 So in the wake of the Atlanta spa massacre, Senator Tammy Duckworth demanded that Biden's administration include more Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and she even threatened to withhold votes on any nominations going forward if he didn't actually increase representation for members of the AAPI community. Now she ultimately backed down on that threat almost immediately. Nonetheless, this spawned a conversation on the view where they talked about identity politics and representation in government and Megan McCain ended up saying things that are just outrageous and to be polite what she said was ironic but it's much, much worse than that. Take a look and then I have a lot to say about this. I believe that what makes America exceptional is the fact that we're a meritocracy that you can be anything, that you can come from anywhere and go and have success in any capacity. And I think the question Democrats have to reconcile with right now is whether or not race and gender are more important than qualification. So if you have someone who is more qualified, who happens to be a white straight person, who is more on paper, has more experience in whatever field they're being nominated for than a minority with less experience, are we now in a place where this matters? And there's a lot of really interesting politics going on in the country right now and I'm going to give just two really quick examples. One is Harvard University and Ivy Leagues are actually being sued right now for not letting Asian American students in at the same rate that they are letting Black students in because they are not being considered by Ivy League students in the same vein as minorities, as any other minority is. Another example is in the recent stimulus package money was given to minority farmers but that excluded women farmers. And so we're going to a place where even if people need money, even if people are qualified to get into Ivy Leagues, race and gender is more important than your skill qualifications, the content of your character. It is not what Martin Luther King Jr. preached. I think this is a very, very slippery slope. I was very surprised to hear someone like Tammy Duckworth say something like this. She got a lot of blowback from a lot of people, not just on the right. And I think this is actually just the natural progression of identity politics and I will say just to put a cap on this, the view is 25 years old next year. We've only had one Asian American host co-host this show. So does that mean that one of us should be leaving at some point because there's not enough representation? We're talking about is identity politics more important than qualifications of a job? And I think that's a question going forward that the progressive left is going to have to reconcile. OK. Now to that last point, I think that Abby Phillips on Twitter made a really great point. There have been more view co-hosts who are children of famous people than view co-hosts who are Asian. Does she really think that's because there aren't enough Asian people with the right qualifications? And that's precisely the case here. Now Tammy Duckworth, I don't necessarily know if the media was misrepresenting her view or she didn't argue her point persuasively enough. But she actually submitted a list of qualified members of the AAPI community to Joe Biden before the shooting took place and he rejected all of them. So I don't think she's necessarily arguing just pick anyone who's Asian so long as they're Asian. That's the only qualification. I think she is saying that she wants qualified members of the AAPI community in his administration. Having said that though, Megan McCain kind of oversimplifies the point she was making, although they did bring this up in that segment as well. So I think that obviously qualification matters. But the point overall is that there are enough qualified Asian American and Pacific Islanders that Biden could have included in all she's saying is I want some more representation. And sure, there's a difference between descriptive representation that is the identity and substantive representation, meaning how someone governs, how they represent a particular community. But Megan McCain, she has absolutely no self-awareness whatsoever. And she says, I believe what makes American exceptional, what makes America exceptional is the fact that we're a meritocracy. Is that so? So she likes that if you are qualified for a position, that is how you get a job and move ahead. So explain to me, Megan, precisely what qualified you to get the job on national television that you have right now. Explain that to me. I'll wait. It couldn't possibly be because you won the Lucky Sperm contest and happened to be the daughter of the royal John McCain. Is that is that the case? We all know that her existence on that show disproves this idea that America is a meritocracy. That'd be great if that were the case, but it's not the case. People get ahead in America all the time for being born, for having lots of wealth. And it doesn't even matter that they're not qualified. Donald Trump, a reality television show star became president. So how can you with a straight face in 2021 argue that we live in a meritocracy? It's laughable at this point. And she says, Democrats need to determine whether or not race and gender are more important than qualification. Now the answer is obviously both of those things are important. Representation matters. Of course, the identity matters, but it's not everything. For those of you who disagree, I mean, if you want to see a female president, would you accept Sarah Palin as president or Carly Fiorina? Would I be satisfied with someone like Milo Yiannopoulos representing me as a gay man, representing members of the LGBTQ community? Would trans Americans be comfortable with someone like Blair White speaking on their behalf and representing them? Of course not. So the identity is just one aspect to representation. What representation means in actuality, I would argue, is a combination of descriptive representation and substantive representation. That means we actually have members of marginalized communities represented in government and in media. But at the same time, marginalized communities don't just get people who look like them to pay lip service to those issues, but not actually fight for them. We need people to actually push for policies that benefit these communities and benefit members of the working class and the poor. So, you know, this is something that Megan McCain is speaking to that a lot of people believe they believe that policies like affirmative action just mean, well, hey, looks like you're black and you're gay. We'll get right into college, young man. You just you just got a grant. That's not the way that it works. What it means is what affirmative action means. And what a lot of people don't understand is that if you are someone who does study really hard, work really hard, then there are other aspects of your record that they can consider. Did you let's just take college admissions, for example, if you played in any high school sports, if you did any charity or whatever or volunteer work, and if you happen to be from a marginalized community, these are things that they can consider as benefits, as pluses. Not the main reason why you get admitted, but that's kind of what people try to argue is that, well, you know, this really qualified white person was passed up for this unqualified black person when it comes to a job or college admissions. But in actuality, the overwhelming majority of the time when race or gender is considered, at least when it comes to admissions and jobs is specifically on the basis of qualification, not solely because of race or gender, even if that is one of the factors used to, you know, determine whether or not someone should be admitted into any particular institution. No, I think that nuance is required here. The Democratic Party, like they've gone out of their way to kind of bastardize this conversation for purposes of political expediency. I mean, we all sought first hand back in 2016 with Hillary Clinton versus Bernie Sanders when he said rightfully so that she is an establishment politician. She said, well, how can I be establishment? Because I'm a woman. You'd consider a woman the establishment. And that obviously is very hacky. It's a lazy argument. You're clearly weaponizing identity politics and weaponizing your own identity. It'd be like if I were to say what you're going to criticize me. Is it because you're homophobic? Because you're criticizing a gay man. Now, Democrats do do this, right? Democrats do this all the time. Corporate Democrats. But in actuality, I don't think that average people truly believe that, you know, you can't consider the totality of somebody's identity, their actual race and ethnicity or sexual orientation and gender identity. That's one aspect. And serious people aren't going to argue, Oh, we'll just let someone into a position specifically if they're from a marginalized community. Of course, they have to qualify. But there's more nuance that's required. Sometimes white people qualify specifically because they are from wealth or they can afford a tutor to get a higher SAT score. So these are all things that we have to take into consideration to make society more equitable. And that's the overall point. This is about equitability. But Megan McCain of all people shouldn't make any of these arguments because she got there specifically because of identity politics. She is on the view not because she's qualified because she very clearly doesn't have any talent whatsoever. She's a talentless hack to be as polite as I possibly can be about Megan McCain. But she's there because she's John McCain's daughter. If she was not John McCain's daughter, nobody would give a flying fuck about who Megan McCain is or what she does. So for all people to make this argument, Megan McCain is the very last one who should be making this argument. Of course, identity and qualification matters. But she should be lucky that in her instance, that actually wasn't the case. Because her identity overrode the qualifications that she lacked. They thought, Hey, John McCain's daughter would be fun to have on the show because she's John McCain's daughter and maybe that'll get more ratings. So let's bring her on. So of all people, you should be a little bit more self aware before making this argument, Megan McCain, because you sound absolutely fucking stupid, making this argument, not acknowledging why you're there in the first place. 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