The evidence that genes influence intelligence and other personality traits is so overwhelming that even a few lefties no longer deny it. But, oh, how they agonize over how to reconcile science with the religion of equality.

As The Genetic Lottery’s cover proclaims, the book will explain “how the science of genetics can help create a more just and equal society.” Since it’s all a matter of luck, the lucky few should be just as devoted as ever to succoring the unlucky many.

This is the sort of fluff with which liberals (and even conservatives) must sugar the pill, and all snideness aside, I’m very glad Prof. Harden wrote a book that could prompt more accusations that she is lending comfort to the alt-right.

Much of the thrill of being on the Left is an intoxicating sense of moral superiority, the joy of inventing endless pathologies — racist, sexist, xenophobe, etc. — with which to diagnose conservatives.

But what if Prof. Harden is right and America is not so much a crime scene as a story of good luck and bad luck?

Let’s imagine explaining to white suburban mothers why there has be Section 8 housing in their neighborhood:

"Yes, these people live in tar-paper shacks because they’re shiftless, but the poor dears were born that way. You live in nice houses because you are smart and hard-working but you were born that way. And they will bring crime, but they can’t help that."

If that’s the best the Left can do, there won’t be any Section 8 housing. Or affirmative action or reparations or critical race theory or immigrant-coddling or diversity boosting or any of the other dead weights progressives hang around our necks.

I wish Prof. Harden every success with her book. And who knows? Maybe The Genetic Lottery will make it a little less likely we get idiotic laws such as No Child Left Behind or that we try to turn Afghans into Hubert Humphrey Democrats. We may still lather Quanisha and Juan Pablo with preferences, but the frenzy to make them into doctors and jet pilots may cool.