How can you praise what you hate?
Sadly, this is not a rhetorical question but one in need of answering by the America-loathing leftists burrowed in the sinecures of our self-esteemed United States Department of State.
Consider the Biden administration’s latest recycling of an Obama-era bureaucrat within the State Department, the new Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO) Zakiya Carr Johnson. Per Hannah Grossman’s April 10th Fox News report, Ms. Carr Johnson’s holds less than adoring views of country and her fellow citizens. At an August 2020 “feminist webinar,” she opined:
Because we live and work within systems… so deeply rooted in patriarchy and colonialism and racism and otherism, we tend to be very resistant to shifts and changes. It’s very uncomfortable for many colleagues… A culture of misogyny has allowed men to act without consequence and it becomes part of what we believe is normal, right? In order to make any change, we’ve literally got to be about the work of dismantling that traditional structure at every juncture.
In using language many would find offensive and that would spur an H.R. complaint, Ms. Carr Johnson wrote:
[There] are chinks in the armor of traditional leadership that refuse to reconcile with a colonizing past, or recognize that time has run out for experimentation and tweaking of a failed historic model… We understand that a cultural shift is on the horizon and in order to save us all, we must be prepared to change.
Sifting through the leftist “Prog whistles,” such as “traditional leadership” (i.e. “straight white males”), one can fairly suppose Ms. Carr Johnson does not consider herself part of the “we” that needs to change. Guess who “must?”
Carr Johnson co-authored a Fair Share toolkit guide entitled ‘Feminist Leaders for Feminist Goals.’ According to the guide, redistributing power requires ‘feminist leadership’ to redress ‘a culture of male and/ or white dominance.’
This is standard grist for the (capital “I”) Intersectionalist, Ms. Carr Johnson, who “’learned… to demand intersectionality in all spaces.” Yet the intersectionality sweepstakes has its losers, too, including some less-than-usual suspects, for it seems not all feminists are created equal.
This idea was reiterated in a June 2020 letter Carr Johnson signed with Fair Share, which outlined a series of antiracist commitments. [Italics, mine.]
We strongly believe that feminist leadership must be anti-racist in order to transform our societies. Today we call for… long-term transformation… We will do our part to uplift and amplify feminist leaders of colour, counter White-centered feminism trends and narratives, and share Black and Brown feminists’ wisdom and recommendations.
There is the crux of the leftist long-term canard, one that, along the lines of “We support the troops, but not the war,” allows them to have their cake and eat it too: “I love America, that’s why I will fundamentally transform it.” Just as one cannot tell American military personnel you support them while you undermine their mission here at home, one cannot loathe America here at home and promote its mission abroad.
Recall when then President Obama was asked about American exceptionalism? His response downgraded America as not “the country” but “a country.” This greased the skids for the State Department’s decline into American-loathing radical chic, as exemplified by the DIE Cult indoctrinator (“diversity, inclusion, equity”), Ms. Carr Johnson. Thus, if the left were honest—and they doggedly are not as a practical matter—they would say, “I loathe America, but I will love it once I’ve fundamentally transformed it.”
This, of course, is not conducive to the mission of the United States State Department, which one presumes to be promoting the image and interests of America to the world. Evidently, in their support of Ms. Carr Johnson, Mr. Biden’s State Department disagrees:
Secretary Blinken created the position of CDIO to ensure the inclusive workplace environment we need to continue to attract and retain the nation’s top talent. When the people making foreign policy decisions on behalf of the American people don’t reflect the full diversity of our nation, we all lose, and our national security is weaker. Together, we will ensure the United States is best positioned to meet the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly complex world.
Once more, we see the race-essentialist “diversity” conceit of the DIE cult: a person is viewed not by their principles but by their physique; not upon the content of their character but upon the color of their skin and/or sexual orientation. As long noted, the DIE ideology, which is little but affirmative action on steroids cloaked in “new speak,” balkanizes Americans into competing camps of grievances, undermines the principle of equal justice under law, and subverts meritocratic practices.
Incredibly, the State Department’s CDIO position exists to indoctrinate its personnel in this partisan, Maoist ideology that loathes its sole client: The United States of America. The result of the DIE cultists’ ministrations is the exclusion of State Department personnel who love America and the “inclusion” of personnel who loathe America. Is this the “image” the U.S. seeks to present to the world?
One person who thinks so is Secretary of State Antony Blinken. As Fox News reports, in announcing the “appointment of Zakiya Carr Johnson as their chief diversity and inclusion officer…Blinken touted Carr Johnson for bringing ‘expertise and a fresh perspective on how we build a workforce that reflects America.’”
Call me sane, but building a workforce that reflects a self-loathing America is not the best way to represent America and promote our image and interests in a burning world looking to the United States for leadership and inspiration. Instead, all our foreign policy “experts” can offer are apologies and condolences, and the occasional plane load of gold to state-sponsors of terror who want to kill us?
No, you cannot praise what you hate. So, roll up, America, on the floor in a fetal position, and kiss your strategic assets and image goodbye. “The U.S. apology tour is dying to take you away….”
An American Greatness contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) served Michigan’s 11th Congressional district from 2003-2012, and served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee. Not a lobbyist, he is a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars; and a Monday co-host of the “John Batchelor Radio Show,” among sundry media appearances.