Identity Politics. It’s just too easy to divide Americans by hyphens and constantly talk about Americans as members of one group or another. It’s virtue signaling if the groups of people fit the identity politics taxonomy cookie cutter called “diversity.” You know the politically correct divisions and see it on poll after poll. White, Black, Hispanic, Asian. Female and male. Homosexual/Lesbian/”Trans”. Urban, rural, suburban. Divisions based on education and income.
The problem is when individual Americans think of themselves as part of a group and really believe their group identity matters more than anything else. It’s easier than thinking for yourself, holding yourself accountable for all that happens in your life, or presenting yourself as a lone individual, instead of a much more powerful group.
Identity politics is a powerful drug.
Group identity diminishes the individual into a list of labels. Because group identity easily translates into identity politics. Identity politics lead to tribalism. Tribalism becomes barbarism. Sooner or later.
The whole world should have learned this lesson after the horrors of World War II in Europe and Asia where groups of people were singled out for awful inhumane persecution. America should have learned to think differently after the Japanese Internment.
Yet, in the post-colonial conflicts after WW II, human “tribes” went after one another tooth and nail. At the same time an ideological Cold War united countries on the basis of ideas.
In the 1950s, the idea of a unity of ideas finally breeched the color barrier in the U.S. The majority of Americans were influenced by the ascending ideas of the Civil Rights Movement. Most Americans embraced the idea of judging persons by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin.
Moreover, the white majority understood the necessity of subverting any racial prejudice to a discipline of color-blindness. Since the 1950s, white Americans have been encouraged to not think of themselves as “White.” And to believe racial integration morally superior to any aspect of racial segregation.
Six decades of progress towards a truly integrated, multi-racial society are significant. But, now the emphasis on creating niche identity politics for every ethnic group of Americans other than Whites, is a direct attack on integration.
The Human Secularist Totalitarians – also known as the Left, liberals, progressives, or Democrats use Critical Race Theory to impose their Cultural Marxism on America. They use the White Supremacist, white privilege, white racist bogeyman to push their identity politics.
If they continue to punish whites with “equity”, many whites may start thinking of themselves as “White.” That will not go well for America.
A better alternative is identity based on ideas when the ideas are good. Like what happened across the South when the overwhelming majority of white Southerners shed their white identity and assumed their Christian identity as first and foremost in their life.
The alternative of identity in a fierce individualism works well in America.
Frankly, acknowledging the essence of the human experience – our common humanity – is far superior to understanding life through the prism of racial identity.
Consequently, when Republicans brag about their hyphenated voters or use the language of the Left to virtue signal their success in attracting more voters, I cringe. It’s too easy, too cheap, to sell Republican candidates so.
May Republican candidates who are Conservative use the unifying language of ideas held in common to make their sale to the voters.
Mission impossible? Or mission too soon? I think not. Let’s try it.
Drop identity. Promote ideas. Go for it
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A hyphenated identity is like the word “But” in reverse… “But” means “everything I just said is bullcrap,” hyphen is “everything after this little dash is void.”
Good point.
Identity politics is what happens when people get lazy and quit looking at ideas. Individuals with ideas to discuss will come back. It might take some time, but identity politics has been run through the wringer, too long, and is losing steam. If Democrats keep on trying it, all they will have done is to push people away, and they seem to be doing a pretty good job of that, lately.
I hope it collapses like a house of cards on the Dems. The danger is if they are in power too long – identity politics will become the boogie man that doesn’t exist now, but that they create.
Identity politics is a way for ‘nobodies’ to become ‘somebodies.’. Who ever heard of the Carnegie-Mellon professor who tweeted vile comments that she hoped QEII would die an ‘Excruciating and painful, death…’. No one. Who ever heard of Ibram X. Kendi until he pushed his tome on racism, no one. There are many examples of people like this. These people become famous, and rich, by stoking the real or imagined, identity divisions in the US. The vast majority of the every-day people in this country, get along, work together, live together and just want to live their lives, but the purveyors of identity politics continue to spew their garbage for clicks, fame, and most importantly, MONEY.
Race pimping is a business. BLM made tens of millions. Thanks.