives at an early age or face consignment to the group that the Lord said would always be with us. Perhaps the poor have to be around to show each generation that a better life awaits those that are willing to start early to work for it.

It is time to recognize that successful people play the game of life by a set of rules that lead to success. They are not the rules decreed by any group. They are the rules that common sense shows and has shown millions of Americans to be the rules that work! We can achieve harmony with all so-called minorities when we stop trying to count and catalog people not as individuals but as government defined groups that are to be treated in one way or another solely on the basis of the group identifiers that they create.

We can rid ourselves of racism when we stop trying to measure who is in which group and how does the group perform as contrasted to a government defined standard.


The next essays will deal with the economic problems of the modern age.