Sidestepping a lot of important substantive debate about cabinet appointees, peoples frustration has to do with the scarcity of opportunities until now, with most key positions having been held by a demographic minority (older white men).

If key government appointments (cabinet and subcabinet) were truly open to everybody and looked like the citizenry, fights over Latino/Women/African-American/etc representation would be less severe. If not this time, then next time.

The fear is that this is the key opportunity. Who knows what President 47 will do. Perhaps they will make appointments the way 45 did. And so there is a rush to get through the door, to become that historic first, to demonstrate it is possible, to establish that precedent.

And I get it, I really do. But the long term struggle is to make sure there are opportunities across the entire government, for positions at a variety of different levels, and that we don't simply create government appointments that look like those of a century ago.