On Wednesday's Morning Joe, Scarborough offered a profoundly deceptive defense of DEI.
Scarborough claimed that the 'E' in DEI stands for "equality." But as he well knows, it stands for "equity"—the diametric opposite of equality.
The American ideal is equality of opportunity. Equity stands for equal outcomes, regardless of merit. It's the difference between the right of people to the "pursuit of happiness" and the government being in the happiness-providing business—for favored groups.
Scarborough also claimed that "diversity" is fundamentally American, citing E Pluribus Unum—out of many one. But DEI advocates don't call for assimilation into "one" America of shared values. To the contrary, they promote multiculturalism, in which there is no interest in assimilation. They encourage people to remain in their separate identity groups. Just as they've divided museums.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: In law school, we always were warned about a slippery slope.
Look at the slippery slope here. We start with attacks against affirmative action, and then we go to attacks against, like, equality becomes a bad word.
Diversity becomes a bad word, which, of course, you know, E Pluribus Unum, out of many, one. Diversity is etched, etched in marble in Washington, D.C. It is who we are. As Ronald Reagan said in his final, his farewell speech to America, when he left the White House, it is diversity that makes us strong. It is a diversity that keeps us young. When we stop being diverse, we will stop being strong.
And inclusion. [Laughs] Who's against inclusion, right? So we go from attacking affirmative action, to attacking equality, to attacking diversity, E Pluribus Unum.
Scarborough also cited Reagan's last speech as president on January 19, 1989 -- it was not his "farewell" speech, which came on January 11 -- in which he praised immigration from all corners of the world as keeping America young and vibrant. He didn't cite "diversity" as defined by the DEI crowd.
What Scarborough omitted was that in that speech, Reagan also said that immigrants:
"Believe in the American dream . . . They understand in a special way how glorious it is to be an American. They renew our pride and gratitude in the United States of America, the greatest, freest nation in the world -- the last, best hope of man on Earth."
The problem is that too many immigrants, in the mold of Ilhan Omar, come to America and promptly turn into some of its harshest critics. They see the American Dream as a fraud, and rather than viewing America as "the greatest, freest nation in the world," deny American exceptionalism.
Scarborough ended his pitch for DEI by saying: "Inclusion! Who's against inclusion?" He laughed [see screencap] as he said it, as if to say, who could be crazy enough to oppose inclusion?
Actually, most Americans oppose inclusion—as defined and applied by DEI enthusiasts. Americans oppose DEI-style "inclusion" when it is used as a pretext to hire, promote, or grant college admission to less-qualified people who check boxes approved by the liberal powers that be. "Inclusion" is a watch word for putting boys in girls' sports, and drag queens in public libraries, but it often leads to excluding conservatives.
Scarborough began his spiel by saying that opposition to affirmative action is a "slippery slope" that leads to opposition to DEI. The real slippery slope is the one Joe Scarborough has slid down: from proud conservative congressman to someone reduced to taking a paycheck to deceptively promote DEI.
