White Identity Politics Gave Us Trump. But Did the Left Give
Nov 29, 2016 5:53:38 GMT -8
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Post by Origanalist on Nov 29, 2016 5:53:38 GMT -8
White Identity Politics Gave Us Trump. But Did the Left Give Us White Identity Politics?
Welcome to the tribe.
Robby Soave|Nov. 29, 2016 8:38 am
Sen. Bernie Sanders recently criticized the Democratic Party's slavish devotion to an overly-simplistic form of race-and-gender-based identity politics.
"It is not good enough for someone to say, 'I'm a woman! Vote for me!' No, that's not good enough," said Sanders. "What we need is a woman who has the guts to stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies."
In response, Quentin James—former head of Ready for Hillary's outreach efforts to people of color—had this to say, "I like U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders but his comments regarding identity politics suggest he may be a white supremacist, too."
Sanders. A white supremacist. For daring to suggest that the most obvious sort of race-and-gender tribalism was not a winning strategy for the left.
This baseless accusation is emblematic of a specific problem for Democrats who, having successfully galvanized certain segments of the population into identity-based political coalitions, lost the presidential election because the people outside this group—working-class whites—formed a coalition of their own. The Democratic Party has itself to blame, of course: you can't cheer for white men to go extinct and then be surprised when they desert your candidate. Or, as Spiked magazine's Brendan O'Neill put it, liberals essentially did the following:
Facebook quote
Brendan O'Neill
last Wednesday
"You are a white man. Your whiteness defines you. Everything you think is because you're white, everything you say is because you're white. Don't try to be post-white. Don't try to be colourblind. Don't say you are 'over race'. You're white, own it and deal with it."
"Really? Oh. Okay. I identify as white."
"FASCIST!"
His point is we shouldn't be surprised to see people vote in keeping with the ill-defined interests of their designated identity group: that's the game the Lena Dunham Left has been playing with increasing fervency for years.
But identity politics—and the backlash they inspired in the form of Trump—are not just a problem for the left: they concern us all. That's because the idea that one's interests are tied to one's tribal affiliation is anathema to the libertarian worldview. In fact, there's nothing less libertarian than the tribe—and the more tribeal our politics become, the less respectful of individual liberty they will be.
continued.. reason.com/blog/2016/11/29/white-identity-politics-gave-us-trump-bu
Welcome to the tribe.
Robby Soave|Nov. 29, 2016 8:38 am
Sen. Bernie Sanders recently criticized the Democratic Party's slavish devotion to an overly-simplistic form of race-and-gender-based identity politics.
"It is not good enough for someone to say, 'I'm a woman! Vote for me!' No, that's not good enough," said Sanders. "What we need is a woman who has the guts to stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies."
In response, Quentin James—former head of Ready for Hillary's outreach efforts to people of color—had this to say, "I like U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders but his comments regarding identity politics suggest he may be a white supremacist, too."
Sanders. A white supremacist. For daring to suggest that the most obvious sort of race-and-gender tribalism was not a winning strategy for the left.
This baseless accusation is emblematic of a specific problem for Democrats who, having successfully galvanized certain segments of the population into identity-based political coalitions, lost the presidential election because the people outside this group—working-class whites—formed a coalition of their own. The Democratic Party has itself to blame, of course: you can't cheer for white men to go extinct and then be surprised when they desert your candidate. Or, as Spiked magazine's Brendan O'Neill put it, liberals essentially did the following:
Facebook quote
Brendan O'Neill
last Wednesday
"You are a white man. Your whiteness defines you. Everything you think is because you're white, everything you say is because you're white. Don't try to be post-white. Don't try to be colourblind. Don't say you are 'over race'. You're white, own it and deal with it."
"Really? Oh. Okay. I identify as white."
"FASCIST!"
His point is we shouldn't be surprised to see people vote in keeping with the ill-defined interests of their designated identity group: that's the game the Lena Dunham Left has been playing with increasing fervency for years.
But identity politics—and the backlash they inspired in the form of Trump—are not just a problem for the left: they concern us all. That's because the idea that one's interests are tied to one's tribal affiliation is anathema to the libertarian worldview. In fact, there's nothing less libertarian than the tribe—and the more tribeal our politics become, the less respectful of individual liberty they will be.
continued.. reason.com/blog/2016/11/29/white-identity-politics-gave-us-trump-bu