The Obama presidency has been among the worst in American history but will the disaster be remembered? No easy task, given the Left’s cultural domination. Conceivably, in a few decades millions of youngsters might well learn that our first African-American president was a hero who wonderfully uplifted America.
To overcome this awaiting beatification, let me suggest a Washington DC museum cataloging his ineptitude. Here grade-schoolers on class trips and other visitors could listen to his error-filled speech celebrating Islam’s contribution American life or learn how with only a pen and phone he rewrote the U.S. Constitution.
Especially prominent will be a spacious Policy Wing exhibiting his countless ill-advised schemes, everything from ObamaCare to the transgendered bathroom fiasco. But, with so many possibilities, it is not easy to pick the worst but let me nominate one candidate: a recent White House directive that requires colleges and universities to cease asking applicants about their school disciplinary and criminal past since minorities (i.e., African Americans) are more likely to be “justice involved individuals.” The aim is to remove “barriers” to college (actually, at Colorado College a criminal past may be judged a plus in the admission process).
College admission officers are further being asked to ignore academic dishonesty, e.g., cheating on exams, plagiarism, because here, too, offenders are disproportionately minorities. These criminal encounters, moreover, are not necessarily indicators of flawed character — they could easily be a result of racial profiling, stereotyping, and similar biases. Once admitted, these students will receive extra counseling and legal advice plus coaching to assure a smooth transition to graduation. In fact, so pressing is America’s need for minority college graduates that the White House missive suggests universities dispatch recruiters to jails to ferret out college applicants.
Clearly, White House experts now have a novel and mind-boggling view of fighting crime. To wit, sending former miscreants to college will push them away from crime, so punishing them can only increase crime since colleges will reject those with a criminal record. That is, the greater the retribution the more the crime. So, according to the new logic, if Michael Brown were not incarcerated for stealing a box of Philly Blunts, he would be more likely to be admitted to college and with diploma in hand, live a crime-free life.
Whether a specific miscreant will benefit from this non-punitive policy is indisputable, but what about his neighbors who do not commit crimes? Tough luck. A more plausible argument is that swapping college for prison will only boost crime in largely black neighborhoods and predominantly black schools. In other words, Obama has it backwards.
