Not surprisingly, after Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices ended affirmative action in higher education student admissions, the Republicans running for president celebrated the decision. Former Vice President Mike Pence last week even tried to take partial credit for the ruling.
“I am honored to have played a role in appointing three of the justices that ensured today’s welcomed decision,” he said in a written statement.
Pence elaborated on his position during some Sunday show appearances yesterday, though there was reason to wonder just how much thought the GOP presidential candidate has invested in the subject. On “Face the Nation,” for example, CBS News’ Margaret Brennan asked Pence whether he believes that racial inequity exists in higher education.
“I really don’t believe there is,” he replied. “I believe there was.”
In other words, like some of the Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices, the former vice president is under the impression that affirmative action in admissions had its place, but as Pence told Brennan, “I think that time has passed.”
He pushed a similar line on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” where Pence again said that the days in which affirmative action was necessary are “over.”
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, to his credit, reminded his guest that in several states where affirmative action was banned, “the result was that you saw fewer Hispanic and Black students at their elite universities.” The guest host asked the former vice president whether this is a concern for hm. Pence replied:
“Look, I haven’t seen your studies. I don’t know the numbers. … I’m just very confident with the progress that we have made now in 2023, a fourth of the way through the 21st century, the achievements of African Americans, leaving aside the achievements of the first African American president, and African Americans all across the country. I’m just very confident that African Americans, Hispanic Americans and other minorities are going to be able to compete and succeed.”
Over the course of both interviews, the former vice president kept sharing his impressions. He expressed “confidence” that affirmative action in admissions is no longer needed. He shared his “belief” that the demise of the policy won’t have adverse effects.
But policymaking based on hunches is rarely a good idea. In this instance, Pence expressed his opinion, at which point Karl pointed to actual real-world evidence. Asked for reaction, the candidate conceded he doesn’t “know the numbers.” But why doesn’t he know the numbers? If given a choice between taking positions based on evidence and adopting stances based on general assumptions about society, isn’t the former better than the latter? In the same ABC interview, Karl noted that the Supreme Court left affirmative action in place at military academies. Pence responded that the American military has long been “an instrument of advancing equality since virtually the founding of this country.” Why colleges and universities shouldn’t also be instruments of advancing equality is unclear.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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