Once again at the Supreme Court, the GOP is the party that divides us | Opinion

It’s no mystery what the Republican Party is against – taxes, access to abortion, environmental regulations and affirmative action come quickly to mind – but it’s less clear what it’s for.

The party famously went into the 2020 election without a platform. The sum of its agenda was and is “whatever Donald Trump wants.”

Rather than making America great, Republicans are rejecting the nation’s foundational ideal of “out of many, one.” Instead, they favor a nation of tribes where one can prevail over the others.

The commitment to unraveling policies that seek to include and connect more Americans is prominent in the case now before the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the role of race in college admissions. The case – a combination of two lawsuits brought by the conservative group Students for Fair Admissions – challenges preferential admission policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

It’s likely that the court’s conservative majority will curtail or eliminate the use of racial preferences in admissions, an approach that has helped bring more Black Americans and other minorities into the middle class.

Should conservatives prevail, what will be gained? They say eliminating affirmative action promotes a color-blind society consistent with the American belief that all are created equal. But a court can’t eliminate prejudice. It can only approve tools to counter it. A decision against Harvard and UNC will take important tools away.

In considering race, Harvard and UNC are not engaged in reverse discrimination. They are trying to remedy the effects of discrimination by opening their doors wider. They want to create a student body that is more reflective of society as a whole and more instructive to the students who will encounter people of different races, cultures and incomes.

Yet even these polices have fallen short. UNC-Chapel Hill serves a state where Black people make up 22 percent of the population. Black students at UNC represent 8 percent of the student body. Students for Fair Admissions thinks that percentage is too high.

The challenge to admission policies is part of a broader conservative effort to quash diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies at public universities. In North Carolina, the Republican-controlled General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Commission on Government Operations has requested documents on DEI programs within the UNC System. The request is likely a prelude to a dismantling.

Meanwhile, the UNC Board of Governors passed a policy forbidding the system’s campuses from asking prospective students and employees or candidates for promotion “to affirmatively ascribe to or opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding matters of contemporary political debate or social action.”

This barring of what the board calls “compelled speech” is actually an affirmative action policy for conservatives, who supposedly are not being admitted, hired or promoted because their views don’t comport with the universities’ commitment to diversity. There is no evidence this is happening, but when fanning grievance, it’s best to leave a lot to the imagination.

Here is where the unraveling of well-intentioned polices gets odd. Conservatives want to end affirmative action, but they are also seeking remedies for their own victimization.

That’s why the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees is pressing for and the General Assembly is funding a new School of Civic Life and Leadership. The school will duplicate existing liberal arts programs, but with a conservative-friendly approach. Board of Trustees Chair David Boliek said the new school would “remedy the shortage of faculty with right-of-center views.”

The pushback against “woke” perspectives isn’t limited to universities. North Carolina’s Republican lawmakers have taken aim at K-12 instruction and the hiring and training practices for state employees.

This push to unravel progressive policies isn’t advancing the nation toward a more perfect union. It’s widening old divisions. If that’s what Republicans are for, they’re getting it.

This story was originally published June 26, 2023 at 5:00 AM.