This morning, Paul condescends to tell us all why (in his warped view) only GPA and SAT / ACT / LSAT / MCAT / GRE scores should be the yard-sticks by which we decide who gets in to which schools, and whether or if they get in anywhere, at all.
Of course, rather than honestly admit that he wants to advance that silly notion, he instead attacks all other schemes as “race-based“. [So, once again, using the fallacy of composition, he attacks a non-existent opponent. And what… a goofy guy.]
Look — we all know dozens, if not hundreds, of people who are “Phi Beta Kappa / No Common Sense” — people who got great grades, and test off the chart on standardized tests… but are utter disasters in real life — in the working world, or in anything other than a cloistered research lab or musty small college lecture hall.
So, when Paul pretends that “only numbers” are a workable live proxy for merit… his own lived experience tells him he’s lying. What it (his proposition) mostly is… is a good predictor of wealth, and mostly whyte cultural advantages that come with it. [Increasingly, it also skews in favor of Asian-Americans who’ve lived here for more than two generations.]
So — another way to look at Paul’s “perfected world” is to realize that it allows for a maximized number of “legacy admissions” — which, due to three centuries of overt bias (in favor of whyte males), in turn means there are almost uniformly whyte legacy admittees coming in the door, that way. Another unearned skew in favor of whyteness. Color me… utterly unsurprised.
No, at bottom, Paul and his ilk seek a return to the days when only the best families got into Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale and Stanford.
Because he thinks his family is among that lot.
The dishonesty of his (and the Supremes’) arguments would be comical… if they weren’t so sad.
As he knows, the fact is — it won’t amount to a hill of beans, as colleges will use essays to achieve “merit” diversity.
So prattle on, Paul. No one cares.
Out. [Same goes for Hinderaker’s bleatings, this morning. Updated @ 11:47 pm — and his whine, of this evening. Ugly.]
Powerline Lies... 
In a post from last October, Paul wrote:
“When my daughter was considering attending Dartmouth (my alma mater), she asked the then-dean of admissions about preferences for sons and daughter of alums. He said the preference basically just washed out the disadvantages white students from eastern metropolitan areas face.”
In other words, those poor unfortunate rich white city kids would be entirely shafted by affirmative action admissions if they didn’t have legacy admissions to counteract that colossal unfairness — which, let’s face it, is complete lunacy, but it also shows Mirengoff almost understanding why there’s a need for affirmative action. He likes policies that even out (supposedly) disadvantaged applicants’ chances, but only when those (supposedly) disadvantaged applicants are white.
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Also: Chances that the Dartmouth dean of admissions actually said that to Paul’s daughter are essentially zero.
btw, how long before someone asks the Supreme Court to nullify legacy-based preferential treatment? I mean, it’s only fair, right?
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This is EXCELLENT input, Greg!
And in truth, Paul is no different than the rest of the lot — they all (hard right regressives) want only the “affirmative” actions to inure to the benefit of people who look and talk and… *hate* like them.
These are indeed… lost souls.
[It is utterly preposterous that East Coast private school educated whyte kids… are so put upon that they NEED legacy leverage. More often it is a mediocre at best kid, who has been molly-coddled his/her whole life to believe the Sun rises and sets on them. Damn. ]
Thanks and namaste.
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