Yesterday’s post regarding Kshama Sawant, the immigrant running for reelection on a platform of “the rent is too damn high,” motivated me to check the election results. Ms. Sawant was the only incumbent to have lost. More interestingly, 48.7 percent of Washington State voters say “yes” to reinstating affirmative action:
I-1000, the measure passed by lawmakers, aims to increase diversity in public contracting, employment and education, while barring the use of quotas or preferential treatment.
Affirmative-action supporters say such measures are necessary to address longstanding and broad discrimination against women and people of color. One example they cite is data showing a drop in contracts with the state for certified women- and minority-owned businesses.
But throughout the campaign, opponents of affirmative action — led by a group of Chinese immigrants — said the policy gives the government the power to discriminate.
If we assume that people vote their self-interest, then we can conclude from the election result that nearly half of the voters in Washington State expected to benefit from official victim status.
This whole notion is a joke. It’s just another system to be gamed by white men putting the names of their wives on the incorporation papers. I’d be surprised if even 20% of these companies are truly operated by women or minorities.
And, oh look! The first hit on searching for “women and minority owned…” is Washington State’s office of women and minority owned business certification! I’m guessing they’re getting hammered this morning by white guys trying to figure out how to promote their companies under the program.
So maybe 49% of the voters were white male business owners,
Well, I’m glad I voted this time since the vote was so closed. A lot of voters in WA vote by keywords, but at least in this case sanity prevailed.