Quote of the Day:
The fact that Hillary Clinton's election prospects, for example, depend on her ability to get the black vote has been talked about in the media numerous times. But what about the fate of millions of black people, and how that will be affected by the way Hillary Clinton is trying to get their votes?
–Thomas Sowell
The Sowell column from which the quote is taken ("Paranoid Politics") points out that the 2016 race for the White House is being covered as if what matters is the fate of the seven people who are running, not the 320 million other Americans whose lives will be affected by the outcome of the election.
We're not reading much about the arguments candidates. The press covers Mrs. Clinton's pitch to African Americans, for example, without noticing the cynicism of her arguments:
Her basic pitch to black voters is that they have all sorts of enemies, and that blacks need her to protect them, which she is ready to do if they vote for her. In short, Hillary's political fate depends on spreading fear and, if possible, paranoia.
Similar attempts to get the votes of women are based on conjuring up enemies who are waging a "war on women," with Hillary again cast in the role of someone ready to come to their rescue, if they will give her their votes.
In both cases, rhetoric and repetition take the place of hard evidence. The closest thing to evidence being offered is that the average income of blacks is not the same as the average income of whites, and the average income of women is not the same as the average income of men.
But the average incomes of people in their twenties is usually lower than the average income of people in their forties — and by a greater amount than the income difference between women and men, or the income difference between blacks and whites. Does that mean that middle-aged people are enemies of young adults?
In countries around the world, and for centuries of recorded history, people living up in the mountains have usually been poorer than people living on the land below. Does this mean that people in the lowlands have somehow been robbing mountain people? Or does it mean that the circumstances of people living in mountains have usually been less promising than the circumstances of others?
If poverty among blacks is due to whites, why has the poverty rate among black married couples been in single digits every year since 1994, despite far higher poverty rates among other blacks? Do most white employers even know — or care — which blacks are married?
The unfortunate thing about Mrs. Clinton's grievance mongering is that it does nobody any good (well, it does her a lot of good if it gets votes). It doesn't help women or African Americans to believe (falsely) that the decks are stacked against them. Society becomes even more divided and people don't seize opportunities because Mrs. Clinton has informed them that these opportunities don't exist.