Are Democrats Capable of Dropping their Identity Silos and Treating Everyone Equally?

A Columbia University Humanities Professor, Mark Lilla, has written a very interesting column called The End of Identity Liberalism. Ignore the obvious shots at Trump & Republicans, remembering what audience he is primarily trying to reach. To Leftists, who have been deeply indoctrinated in the propaganda of Identity Politics for many decades now – younger ones know nothing else – Lilla makes a compelling argument about why this must come to an abrupt halt if the Democrats have any hope of rising from the ashes.

One of the many lessons of the recent presidential election campaign and its repugnant outcome is that the age of identity liberalism must be brought to an end. Hillary Clinton was at her best and most uplifting when she spoke about American interests in world affairs and how they relate to our understanding of democracy. But when it came to life at home, she tended on the campaign trail to lose that large vision and slip into the rhetoric of diversity, calling out explicitly to African-American, Latino, L.G.B.T. and women voters at every stop. This was a strategic mistake. If you are going to mention groups in America, you had better mention all of them. If you don’t, those left out will notice and feel excluded. Which, as the data show, was exactly what happened with the white working class and those with strong religious convictions. Fully two-thirds of white voters without college degrees voted for Donald Trump, as did over 80 percent of white evangelicals.

While some of the commenters are too far gone to grasp the author’s message, many did. Here are some examples:

AACNY New York
One of the first things every college freshman is taught is what a micro-aggression is, what white privilege is and how being color blind is now an offense. In other words, they are indoctrinated with a belief that whites are racist and, often, offensive in their day-to-day lives despite a lack of intent to do harm or offend.
This is how you wind up with “safe” spaces, language and Halloween costume police and an inability to handle the real world, in which gender, race, etc., are not of paramount concern.
A good first step would be to cut back on the diversity staff, which has ballooned, at universities. Their survival literally based on an identity fixation.

Richard F. Kessler Sarasota FL
In this connection, one may point out the importance of making English the American language. We cannot share what unifies us if we cannot even talk to one another. We cannot conduct business efficiently unless it is done in English. if we seek to achieve unity in diversity we do not need uniformity but we do need to be able to share and participate in what unifies us.
By the time Hillary became their candidate, Democrats were no longer able to address the bread and butter issues most Americans have in common. The issue is how to create jobs which will restore prosperity to working Americans. Americans are united by one word, more. People immigrated to America to have more. They educated their children so that they would have more than the parents had. Today, as the middle class is contracting, working Americans still want more for themselves and their children . Democrats have failed to address this need and turned a deaf ear to the grievances of working Americans. It is all about putting Americans back to work on good paying jobs.

Ray Carney Boston, MA
I am a professor at a major East Coast university. I teach the criticism and appreciation of literature and film. I just sent a link to this article to my graduate students and asked them to think about it in terms of their own lives and work. “Identity politics” and the “politics of difference” extends far beyond Freshman Orientation pep talks, special-interest fraternal organizations, speaking invitations, and hiring decisions in the contemporary American university. It warps and blinkers the entire intellectual process to the point that artistic texts are understood almost exclusively in terms of issues of race, class, gender, and other forms of so-called “otherness.” Mr. Lilla’s call to “we-ness” is intellectually long overdue. On behalf of my arts graduate students, I thank him.

Daisy
Exactly! I am sick of reading about hyphenated Americans and why we have to cater to them. I’m an educated person, live in a liberal college town, and appreciate diversity. Yet I have no patience for the mindset of my community, where people are constantly wringing their hands at “institutionalized racism”, and starting from elementary school kids are force-fed a “social-justice” curriculum. Even our elementary schools have “diversity deans”, paid six figures with our tax dollars! These obsessions mean not seeing the forest for the trees – that there are very pressing problems in our community, and our country, to address, and if we do so, a rising tide will lift all boats. Also, the reality is that, like it or not, many Americans do not like the changing face of the country. When speaking to them and glorifying diversity, anybody who wants to accomplish anything does so at the potential expense of winning their cause. As Hillary Clinton showed.

10 Replies to “Are Democrats Capable of Dropping their Identity Silos and Treating Everyone Equally?”

  1. “Are Democrats Capable of Dropping their Identity Silos?”
    I would have to say no, I don’t think so. Lefties tend not to be very clever or very flexible. They like to pretend otherwise of course, but a pretense is what that is.

