Friday, January 11, 2013

What makes a Cabinet position "important?"

In criticizing President Obama's record on Cabinet appointments, Jonathan Bernstein says this:
With John Kerry nominated for State, it also means all four of the most important cabinet positions will be male, at least as long as Eric Holder sticks around at Justice.
I assume the 4 he's referring to are the Secretaries of State, Defense, Justice and Treasury.

I know there is a lot of historical protocol assigned to Cabinet positions based on the order they were created. But does that mean that those that have been around longer are more important?

I hesitate to think about ranking these positions, but it sure does seem to me like the Secretary of Health and Human Services has and will play an enormously important role during this administration's implementation of Obamacare.

And I suppose that the Secretary of Energy is one of the more recent additions to the list - but in terms of issues we face today, could there be anything more important?

Its pretty typical of a patriarchal society to elevate things like foreign affairs and war above the "soft" issues of things like education and human services. So I'd propose to people like Bernstein that you take a minute to think about these kinds of assumptions before you go critiquing someone else's commitment to feminism.

3 comments:

  1. Eve'nin, Ms. Pants

    Thissss...hell, I don't even know what to call it. It's just patently SILLY. White guys complainin' about white guys? REALLY???? Colbert does a VERY good job with it.

    From my vantage, the "problem" is that PBO has been running a rather tight and pretty decent ship. Thus far, NO scandals.

    So...well....I guess they gotta do SOMEthin'.

    A good night and a MUCH better tomorrow to you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thus far, NO scandals.

      Not if you count the tens of billions of dollars in corruption, waste, fraud, mismanagement, and undue loss of life in the Afghan occupation. But since nobody ever truly gave a shit about the (even worse) handling of the Iraq occupation, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I don't know how the investigator generals responsible for war oversight don't blow their own brains out every night.

      Delete
  2. Whoops!

    Almost forgot....

    Emily Hauser, whom I really like and has and continues to educate me re: Palestinian/Israeli conflicts and, over all, is another very good and funny thinker has a very good piece up about this silliness as well.

    ReplyDelete

"I'd much rather be us than them"

According to the polling aggregate at The Economist, if the 2024 presidential election were held today, it would result in a tie. There'...