A Black, a Gay, and a Woman Walk into a Cabinet; How Arbitrary Labels Fail to Defend Donald Trump.

I’ve seen an article circulating that seems to say that Trump is absolved of all wrongs because he’s appointed a gay man, a black man, and a woman to his cabinet. It should be noted that, far from resolve the issues liberals have with Trump, this only serves to confirm the same reservations they’ve addressed about Trump’s judgment, and also about his core voters in general. In short, it does not matter what race, gender, or sexuality Trump’s cabinet members are, what matters is their opinions on politics, and on that front, it ain’t good. First of all, I take issue with it because it defines these people only by a single label, which I am not okay with because one trait does not define a person’s entire being. However, since we are reducing people to labels, let me assess each one under those headings.

“The Gay”, Peter Thiel, credited welfare and women’s suffrage as “rendering ‘capitalist democracy’ an oxymoron.” While he has since clarified that he does not mean that women shouldn’t have the right to vote, his insistence that a predominantly capitalist democracy be necessarily barred from any form of social action is far too narrow-minded to be in charge of any aspect of the American government. We are, by our federalist nature, too complicated to adhere strictly to one economic principle. Sure Thiel has an eye for financial opportunity, given his investment in Facebook, but his views on social action would leave us in a Randian objectivist dystopia if left unchecked. His activism for gay rights is laudable, but the net effect is negated by the other players in the Trump camp, especially Pence, who advocates conversion therapy for homosexuals.

“The Woman”, Kellyanne Conway, has also done little to assuage women’s growing concerns over Trump. Despite being raised in “a house of women” she was happy to dismiss Trump’s “locker room talk” because she “knows him better than that.” She claims that because he put her in charge of the campaign, that is enough done to prove his respect for women. It seems that she is happy to say that, because Trump respected her, he passes equal respect on to other women. However his words and actions do much to discredit this notion. Conway is also one of the people who led the charge behind denouncing Hillary Clinton’s defense of an alleged rapist, a job which she was legally obligated to do as a public defender. Now, regardless of alleged crime, a public defender’s job remains to serve their client. I will be clear that this is not me endorsing Clinton because she did her job there. Her actions as a public defender are apolitical. They are ruled only by the letter of the law and should not be politicized. As I have said many times before, I don’t like Hillary Clinton, I don’t like anything about her, but that doesn’t justify playing it fast and loose when you try to argue against her.

“The Black”, Ben Carson, could honestly just be discredited in this whole argument by his voting record. I mean, if you are trying to suggest that the selection of Carson should discredit all liberal claims that Trump is headed in the wrong direction, boy did you pick the wrong guy. Carson opposes gay marriage, suggested that Planned Parenthood is a eugenics program, and claimed that climate change is irrelevant. I could go deeper on any one of the many items on his voting record, but that alone should be enough to make it clear why I’m not willing to accept him as some kind of token hire that negates all the racist action that has been done by Trump and in his name.

So no, the fact that A Black, A Woman, and A Gay walked into the cabinet does not make Donald Trump okay. To suggest that it would is a blatant misunderstanding of socially responsible values. “To answer the question of how is he a woman hating, racist, homophobe?” These appointments don’t change his claims about grabbing women, the fact that he allowed the KKK’s endorsement of him to go unchallenged, and that he wants to treat LGBT people as second class citizens by stripping them of rights. If that doesn’t fit that criteria for you, I don’t know what the hell will.

UPDATE: since the time of this story, Carson has declined Trump’s offer, citing a lack of experience in government. Of all the things I would hold against Carson, this is not one of them and sounds absurd.