A Good Idea in the Unlikeliest of Places

A few years ago I was in Target with my friend Robin and I picked up an item of clothing to show her.

“Oh yeah,” she said. “Take it out of Target and it works.”

I nodded, a light bulb going off.

What she meant was, give it new context and see it in fresh light. To carry the idea further, mix it with the more upscale pieces in your wardrobe and it totally works.

I’m going to ask you to indulge me in similar thinking in considering a website recently introduced by the Trump administration, or more specifically, Ivanka Trump. It’s called Find Something New. The idea is to help people “find a new way forward.” The tagline is, “There’s more than one path to a new career.”

Are you still with me? At the very least, you’re probably still here because you think I’ve lost my mind and you can’t look away from the train wreck. This initiative has already been widely derided because of its source.

But, here’s the thing.

If you can pull this out of the Trump context, if you can ignore how tone-deaf this administration has been to uplifting anyone but those who support the President, if you can pretend this White House crew hasn’t been trying to further weaken the Affordable Care Act during a pandemic, if you can see your way past the…