We’re all celebrating Independence Day, the birthday of the modern world.  And one of the things that I used to brag about was that America valued people for themselves, not for their ethnic, religious, or whatever background.  You could just come here from anyplace and become an American.  Just like that.  We are bound together by our belief in the unique virtues of the Constitution and the message of the Declaration.

So I’ve always hated quotas.  When I was applying to college my high school guide told me to avoid certain universities because they had Jewish quotas, which for the most part were filled with legacies, and I was unlikely to get in.  I hated that.  I hated the “equal opportunity” quotas too, and still do.  And I hate the cunning forms of quotas that dominate much of our policy thinking and actions.