Fellow conservatives: The Harris DEI attacks are doomed to backfire

The diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) nonsense being leveled at Vice President Kamala Harris by certain Republicans must stop. I say that as one who is strongly opposed to most DEI hiring programs. 

I do believe that in putting identity politics before merit, qualifications and real-world experience, we run the risk of weakening or endangering the institutions that employ the practice. To be clear, I truly don’t care if someone is gay, straight, trans, black, white, brown, male, female, faith-based or an atheist.  If that person is the best qualified for a job based on merit, he or she should get it. Period.

But if they are not qualified by merit and real-world experience, then we should make assessments — or lodge protests — based on the field a candidate is being slotted. For instance, Republicans are well within their rights to condemn — and investigate — the hiring of Kimberly Cheatle, the former head of the Secret Service who just resigned in disgrace.

In my opinion — and the opinion of many others — DEI programs should not be instituted in certain sub-groups of occupations that often hold human lives in their hands. Be they in the Secret Service, the FBI or any of our other three-letter agencies, the military, police and fire departments, pilots, train engineers, the space program or others. 

Certain sub-groups in those occupations should demand that the person holding the position be the most qualified based entirely on merit and real-world experience. While that is common sense and connected to self-survival, it is a belief regularly attacked by some on the left. 

Now, going back to the specific attacks on Harris as a “DEI hire.” Not only are they idiotic, but they will also be turned into cannon fodder by Democrats and many in the media to attack former President Trump for guilt by association.  

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) called Harris a “DEI hire” and Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wisc.) similarly told local media that Democrats will elevate her to replace Biden as their nominee because they “feel they have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.”

There is a very amusing — and telling — scene from the hit 2008 movie “Beverly Hills Chihuahua.” 

In the scene, the tiny Chihuahua is in the box car of a moving freight train with a powerful German Shepherd running alongside trying to jump up and into the box car. The German Shepherd leaps and makes it halfway but starts slipping out of the car. The Chihuahua runs over and sinks her teeth into the ear of the German Shepherd and tries to pull him into the box car.  

In massive pain, the German Shepherd yells: “Don’t help. Don’t help.”

Indeed. If their “help” continues, it could undo much of the progress Trump has made with minority and female voters.

Newsflash to Burchett and others. Joe Biden offering the vice-presidential position to then-Senator Kamala Harris was not a “DEI hire.”  It was a wise political move from a candidate and a party seeking to expand their voter base. 

One can certainly argue that there were better candidates for Biden to choose from — such as former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms — but picking a minority female running mate was a strong political move rightfully applauded by tens of millions of Americans.

How many young women in our nation have grown up dreaming of one day becoming vice president or even president?  They are right to dream that dream. Like her or not, Kamala Harris made American history when her dream came true.

I would also remind Burchett and others that since 1996, a majority of women have preferred the Democratic candidate. More than that, women have registered and voted at higher rates than men in every presidential election since 1980.

President Trump and his campaign are working to gain a majority of those female voters but have been making tremendous inroads into minority communities. Women and communities that believe the highest offices in the land should be open to them as well.

There are multiple and growing reasons for Republicans to criticize Vice President Harris. 

Whether it’s her being the “Concealer-In-Chief,” as presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. called her for allegedly hiding Biden’s cognitive decline from the American people, her being the co-owner of this administration’s failures on the economy, inflation, crime, the open border, sky-rocketing housing costs, the creation of trip wires that could trigger World War III or her personal beliefs about defunding the police and offering no cash bail to violent criminals.

While Republicans may believe they have an “embarrassment of riches” to go after Harris, her being a “DEI hire” — or any mention of it — should be stripped from the list. Stick to her policy failures. 

And with that GOP-created misfire in mind, former President Trump should shout out: “Don’t help.  Don’t help.”

Douglas MacKinnon, a political and communications consultant, was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and former special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration.