Wednesday, September 5, 2012

In many ways Julian Castro is another Obama

    San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro is being touted as the "next Obama," and in so many ways he is.
    Castro admits that he only got into Stanford as a result of affirmative action. He had a 1210 on the SAT, which after the 1995 test recentering would be about a 1300 today -- far short of what an Anglo, Asian, or Jew would need for Stanford. Who knows about his Harvard Law application, but history shows that people who benefited from affirmative action once will do so again.
    I don't understand affirmative action for Hispanics. As as group they've suffered very little discrimination. There have always been highly successful Hispanics in America, and only in recent years when we've had lots of poor border-jumpers have there been any poor, needy Hispanics in need of extra points on their college-admission or employment scores. But what about the poor whites living in the "hollers" of West Virginia, Kentucky and East Tennessee? Or for that matter every white person in Mississippi, where the schools set the academic pace at that of a a snail, afraid that if they actually teach anything the children will break? Don't these white people need affirmative action just as badly as Hispanics?
    In so many ways Castro is the next Obama. He made it through elite colleges as a result of affirmative action not available to the rest of us. And now he's given a rousing speech. A speech! All hail our next leader!
    A leader who has done virtually nothing save hold a San Antonio city council post, and who now holds a purely ceremonial mayoral post which pays $4,000 per year. That's right, $4,000. He's like the queen of England without the castle. As to how this man and his brother support themselves, that's another story.
    So we've got a man who's gotten a free ride whose main accomplishment in life is to have given a speech before a national audience. By Obama's standards this qualifies him to be president.
    One problem, though. There is very little "white guilt" insofar as Hispanics are concerned, and white guilt is what put Obama in office. Most of us consider Hispanics who adopt American-style dress, speech, and mannerisms and just whites with a tan. We don't discriminate against them and never have. They're just white people who Democrats want to keep corralled as a separate ethnic group for political purposes.
    As a potential presidential candidate, Julian Castro is an empty suit, just like the one we've got in the White House today. But I doubt this suit will make it out of San Antonio.

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