apropos @adamserwer.bsky.social’s great piece here, an interesting thing i have noticed is that the pundits whose main thing is that “democrats are obsessed with identity politics” have nothing to say about trump indulging this country’s oldest form of identity politics.
The former president and his advisers’ strategy is to make white voters afraid—and they don’t care if they have to lie to do it.
I saw Tim Miller speak with fmr Rep Bob Inglis (R-SC), who's endorsed Kamala Harris. Along the way Inglis noted Dems created identity politics and "Republicans perfected it." And FWIW, after hearing Inglis, I thot, "He's okay" - we could get thru a 10 min talk civilly. Low bar, but the bar we have.
YouTube video by The Bulwark
This has enraged me from Day 1 Trump. He is, by a massive margin, the biggest peddlar of identity politics imaginable and yet is virtually never covered from that angle. The racism of the system just refuses to see his ultimate claim that he is protecting white interests as an "indentity" issue.
Your anti-racism is racist!
Because they are all white people who grew up wealthy. Or are Thomas Chatterton Williams.
Incredible @fairmediawatch.bsky.social chart on who the charge of "identity politics" gets levvied against, and who gets infinite Play Identify Politics Free cards
A FAIR study of US newspapers found the overwhelming majority of times the vague term “identity politics” was mentioned, it was referring to Democrats and the left.
All pol is idpol.
Dividing America
You and a few others have done a good job of beating this drum, but man, it really does need to be said over and over. It’s, like, their Main Thing.
It’s wild, isn’t it? The US was literally founded on identity politics; only white male landowners could vote. Other types of people had limited/no rights.
Similarly, the right likes to complain about "elites" even as they display their own kind of elitism - especially religious (but hardly moral) plus military, financial, etc. They love their elites. They just hate any kind of authority besides their own liege lords.