The politics of identity is fostering the decay of American civility. It’s reached the point where some immigrant groups now reject English, the language of Dickinson and Ellison, as our mother tongue. Without Bill Clinton’s centrism, Democrats and their media allies have gone all in on identity politics (e.g. race), having all but drowned out situational politics (e.g. household finances). Sadly, the USA is as divided now as it was during the sixties.
If it were just political posturing, that might be OK, but there are material damages done to individuals. For example, a capitalist-hating rep (Ocasio-Cortez) sacrificed great jobs for 27,000 New Yorkers, a Catholic-hating senator (Feinstein) denied due process to a Supreme Court nominee, and PC-police forced Megyn Kelly off the air at NBC.
I was shocked last month, when NBC excoriated Tom Brokaw for his personal views on cultural assimilation, which he shared on Meet The Press (where “guests” routinely opine freely). Brokaw, a venerable journalist, stated: “Hispanics should work harder at assimilation…make sure all of their kids are learning to speak English…and feel comfortable in their communities.” For that, NBC branded him anti-Hispanic and a xenophobe – forcing Brokaw to apologize for his deplorability. Poor man.
What could be more anti-American than denying a journalist his freedom of speech? Not much, but so-called liberals clearly prefer fleeting standards of political correctness over time-tested honesty. Brokaw was just giving the same advice immigrants have given their children for centuries. In fact, I remember when a majority of Hispanics voted against a California bilingual proposition in 1984. Democrats hoped to attract Latino votes and their shock was priceless. However, it was the Hispanic community’s explanation that was timeless: if our children don’t learn to speak English, they cannot live in the other 49 states.
If California’s Hispanic population believed speaking English was essential to attaining the American Dream then, how are things different now? The simple answer is politics, because the Democrat party is increasingly a coalition of identity groups with grievances against the cultural mainstream. Let me be crystal clear: an identity group has the constitutional right to express their grievances and/or petition the government for redress. At issue here is how identity politics so divides this one nation under God with liberty and justice for all, and how pejorative attacks on identities drown out persuasive arguments in our government and news media. Divided and dumbed-down is not a good look for the USA.
It is absurd to campaign against “cultural assimilation” when new identity groups (immigrants) come to the USA because it is the cutting edge of civilization. This is true, and old identity groups (feminists) know America’s historical arc still bends toward justice. Still, so-called liberals create make-believe monsters for political gain. They tell a millennial woman to fear Catholics, a gay man to fear Baptists, a black teen to fear white policemen, and a Muslim to fear Jewish lobbyists.
Absent strong centrists, Democrats now support every identity group with an axe to grind, allowing identity politics to hijack our majority-rule democracy. To wit, CNN’s Van Jones invited the resistance by blaming Hillary Clinton’s loss on “whitelash against a changing country” – and paid pro-choice and #MeToo screamers tried to derail the Kavanaugh confirmation by disrupting the hearing and rioting on the Supreme Court steps. The stench of hypocrisy was vast.
Van Jones was well aware the 2016 election turned on the situations of 62 million voters hoping for a better economy (exit polling showed this), but never explained what white supremacy had to do with the economy. Perhaps a card-carrying Democrat is excused from making sense. Jones knew Hillary Clinton lost working-class households but still claimed white voters were “lashing out at a black president” (who was not on the ballot). Jones was living proof that Democrats create make-believe monsters to frighten constituents.
Not to be forgotten, Senate Democrats were well aware that a Republican President and Senate came with consequences: only conservative judges would join the Supreme Court. Who believes for one minute that Diane Feinstein would have denied Louis Brandeis due process (by withholding Christine Blasey Ford’s letter), or that Kamala Harris would have ignored Thurgood Marshall’s presumed innocence? Not me, because I witnessed the politics of identity, in which so-called liberals chipped away at truth, justice and the American way to smear a conservative judge.
By the way, this is not just a white-American issue. Juan Williams, a notable civil-rights advocate, was fired by NPR when he shared his fears after 9-11: “Look, I’m not a bigot, but when I get on the plane…if I see people in Muslim garb and I think they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.” Honestly, does anyone think that, absent the 9-11 attacks, Juan Williams would have expressed Islamophobia – and what about his right to freedom-of-the-press?
How would Dr. Martin Luther King react to Black Lives Matter attacking the identity of police officers? Hard to say, but I’d bet he would keep the situation (i.e. racial profiling) front and center. King fought so African-Americans could assimilate: opposing separate-but-equal schools, inviting whites to join black marchers, and preaching that the “content of one’s character” was more important than the “color of one’s skin.” And he certainly embraced English by eloquently arguing for civil rights, confident that no white Dixiecrat was his oratory equal.
I hope, after the hot mess in Virginia, the self-proclaimed liberal party finally sees the human cost of identity politics, because a “racist” Democrat governor is now begging the press to forgive ancient antics and a “sexist” Democrat lieutenant governor is now begging for his presumed innocence. The political optics of Northam and Fairfax are so bad, Republicans are content to quietly watch (and smile). Meanwhile, Democrats are asking voters to appreciate “nuance” and wait for all the facts. It is such poetic justice.
America is better than the politics of identity, and liberals would be wise to re-embrace the politics of situation. After all, it is possible to solve the bad situation of gun violence without identifying rednecks “clinging to their guns” as the enemy. Yes, and it is possible to advance the interests of immigrants without resenting the English language. That is madness.
There is a real enemy out there; that is the information silo created by partisan politicians and biased journalists – of every political stripe. Ann Coulter’s nativist rants are just as divisive as Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitic tweets. Once again, divided and dumbed-down is not a good look for the USA. Not now – – not ever!