Bernie Sanders Can't Explain "Equity" but it's in the Democratic Party Platform
/Senator Bernie Sanders was asked on Real Time with Bill Maher to define equity as opposed to equality. “I don’t know how to answer that question.”
Maher helped him out, stating equality is about equal opportunity and equity was about equal outcomes. When asked which side Sanders supports, he picked opportunity.
Sanders is a darling of the progressive left, so he’s been receiving reactions to his post. Cenk Uygur from The Young Turks came to his defense. “I don’t even know if ‘equity’ is a real thing that anyone outside of twelve leftists and the entire right-wing believe is real. The overwhelming majority of progressives agree with Bernie Sanders (and me) that equality of opportunity is the right standard.”
It’s very interesting that Cenk Uygur, the head of a left-wing media company, is unaware that “Achieving Racial Justice and Equity” is quite literally in the Democratic platform. “Democrats are committed to standing up to racism and bigotry in our laws, in our culture, in our politics, and in our society, and recognize that race-neutral policies are not sufficient to rectify race-based disparities. We will take a comprehensive approach to embed racial justice in every element of our governing agenda, including in jobs, and job creation, workforce and economic development, small business…” The list goes on.
It's also very interesting that Cenk wouldn’t know Biden issued an “executive order on advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government.” Biden is using a Domestic Policy Council to “coordinate efforts to embed equity principles, policies, and approaches across the federal government.”
Vice President Kamala Harris has also given a speech on “equality vs equity” and even shared an animated version of it on social media. “Equality suggests, ‘Oh, everyone should get the same amount.’ The problem with that, not everybody’s starting out from the same place. She goes on to say, “It’s about giving people the resources and the support they need, so that everyone can be on equal footing.”
The problem with that is it’s impossible to create equal starting places for everyone because individuals make such diverse decisions. A child born in a two-parent household, for example, is likelier to have a better outcome. The government can try to create equal footing by granting more resources to single mothers, but the government doesn’t create anything. They get their resources from the taxpayer. Equity is about picking winners and losers.
An example of equal opportunity would be if everyone got into college based on their merit. Affirmative action is an example of equity. While you may have more black students getting into college because of it, the Asian community has found that it creates a problem for them, because they have to compete against other highly academically accomplished Asians as opposed to simply competing fairly against everyone else.
Harris said, “Equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place,” but there are too many variables to guarantee equal outcomes. It would take some serious gerrymandering of the system. I’m from a family of 7 children. We all lived together under one roof, had the same two parents, mostly went to the same schools, etc. We are all very similar, but we’re also very different. We have different drives and disciplines. We were all smart kids, but some were more confident than others. Some were totally disinterested in school while I was an academic overachiever. People don’t all want the same things, and they don’t all use their talents or resources in the same way.
So, how is the government going to figure this out and be fair to all people? They can’t, and it’s not their job. Their job is to ensure our unalienable rights, and they can’t even half handle that.
If I had to guess, I would think Bernie Sanders would genuinely agree with Vice President Harris. With all the railing he does against billionaires and insisting the government “forgives” student loans, he’s very much into class warfare and using the power of the government to “even” the score by shifting the burden elsewhere.
