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President Bush’s Pride

Although he was not the presidential candidate favored by many traditional civil rights and community activists, President George W. Bush, Jr., is to be heartily commended for shattering the glass ceiling for women and people of color who seek to serve their government at it its highest level. For Asian Americans, the Bush appointments of Norman Mineta as secretary of transportation and Elaine Chao as secretary of labor are particularly significant.

The API community had long been denied representation in presidential cabinets in part because of a lack of a potent and unified national political base. Last year, when Mineta was appointed secretary of commerce, Asian Americans applauded, even though it was largely a symbolic gesture made during Clinton’s last six months in office.

Bush, however, has ushered in a new era for APIs in politics. The presence of Chao and Mineta in senior cabinet positions at the beginning of a presidential administration will forever change mainstream views of the contributions of Asian Americans.

Some have argued that cabinet secretaries appointed by President Bush do not hold philosophies that are consistent with the communities they are supposed to reflect and thus, cannot be truly counted as appointments of color. We at AsianWeek frown on such arguments. For the same reasons that Asian Americans and others believe so fervently in the strength of diversity, so too should we welcome the difference and diversity of ideas within our own community.

By creating the most ethnically diverse cabinet in U.S. history, especially with the appointments of two Asian Americans, President Bush has now set a tone and standard to which all future presidential administrations will be compared. It is a standard that will demand those future presidents, whether Democrat or Republican, to fully consider the rich source of commitment, knowledge and energy of all its people when making federal appointments.

AsianWeek congratulates President Bush for defying convention and maximizing the potential of his administration and the nation by tapping the talents and enthusiasm of America’s very diverse population.