politicking

I really ought to post something about, I don't know, politics, so I can feel like I am contributing something to society. Mostly, however, my views about politics continue to consist primarily of scouting for photos of the First Family and then sighing in delight that Barack Obama is my President. I am not weeping every time I see him, anymore, but I'm still overwhelmed that he was elected in my lifetime. Today A. and I said his name a few times on the phone, just to hear it, just because it's so exciting that our President's name is Barack Obama.

I have some opinions about the Sotomayor nomination, too, namely: h3ll yes, a wise Latina will make better decisions as a Supreme Court justice than an old white guy will. Aside from the fact that the more diversity of perspective we have on the Court, the better, a Latina has had experiences that a white man will never have in this country. Namely, having been a part of the non-ruling group. You can be the smartest fracking white man in the country, but you will never have been a part of any group but the ruling one. You can be the most compassionate white man in the country, but you will never have anything more than empathy for people who experience daily discrimination. Empathy and experience are not the same thing. A panel made up of only white men are just not going to get it, much of the time.

See also: more qualified than basically anyone on the Court right now.

And anyone who thinks affirmative action got her into Princeton and Yale, has clearly not:

1. Been to Princeton lately (it's a haven of white people and unbelieveably expensive).
2. Gone to law school (it's a haven of white people and unbelieveably expensive, sometimes to the point that I thought they were deliberately making it close to impossible to attend if you were not wealthy), or
3. Thought about this issue at all (if affirmative action is driving the education system in this country, why are most institutions of higher education so overwhelmingly white? Why are there so few black/Hispanic/Native American lawyers/doctors/scientists? I'll give you a hint: it's not because black/Hispanic/Native American students aren't smart. Trust me, I went to law school with some incredibly smart people of color, most of whom worked much, much harder than I did to get there. If you are worrying about who is taking spots, worry about the slacker not-so-smart legacy white kid who went to expensive schools and could spend his summers "volunteering" so his application would look good, so he could go to a good law school, so he could make a lot of money doing nonsensical corporate work, so he too could send his kids to expensive schools. Because trust me, I know him, too. And he's probably headed for the Supreme Court.).

(The swearing in this post: 100% deliberate. For effect. Thank you.)