My friend Jon Gardner observed, I believe accurately, that the Democratic presidential primary has been driven by the same sort of feelings that impel businesses and educational institutions to seek minority candidates. Standards are lowered in the name of diversity and the accompanying feel-good effects of assuaging guilt. Affirmative action becomes a secular religious experience for liberal-progressives.

The lowered standards of affirmative action are rationalized under the rubric of tolerance, which, as used by liberal-progressives, means effectively the absence of standards. Anything goes, one culture is as good as the next, and all sentiments other than patriotic devotion to the United States are welcomed.

Whatever Senator Obama's knowledge and skills may be for the presidency, and they are evidently considerable, that seems not to be the subliminal issue in the race between him and Senator Clinton.

Senator Clinton doggedly hammers at her putatively greater experience. However true her assertions, the public doesn’t care, focusing instead on affirmative action aimed at diversity. Senator Obama’s limited executive experience and non-existent foreign policy experience are ignored by voters who eagerly place their hope and faith in secular social justice, world peace, harmony, and all the other reified abstractions of liberal-progressive-socialism.

Affirmative action arguably has contributed to the rise of the black middle class. It also has embittered many black students who were placed far out of their league in elite universities and failed to make the academic cut.

Should Senator Obama become the next President of the United States, let's pray that his skills will be up to the task.

Thomas E. Brewton is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc. The New Media Alliance is a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets.

His weblog is THE VIEW FROM 1776

http://www.thomasbrewton.com/

Email comments to viewfrom1776@thomasbrewton.com