Meritocracy

For those who believe the Horatio Alger myth that anybody, by dint of hard work and honesty, can rise from the very bottom of American society to the very top, here is an article by Glenn Greenwald in Salon:

It's time to embrace American royalty

We're obviously hungry to live with royal and aristocratic families so we should really just go ahead and formally declare it:

Bush daughter Jenna Hager becomes 'Today' reporter

NBC's "Today" show has hired someone with White House experience as a new correspondent — former first daughter Jenna Hager, the daughter of former President George W. Bush. . . . She "just sort of popped to us as a natural presence, comfortable" on the air, [Executive Producer Jim] Bell said. Hager will work out of NBC's Washington bureau.

They should convene a panel for the next Meet the Press with Jenna Bush Hager, Luke Russert, Liz Cheney, Megan McCain and Jonah Goldberg, and they should have Chris Wallace moderate it. They can all bash affirmative action and talk about how vitally important it is that the U.S. remain a Great Meritocracy because it's really unfair for anything other than merit to determine position and employment. They can interview Lisa Murkowski, Evan Bayh, Jeb Bush, Bob Casey, Mark Pryor, Jay Rockefeller, Dan Lipinksi, and Harold Ford, Jr. about personal responsibility and the virtues of self-sufficiency. Bill Kristol, Tucker Carlson and John Podhoretz can provide moving commentary on how America is so special because all that matters is merit, not who you know or where you come from. There's a virtually endless list of politically well-placed guests equally qualified to talk on such matters.

UPDATE: Just to underscore a very important, related point: all of the above-listed people are examples of America's Great Meritocracy, having achieved what they have solely on the basis of their talent, skill and hard work -- The American Way. By contrast, Sonia Sotomayor -- who grew up in a Puerto Rican family in Bronx housing projects; whose father had a third-grade education, did not speak English and died when she was 9; whose mother worked as a telephone operator and a nurse; and who then became valedictorian of her high school, summa cum laude at Princeton, a graduate of Yale Law School, and ultimately a Supreme Court Justice -- is someone who had a whole litany of unfair advantages handed to her and is the poster child for un-American, merit-less advancement.

I just want to make sure that's clear.

There is some social mobility in the US, but the joke is that there is more mobility in Europe today than in the US. They myths of crusty aristocracy in Europe and a vibrant immigrant society of upwardly mobile social climbers in the US are just that, myths.

Every society has to fight the tendency of the elite to entrench themselves and especially their idiot sons and daughters. The US is failing that test.

I still can't believe that there was a very good chance in 2008 that the Bush's would hand over the family patrimony, the Presidency, to the Clintons to be held for eight years before this patrimony would be returned to the Bushes. I was amazed that nobody found it odd that in a country of 300 million there were two families with a lock hold on the presidency.

When I was a kid and watched the Kennedy's build a dynasty (destroyed by assassins) where JFK was to pass the Presidency to RFK then to Ted then to John-John, etc. That made me puke. But that was a prelude to the ascension of the Bush/Clinton clans and their two-step dance that passed the top job between themselves. Thankfully the electorate broke this dismal 20 year "legacy".

Update 2009aug31: Here's a bit from an article on The American Prospect by A. Serwer:

I have a lot of friends who spent a great deal of money, and went into a lot of debt, to learn how to be professional broadcast journalists. They are now struggling to find work in a profession that is -- to put it bluntly -- contracting. So when I first heard that Jenna Bush Hager, the former President's daughter, was getting a job with The Today Show, I wondered what her qualifications were.

Hager, a 27-year-old teacher in Baltimore, said she has always wanted to be a teacher and a writer, and has already authored two books. But she was intrigued by the idea of getting into television when Bell contacted her.

Oh. She "always wanted to be a teacher," and was "intrigued" by television, so I guess that qualifies her to be an education reporter over all those journalists with actual experience and education who are struggling to find jobs.

As Glenn Greenwald writes, there's unlikely to be any outrage on the right over Hager getting a job she's manifestly unqualified for simply because she's the former President's daughter, despite right-wing affectations toward "meritocracy." There's something revealing here about the right's attitude towards those who succeed despite not being privileged -- the only way they can make sense of someone like Sonia Sotomayor rising to excellence from modest beginnings is through "preferential treatment," because what does it say about their own privilege, intelligence, or ability if that's not the case?