  2. “… Lefties tend not to be very clever or very flexible.”
    They become fixated on the ideology and lose track of the reality of events around them … they put faith in ‘plans’ and ‘programs’ and ignore the realities that cause these schemes to always fail

  3. “To Leftists, who have been deeply indoctrinated in the propaganda of Identity Politics for many decades now – younger ones no nothing else…”
    Should read…younger ones know nothing else.
    You’re welcome.

  4. I’ve long believed that the difference between conservatives and liberals is whether decisions are based more on personal experience or upon theories based upon worldview. A university professor I know discarded personal experience in a political/racial matter because his theory of how cultures should act towards each other directly opposed his experiences working in Africa. The history was discarded in place of the theory.
    Should a bridge builder be forced to replace half of the steel rivets with ones made from clay, because the local aboriginal groups liked to make things from clay and it makes the spirits feel better, or should the bridge builder have as their only concern “I don’t want this to fall down while I’m building it, so I’ll use the best materials I can within my budget.”?

  5. “Are Democrats Capable of Dropping their Identity Silos?”
    Sure they are. But afterwards they wouldn’t be Democrats

  6. Trying to Tell-ism the “Big Lie” ism of the 1930’s ISM’s-& attribute the Anti-Semit-ism to Steve Bannon is just another Example-ism of the Crudity-ism & The Broadway Stage Rude-ism; and & Mob-ism of the Bankrupt-ism of Think-ism & surely Pending lack of Cash Flow-ism as the Filth-ism against The FIFTY % DEPLORE-ISM receives a Steady; Slow; of Decline-ism OF Tcket nihil-ism for HAMILTON-ism; After The Ignorance-ism and Bigotry-ism is spread-ism by the Social Media-ism.

  7. “…I am sick of reading about hyphenated Americans…” NO SHIT..!!
    African American
    Native American
    Etc Etc etc…..
    The practice of ghettoizing anyone of colour (other than white), difference in religion, difference in language, difference in sexual preference. And to me is nothing short of institutionalized RACISM. The Labelling of the non White portion of American Society.
    Once labelled, allowing easy creation of a victim mentality….and blindlngly easy creation of the enemy…. he/she that is not hyphenated.
    Usually White Americans…..

  8. Are Democrats Capable of Dropping their Identity Silos and Treating Everyone Equally?
    NO

  9. The very term “identity politics” is a euphemism for how the left operates. The left actually teaches and preaches … “demonization”. The left doesn’t simply compartmentalize everyone … they smear the right by creating despicable straw men (and women). The left identifies and invents multiple ways that the right whinggers (and now Alt. Right) are horrible, irredeemable monsters. During WWII Hollywood created propaganda films that dehumanized America’s enemies. The cartoon Jap was portrayed as a buck toothed, squinty eyed mental patient. Now Hollywood, for the last 50 years, has been producing the same propaganda films about the American right. They demonize, and dehumanize the right by portraying them all as illiterate, uneducated, religious nut cases who all pour toxic waste in streams and drag gays behind their pickup trucks. The demonization is constant and pervasive throughout the media, elementary schools, colleges, TV, and Hollywood films. ” The church” has been in the dead center of Hollywood’s propaganda crosshairs. The church (and esp. every Christian) is depicted as diabolical, evil, predatory, and totally ignorant. Pure nastiness. This is how the young “identifies” the right. They have been carefully taught, before they reached six, or seven, or eight … to HATE all the people their relatives HATE … they have been carefully taught.
    The left indoctrinates their children that every republican is PRO-war. That all the Republicans WANT war, and enjoy killing things … esp. people who “don’t look like them. They believe that Republicans are all angry old white men. They are taught Republicans HATE brown people. Republicans LOVE chemical spills in pristine waters. Republicans abuse women. Rape women, pay women $ .40 on the $ dollar. Clarence Thomas left one of his own pubic hairs on a can of coke, and gave it to a poor young subordinate woman of color in an attempt to have a sexual affair with her. The left is absolutely unhinged in their demonization of the right. The left are mentally impaired as a consequence of bathing themselves in pure HATE.

  10. The only argument the Left has is “That’s racist”. It depends entirely on “Identity Politics”.

Navigation