Sexual politics and hubris

The Washington Post has picked up and expanded upon the story about Bonnie Bleskachek, the Minneapolis fire chief recently fired for all sorts of sexual and discriminatory shenanigans. It makes for fascinating reading if you don’t mind that your local fire house sounds like a lesbian Peyton Place with a dollop of man hatred thrown in for good measure.

I don’t doubt that the women mentioned in the story (and there are many mentioned, since Bleskachek seemed to use her power to create a revolving bed situation) are good firefighters and, in the right situation, would be decent, disciplined individuals. Given power, and the probable belief that they were politically untouchable, though, they went wild.

It’s a nasty story and a reminder that victim and identity politics, by elevating one group above another, tend to create whole new victim cycles. It’s cliched, but I’ll say it anyway: “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Hat tip: Independent Women’s Forum

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