He’s transforming the federal government into an ideological weapon.
He’s transforming the federal government into an ideological weapon.
J oe Biden basically just created a Five-Year Plan for the implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion across a huge swath of government agencies.
In a push for so-called equity so shockingly far-reaching that, not so long ago, a woke diversity officer wouldn’t have attempted it at even the most progressive liberal-arts college, Biden is making the federal government a frank instrument of a racialized radicalism.
Issued late last week, Biden’s latest executive order will empower ideological shock troops to distort federal policy across the board.
Lest there be any mistake, Section 4 of the order is titled, “Embedding Equity into Government-wide Processes.” The administration’s policy, according to the order, is “to advance an ambitious, whole-of-government approach to racial equity and support for underserved communities.”
Biden already handed down Executive Order 13985, or Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, on his first day in office, but this time he isn’t fooling around.
The new order, like so much of the Left’s projects in 21st-century America, is equally sinister and parodic.
The heads of federal departments and agencies are commanded to establish Agency Equity Teams within 30 days. This edict runs all the way from the most prestigious and powerful departments, such as Treasury and Defense, to NASA and the National Science Foundation.
The teams will “coordinate the implementation of equity initiatives and ensure that their respective agencies are delivering equitable outcomes for the American people” (although not all of them).
These teams are designed to be robust. They will be led by a senior official and “shall include senior officials from the office of the agency head and the agency’s program, policy, civil rights, regulatory, science, technology, service delivery, financial assistance and grants, data, budget, procurement, public engagement, legal, and evaluation offices, as well as the agency’s Chief Diversity Officer, to the extent applicable.”
Is that all?
The Office of Management and Budget should be consulted to ensure the Agency Equity Teams get the resources they need.
And, of course, the teams should coordinate with the agency’s environmental-justice officer (pursuant to Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad), and with the senior official who is working with the Gender-Policy Council (pursuant to Executive Order 14020, Establishment of the White House Gender Policy Council).
Among the other executive orders cited, by the way, are Executive Order 13988, Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation; Executive Order 14031, Advancing Equity, Justice, and Opportunity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders; and Executive Order 14049, White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Native Americans and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities.
No one can accuse President Biden of being anything but at the top of his game in issuing equity-related EOs.
He does not actually call for Five-Year Plans in his latest order — it’s more urgent than that.
Agency heads will have to submit an annual Equity Action Plan to a newly created White House Steering Committee on Equity, which, if we want to continue the Soviet analogy, will be the DEI equivalent of Gosplan.
It is to be led by the assistant to the president for domestic policy, who is none other than Susan Rice.
Her steering committee will include senior officials from various policy councils and offices within the Executive Office of the President, and it will oversee the government-wide equity efforts.
Agency heads, by the way, are ordered to “prioritize and incorporate strategies to advance equity” into “individual performance plans for senior executives.”
Indoctrination within the government will continue apace. The Agency Equity Teams “shall support continued equity training and equity leadership development for staff across all levels of the agency’s workforce.”
There’s an amusing Orwellian rhetorical tic in the order’s references to “equity for all,” as if it weren’t an inherently racialist idea opposed to the traditional notion of equality.
At one point the edict says that the “term ‘equity’ means the consistent and systematic treatment of all individuals in a fair, just, and impartial manner.” It then goes on to list all the specific groups who deserve to be treated “equitably,” beginning with “Black, Latino, Indigenous and Native American, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander persons and other persons of color.”
There are a couple of things to be said about all this.
One, if you think the federal government is too incompetent to carry out this project, think again. Anyone who is not on board the Oberlin College–style Jacobinism expressed in the order will be intimidated into staying silent and going along, or will simply leave for another job.
Two, it has to be a priority of every Republican running for president to begin tearing up this ideological infrastructure root and branch on Day One.
Three, and relatedly, it’d be nice if it was only the federal government promoting this poison, but DEI — and an associated gender ideology — is becoming the default setting in American life. The GOP will have to be committed to fighting it, to the extent possible, in all realms. The wishy-washiness of a Larry Hogan won’t do.
It’s bad enough that the federal government is a blundering behemoth, but if Joe Biden gets his way, Leviathan is about to become thoroughly and determinedly woke.