In December 1992, as Bill Clinton was assembling his cabinet, he took a moment to respond to feminist complaints about a supposed lack of high-level female appointments:
In an unusually candid discussion yesterday, Clinton said he was particularly unhappy that two of his appointees – Laura D’Andrea Tyson as chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisors and Carol Browner as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency – were being treated by some women’s advocates as less important than other appointees because their jobs are not Cabinet level.
“I believe that if I had appointed white men to those jobs, those people, those same people would have been counting those jobs in a very negative way,” he said. “They would have been counting those positions against our administration, those bean counters who are doing that, if I had appointed white men to those positions.”
Gesturing toward O’Leary, who is black, he said that no women’s group or black group had included her name as a recommended Cabinet choice. O’Leary would be the third black appointment Clinton has made.
“They are playing quota games and math games,” Clinton said at the news conference, noting that he had interviewed only women for EPA administrator and for the head of his economic advisers.
Today, the Houston Chronicle (my hometown paper), urges Barack Obama to focus on both merit and diversity in making his appointments:
President-elect Barack Obama enjoys two strengths as he faces the formidable task of choosing a Cabinet. First is the breadth and diversity of his support: blue-collar Anglos, Latinos, Jews, African-Americans, white youth and an important share of independents and Republicans. Second is his world view: Democratic, to be sure, but autonomous enough to tap the best minds for ideas.
His Cabinet selections should reflect these strengths, drawing from the ethnic and ideological coalition that spurred his victory, while rejecting any tokenism. Hiring a Republican or other minority, only to ignore them, would undermine Obama’s credibility as a president who seizes the best ideas whatever their source.
Here’s another suggestion: focus entirely on merit. This is a nation of 300 million people. Sure qualified supporters (who come from diverse backgrounds) ought to be considered for undersecretary and deputy positions, but in case it escaped notice, Barack Obama will be the nation’s first black president. Of all the pressures he feels (and should rightly feel) in assembling his government, creating a “diverse” cabinet should be among the least important.
Discrimination still exists, but whoever serves in the Obama Administration will answer to a black man. We’ve got all the symbolism we need. Obama’s cabinet could look like Bushwood Country Club’s membership committee, the Hollywood Producers Guild, a casting call for Moesha or Stanford University’s math club and it just wouldn’t matter. After eight years of near total failure in government, competence is what counts — now more than ever. Bean counters and boot-licking yes men (and women) ought to butt out.
on Nov 10th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Competence. Whoa. Not sure the nation can handle too much competence at once, Man. We need some long-haired, old hippie, pot smoking slackers to round the cabinet out and really represent America, Man.
on Nov 24th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Diverse representation in power positions is not about symbolism as much as it is about fair power. The history of this nation is built on old white men stepping on minorities (women, people of color) to claim positions of power, to claim the privilege of holding the keys to every door of opportunity available, to create a situation in which “competence” is measured by standards that they themselves create. An old white man does not know the feel of a door being slammed in his face the way a black man does. He does not know the glass ceiling that women still press up against.
A competent democracy would truly hear the voices of all of its citizens. Building a government that reflects those voices is critical to assuring that we truly are a nation “of the people, for the people, and by the people,” in which “all men are created equal.”