The Anti-Meritocracy of MAGA

The farce of Trump's anti-DEI push

Photo by Kowshik Roy sagor on Unsplash

The Trump administration has many professed enemies: The Deep State. Liberals. Cultural Marxism. Immigrants. But no concept has captured their ire more than DEI, and no group has been deemed more dangerous than DEI proponents, DEI hires, and various other “woke” people and practices. It’s odd, this obsession: Of all that ails America, can it really be the case that diversity initiatives are the most dangerous?

Of course not. What the Trump administration is doing is not opposing DEI because they believe it’s unhelpful or divisive or unfair or an overcorrection to a legitimate problem. They aren’t even opposing DEI so much as very transparently restoring white men to power, stripping women and people of color of their accomplishments, and casting doubt on the very concept that people who are not white and male might actually be qualified for important roles.

More insidiously, they are broadcasting that this whole thing is a farce: That white men are entitled by birthright to power, although even they must do what Trump wants, and what Trump wants is to see them abase themselves. Women and non-whites are suspect, visible vestiges of a liberal order that MAGA finds intolerable (this order did in fact involve meritocracy, it just made white men compete too). What Trump wants are people who would not succeed without him, and whose positions are courtesy mostly of things they cannot control — their gender, their race, and him — save for the one thing they can: Their loyalty. People who know they are only where they are because of the whims of one man are going to cater to that one man.

“Competent white men must be put in charge if you want things to work,” tweeted Darren Beattie, a former Trump speechwriter who had a contract at CNN until he appeared alongside a white nationalist at a conservative conference and was swiftly fired. “Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.” Beattie has an interesting habit of telling black people they need to “learn their place” and “take a knee to MAGA.” He has said there is “nothing objectionable” about the white nationalist he appeared with at a conference.

Beattie is surely no longer demoralized: He was just handed a top job at the State Department.