Identity politics are toxic. If Democrats don't start learning the lessons about this election that are right in front of their eyes they're going to lose again come midterms. Democrats just lost control of all three branches of government for the first time since 1928. It's time to reassess. Maybe take a look at what the populist leader on the left has to say..
Bernie Sanders Argues Against Identity Politics During Speech/Q&A in Boston. Question: As a black woman I worry that some of our personal social justice interests and passions such as women's rights immigration issues Racial equality and LGBT rights would *innaudible* the progressive movement and overshadow our need to stand together. How can we avoid this division while amplifying our voices on issues that are tremendously personal?
Bernie: One of the things that goes on, one of the things that demagogues do is they pick up on the anger, sometimes legitimate anger and frustration that people are feeling and they direct that anger to minorities. To people who have no power. Our job is to understand that people are justifiably angry. People work longer hours for low wages. Male workers are earning in real dollars less today. $1000 less than they made 43 years ago. People are worried about their kids. People are angry. Our job is to focus that anger on the people who caused the problem, not on minorities who are suffering already. So don’t see a contradiction, it’s not either or. I think we bring people together for the economic struggle, and we talk about the fact that on Wall Street, for example, we have major financial institutions who have paid billions of dollars in fines to the federal government for illegal activities. Do you know how many executives on Wall Street have been prosecuted? Zero… The major drug companies, insurance companies, fossil fuel companies. Those are the people we have got to take on. Not the children of a different color. Not the people who may have a different accent than we have. And that’s what our job is.
Democrats inability to prevent identity politics from hijacking their political agenda is dangerous. The liberal class has no hope of defeating the rise of American fascism until it unites with the dispossessed white working class. It has no hope of being an effective force in politics until it articulates a viable opposition to the destruction of our middle class . Corporate capitalism cannot be regulated, reformed or corrected. Neoliberalism and identity politics have failed. A populist movement dedicated to demolishing the cruelty of the corporate state will do more to curb the racism of the white underclass than lessons by liberals in moral purity. Preaching multiculturalism and gender and identity politics will not save us from the rising sadism in American society. It will only fuel the anti-politics that has replaced politics.
The message of wealth and income inequality, the 99% message of Occupy Wall Street, the success of that message increases the quality of life for everyone. That brings us together instead of tearing us apart. Bernie Sanders is proof that you don't have to be a racist or sexist to go forward with successful progressive strategy. But many people aren't as focused as Bernie Sanders. There are a lot of people who let identity politics "overshadow our need to stand together". Beyond that, I think you look at the evidence. The obvious being that Trump's victory is a direct result of Democrats ignoring the working class and a rejection of the rise of PC culture. The liberal echo chamber is real. The not so obvious being what we actually know about how to fight discrimination from science. “Telling people they’re racist, sexist, and xenophobic is going to get you exactly nowhere,” said Alana Conner, executive director of Stanford University’s Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions Center. “It’s such a threatening message. One of the things we know from social psychology is when people feel threatened, they can’t change, they can’t listen.” Arlie Hochschild, a sociologist and author, provided an apt analogy for white rural Americans’ feeling of neglect: As they see it, they are all in this line toward a hill with prosperity at the top. But over the past few years, globalization and income stagnation have caused the line to stop moving. And from their perspective, people — black and brown Americans, women — are now cutting in the line, because they’re getting new (and more equal) opportunities through new anti-discrimination laws and policies like affirmative action. As a result, Hochschild told me that rural white Americans “feel like a minority group. They feel like a disappearing group. Both minority and invisible.” One can pick the facts here — particularly since black and Latino Americans still trail white Americans in terms of wealth, income, and educational attainment. But this is how many white Americans feel, regardless of the facts. So when they hear accusations of racism, they feel like what they see as the “real” issues — those that afflict them — are getting neglected. This, obviously, makes it difficult to raise issues of race at all with big segments of the population, because they’re often suspicious of the motives. What’s more, accusations of racism can cause white Americans to become incredibly defensive — to the point that they might reinforce white supremacy.
Part of what I'm saying is in response to identity politics spilling over into the post election debate. “I thought Donald Trump disqualified himself at numerous points,” Jon Stewart said. “But there is now this idea that anyone who voted for him has to be defined by the worst of his rhetoric. “Like, there are guys in my neighborhood that I love, that I respect, that I think have incredible qualities who are not afraid of Mexicans, and not afraid of Muslims, and not afraid of blacks. They’re afraid of their insurance premiums,” he continued. “In the liberal community, you hate this idea of creating people as a monolith. Don’t look as Muslims as a monolith. They are the individuals and it would be ignorance. But everybody who voted for Trump is a monolith, is a racist. That hypocrisy is also real in our country.”
People are completely missing the WHY. Why did Trump win? It's not because of some dangerous rise in sexism/racism/nationalism like the media and the Democrats want you to believe. “I don’t believe we are a fundamentally different country today than we were two weeks ago,” Stewart said. “The same country with all its grace and flaws, and volatility, and insecurity, and strength, and resilience exists today as existed two weeks ago. The same country that elected Donald Trump elected Barack Obama.” It's incredibly dangerous for this narrative to continue. Until the identity politic social justice warriors understand the WHY, until they start to rally behind Bernie's message of wealth and income inequality first, before women's rights, immigration issues, racial equality and LGBT rights.. until they become more focused on what unites us, they have no hope of defeating the rise of American fascism of Republican politicians. No hope of being an effective force in politics. Republicans controlling all three branches of government is what happens when liberal rhetoric is increasingly dominated by identity politics rather than class issues.