High school students applying to the academies must be nominated by a member of Congress or another high-ranking federal official. Congressional nominations account for about 75 percent of all students at the academies.
Academy records obtained by the AP through the Freedom of Information Act show that lawmakers in roughly half of the 435 House districts nominated more than 100 students each during the five-year period.
But Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York City, chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, nominated only four students, the lowest among House members who served the entire five-year period. Rep. Charles Rangel, whose New York City district includes Harlem, was second-lowest, with eight nominations. And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose San Francisco district is 29 percent Asian, was also near the bottom, with 19.
In fact, the bottom 20 House members were all from districts where whites make up less than a majority.
I guess it's more fun to keep minorities "in their place", reliant on and subservient to their Democratic government masters, than it is to nominate them to a service academy at which they might excel in a meritocracy.
If you have to be nominated by a congressman, then that by definition is not a meritocracy. A meritocracy would be done on an objective set of criteria without the patronage inherent in being nominated by a congressman.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can see a small kernel of truth in what you state, you're somewhat off base. The idea of a Congressional nomination is to ensure that people from all over the country are nominated. Then, once they're nominated, they go into an applicant pool and the Academies then choose those to whom they're going to offer an appointment. There is a difference between a nomination and an appointment; the former is only the first step towards the latter. The idea of Congressional patronage in this case is quite a stretch.
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