It was not the liberals, but Ronald Reagan, who offered her the job of Secretary of Education. Liberals have a large vested interest in the failure, pathology and dependency of blacks. From the standpoint of liberal politicians, of whatever race, so long as there are enough blacks are on the welfare state plantation, this is a bloc of votes that can help offset the changing mood of the country as a whole toward conservatism. From the standpoint of the liberal intelligentsia, feeling sorry for blacks is an ego trip that makes them feel one-up on American society in general and conservatives in particular. Blacks who succeed, whether as individuals or in institutions, are not a source of either ego satisfaction or votes.
Liberals are about envy, which was once disdained as one of the seven deadly sins.
The very concept of achievement seldom appears in liberal writings, while it is a dominant theme in much conservative literature. Both carry these different attitudes over into their discussions of race. Once, when Ronald Reagan was governor of California, someone told him that if admissions to the University of California system were based on academic achievement alone, U.C.L.A. and Berkeley might become all Asian American. Conservatives may be willing to let the chips fall where they may, but liberals want to control every chip's fall, as the Almighty was said to know of every sparrow's fall. Without understanding that liberals' position on race is fundamentally about boosting themselves, it would be impossible to understand such things as minority student programs that set an upper limit on how well qualified the student can be and still get financial aid.