America dubiously occupies the world stage by the discredited virtue of its widespread wartime aggressions and international hostile manoeuvres; while at the same time provoking (and attempting to dilute) the appearance of violent internal civil conflict. When remarking both currently and historically upon Americans, it requires little effort to uncover the perceived threat of communism, socialism and the so-called Radical Left. Everywhere there is a manifestation of the invasive effect of difference, toleration and unrestrained democracy. Often the only palpable warning of the infection arises from political ambition, separated from a logical deductive consideration of the premises.
In January 2025, President Donald Trump called DEI efforts “illegal and immoral discrimination programs” and “public waste”, demanding that all governmental DEI programs be shut down and placed employees on administrative leave and eventual layoff.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are organizational frameworks that seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly groups who have historically been underrepresented, marginalized, or subject to discrimination based on identity or disability.These three notions (diversity, equity, and inclusion) together represent “three closely linked values”, which organizations seek to institutionalize through DEI frameworks.
Though Trump plays on the mantra to revive a more favourable past, there is nothing new about DEI.
Early DEI efforts included preferential hiring and treatment of veterans of the US Civil War, their widows, and orphans, in 1865.
In September 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11246 which required government employers to “hire without regard to race, religion and national origin” and “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, colour, religion, sex or national origin”.
When confronted by a bully, the advancement of intellectual probity is equivalent to esoteric rubbish. Narrowness of mind and disposition hardly collaborate with equivalence of any degree. Instead priority and supremacy govern the singular thesis to “make America great again” (the wistful recollection of a Hollywood image the likes of the very inauthentic cowboy and cowgirl Roy Rogers and Dale Evans). Clarabell the Clown might have had as much legitimacy, particularly with his denominative conclusions of yes or no.
Clarabell the Clown is a character who was part of the main cast on the 1947–1960 series The Howdy Doody Show. Clarabell, a clown who wore a baggy, striped costume, communicated through mime and by honking a horn for “yes” or “no”.
Under the longstanding guise of the “melting pot”, Americans sought to advance the authority for singularity and conformity. But not everyone was allowed to “blend in”. For those of the MAGA crowd with limited interest in managing the complexity of transparency and thought, the more successful route has been to caste aside the putative rot and tumble weed of society, ensuring a more easily digestible and less sharing pathway.
Affirmative action is intended to promote the opportunities of defined minority groups within a society to give them equal access to that of the majority population. The philosophical basis of the policy has various rationales, including, but not limited to, compensation for past discrimination, correction of current discrimination, and the diversification of society. It is often implemented in governmental and educational settings to ensure that designated groups within a society can participate in all promotional, educational, and training opportunities.
In a business environment, increased workforce diversity has been found to be associated with increased performance.
It has also been widely adjudicated that “immigrants” (the target source of much of Trump’s reputed “agenda”) have little or no impact on citizens of any stripe. Bigotry is nothing but a knee-jerk reaction to accommodation and change. Dissimilarity is also a convenient scapegoat; but Americans are learning to their dismay that the artificial cleansing of society is having a reverse affect upon them all. Meanwhile its continued amplification is broadly affecting more immediate targets in society – namely, women. Restoring the image of male dominance is clinically absurd beyond the corral of animals (where at least the nature is predictably – and usefully – seasonal only).
The limitations conspired by American politics are also hampering worldwide cooperation and contribution. It has been an unintended consequence of “America First” that it is now “America Last” – the last place with whom people wish to trade, the last place to which others wish to travel, the last place for geographic neighbours to seek to unite. Uncomfortably Americans have acquired the pervasive attribute of arrogance and contradiction where they seek to diminish their own native criminality, biases and perversions by entrapping others unwittingly and illegally as an escape design. To be blunt, Americans are now perceived – without qualification – as the root source of their own misfortune. While the current pretence of disassociating themselves from Trump is undeniable, equally incontrovertible is their meritless continued support of the administration. Until lately – when a number of Republican members of Congress have begun to distance themselves with distaste from Trump – the fact remained that nothing was being done to react to Trump’s authoritarianism, his narcissism, his criminality, his lewdness, his disgrace to America’s world image. For a nation which prides itself upon its incontestable purity, it is taking a very long time for it to recover from the widening avenues of hypocrisy and prejudice. America has become a jaundiced state. Wisdom of its impending doom is frequent.