We were already disturbed last week when President-elect Joe Biden went overboard in patting himself on the back for assembling a Cabinet with an equal amount of women and men, an openly-gay man, a Native American, and more people of color than any Cabinet in history. We’re not suggesting that it’s automatically a bad thing that Biden’s Cabinet will be “diverse,” but if that was his primary guiding principle in assembling the nominees, he is more infected with wokeness than we realized.
And if there was any doubt about that, Biden put an end to the speculation on Sunday when he posted a video to Twitter, assuring small business owners that help would soon be on the way.
Well, some small business owners, anyway.
“Our focus will be on small businesses on Main Street that aren’t wealthy and well-connected, that are facing real economic hardships through not fault of their own,” Biden said in a video that was posted to his administration’s official transition Twitter account. “Our priority will be Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American owned small businesses, women-owned businesses, and finally having equal access to resources needed to reopen and rebuild.
Contrary to what Biden suggests here, there is no evidence that minority business owners have any less access to resources than white ones. Furthermore, Biden stepped on his own message later in the video when he pledged to help those businesses that “have been hit the hardest” by the pandemic, which is incongruent with his original pandering. Because, just by pure numbers, there are a hell of a lot more white-owned small businesses struggling right now than those owned by women and people of color.
“But we’re going to make a concerted effort to help small businesses in low-income communities in big cities, small towns, rural communities that have faced systemic barriers to relief,” he continued. “Think of the mom and pop owner with a couple of employees who can’t pick up the phone and call a banker, who doesn’t have a lawyer, an accountant, to help them through this complicated process to know if they’re even qualified or who simply didn’t know where this relief is available in the first place.”
But, again, remember: If you’re white, you’re probably gonna have to figure it out on your own.
Some commentators noted that Biden’s focus on race was out-of-step with his proclaimed desire to unite the country.
“Can we please just help Americans without further dividing us into competing subgroups?” tweeted Ricochet’s Jon Gabriel.
Well, no. Because once Democrats dispense with identity politics, they have very little left to offer.
