The Most Cowardly Bigots of All Are White “Progressives”

Lois Lerner of "IRS Targeting" Infamy



Way back in 1881 when James Abram Garfield (“The last of the log cabin Presidents”) was assassinated by a disgruntled job seeker (Charles Guiteau), the Civil Service reform movement began in earnest.

The scrapping of the various old patronage systems and replacing them with “the modern Civil Service Merit System,” took decades and was vehemently opposed from virtually every locally elected official from shore to shore. After all, the patronage mills were one of the most effective means of building a base and rewarding political fealty. Police Departments, Fire Departments and Public schools were filled with Civil Servants of “the right political affiliation for that locale. In some cases, the varied Civil Servants were expected to “kick back” 1% or more of their annual salaries to the Party...more or less, as tribute.

Civil Service Reform was about as popular with politicians as was Paden’s (Kevin Kline’s character) returning to town was with Cobb (Brian Dennehy) the sheriff in Silverado.

Ever since, politicians of every stripe have sought ways around the “Merit System,” ways of getting those they favor into jobs and those they don’t...out. In New York City it began with the much reviled “1-in-3” rule, where the city could take any candidates among the next three highest scores. It was sparingly before the 1970s, but used extensively for the first time in the 1971 FDNY Entrance Exam, in which 1 of every 3 new hires had to be either black or Hispanic.

No politician has sought to rein in such abuses of the Merit System, not Ed Koch, not Rudy Giuliani, not even billionaire Mike Bloomberg.

Worse yet, the most cowardly bigots have been white so-called “progressives,” who’ve championed lowering, even eliminating some basic standards in the name of “diversity,” specifically “to get more blacks and females on these jobs.” In other words, these “progressive” whites (mostly white males) have thrown blacks and women under the proverbial bus to further a completely unrelated agenda...scuttling the Merit System by eliminating standards-based “merit.” In short, they have pushed forward the idea of “presumed incompetence of blacks” (“African-Americans just can’t compete with other groups on such standardized exams”) and the physical incapacity of females instead of recruiting members of those groups (perhaps from military installations, etc.) who COULD compete effectively for those jobs.

Apparently even supporting and espousing such vile, petty bigotries are justified to advance an agenda they see as critical.

I have been directly involved in a group (Merit Matters) that has fought to preserve the Civil Service Merit System and basic standards since that group was formed back in 2009. This endorsing and espousing of blatant bigotry is neither new, nor accidental...it is very much deliberate and it shows just how little white male “progressives” care about the dignity of those they claim to champion.

In the FDNY, Tyrone Hughes, an attorney on its Department of Investigations and Trials is one of those leaned upon to push that bigotry...that “basic written standards ‘discriminate’ against blacks and basic physical standards ‘discriminate’ against females,” while steadfastly denying that it is bigotry behind their labeling certain groups non-competitive (incompetent). In fact, they loudly claim that those opposed to that bigotry are the actual bigots.

Tyrone Hughes is a pawn, like Lois Lerner was at the IRS. Neither has ever made actual arguments for the views they put into practice because neither one has often been challenged to do so. It’s also highly unlikely that either of them actually believes in, nor fully understands the views behind what they enforce, because, quite simply, they don’t need to understand. They are easily replaceable. Lois Lerner was very quickly replaced by the IRS. And that’s what is truly sad, even after THEY are thrown under the bus by those who’ve used them as pawns, they refuse to come forward and “give up,” or expose those who’ve directed their actions. Perhaps their pensions are held hostage. Who knows? But whatever the collateral being used, it’s been reliably effective, which is lucky for the real bigots who continue to hide in the slime.

Who Really Stands Against the Merit System?

With the recent drubbing that overt race/gender-based preferences took in heavily Democratic Michigan (the MCRI banning race-based preferences was voted in a 60/40 landslide), those so inclined realize they need new ways around the old problem of “disparate impact.”

“Disparate impact” has been the rallying cry of all those opposed to standardized exams in any form or venue.

While race and gender-based preferences in school admissions have been fueled largely by a misguided sense of redress, in employment, they’ve been fueled by something far more sinister.

Consider that to date, the overwhelming bulk of race/gender based preferences have been consigned to Civil Service positions that have traditionally been filled, at least since the days when nepotism and cronyism were eradicated by the Civil Service Merit System (CSMS), by various Civil Service standardized exams.

The interview process used in the private sector is innately subjective, but has withstood the most intense legal scrutiny, as have the battery of professional exams – the Law Boards, the five part CPA exam, various medical licensing exams, etc. which all suffer the same demonstrable "disparate impact" that all standardized exams do.

Only the lowly Civil Service exams have not been spared.

Coincidence?

Not very likely.

So, then who is the real enemy of the CSMS?


Is it women and/or blacks?

Certainly a number of groups representing plaintiffs from both those groups have filed numerous federal lawsuits usually based on the claim of “disparate impact,” but that is hardly indicative of any consensus among either of those groups against standardized testing nor the merit system.

The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) has had lawsuits filed against it by both women’s groups and the Vulcans (a black fraternal organization) over the years. While women’s groups have argued that the physical portion of the firefighter’s entrance exam (weighted at 50% of the final score) is “discriminatory” against females because of its emphasis on upper body strength, the Vulcans have argued that the written portion of the exam is “discriminatory” against blacks because of, yes, “disparate impact.”

Both groups point to the fact that the FDNY is over 90% white and male as proof of some form of insidious, though unprovable discrimination.

The FDNY has always had the highest standards out of all the City’s Civil Service positions. Like all such Municipal positions, those standards have been watered down over the past three decades.

Still, the question remains WHO is the real enemy of the CSMS?

The only answer should be the most obvious one of all – the various Municipal governments are the real enemies of the CSMS.

Bottom-line, there are very few politicians who like the CSMS. It takes Municipal hiring out of political hands and puts those jobs, jobs that could be used as patronage positions to reward supporters, into an open and uniform system with a single standard for everyone applying for the various positions.

Politicians like patronage. They also like nepotism and cronyism. They don’t much like the CSMS.

Could that be why, while professional exams, like the Law Boards and CPA exams, tests that also suffer “disparate impact” have been defended and protected by court rulings, New York City, like other Municipalities have done little, if anything to defend the standardized exams forced upon those municipalities to remedy a very real, very deliberate and overt form of discrimination – patronage and cronyism?

Of course it could.

While many blacks and most women oppose segregated standards as much as they oppose any form of segregation, municipal governments oppose those standards because they’ve taken hiring decisions out of politician’s hands.

An end of the CSMS would mean a return to day when local politicians directly control the hiring within that municipality, returning a lot of leverage to local politicians that had been stripped away for decades.

While some “women’s groups” and some black fraternal organizations (like the FDNY’s Vulcans) have been used as tools to assail the CSMS, its municipal governments who’ve had the most to gain and therefore the deepest antipathy for the Merit System.