"Identity politics" rich white folks style

Last edited Wed Nov 23, 2016, 01:09 PM - Edit history (1)

I see the accusation that Hillary Clinton lost because she played "identity politics" during the general election.

That accusation is not just unsupported by anything she said or did during the GE, it is an insult to "identity politics."

Quite frankly, I have no problem with identity politics. This country has demographically diverse groups of voters whose interests are diametrically opposed. Pointing out that obvious fact is not just honesty, it's good politics.

No, Hillary lost (if indeed she really lost in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania . . . something we will never know because SHE HAS QUIT FIGHTING) because she played "identity politics" IN THE PRIMARY (and did it in as destructive and cynical a way as possible) and then ABANDONED identity politics when she got to the general election. (Fair notice: the remainder of this OP borrows substantially from an earlier post. You can stop here if you've already read it).

In the primary, Hillary's campaign INTENTIONALLY drove a wedge between social justice liberals and economic justice liberals (an act which I will tell you from personal knowledge disgusted and repulsed both those of us who started off in the BPP and/or other liberation movements and MOST of those who started out with Dr. King, the SCLC, and the Poor People's Campaign and know/knew in all certainty that we are joined at the hip to the worker) in order to defeat Sanders (particularly in the South where we are THE VOICE of the Democratic Party). Yes, IN THE PRIMARY, she stood by us in our churches and our communities, she stood with the victims of police violence, etc. and we stood with her. Yes, that tactic allowed her to jettison our traditional working class allies and still get the nomination. Congrats.

However, WHEN SHE GOT TO THE GENERAL ELECTION, she refused to stand up for us at all on ANY ISSUE that would offend the target of Third Way political theory, i.e., upper middle-class suburbanites AND the big money donors the Third Way believes determines winners and losers.

Unfortunately, not only did this leave the working class whom she vilified in the primaries less than inspired, it also left people like me butting our heads against the wall trying to get our community to turn out. Even more unfortunately, the wedge she created to get the nomination was welcomed with open arms by that racist POS Trump who went to Hillary's target audience in the suburbs and told them that the election was them vs. not just us, but also gays, Muslims, and Spanish-speaking immigrants. The Third Way's target audience, those white suburbanites, men and women alike, promptly voted like the racists some of us always knew they were.

Yes, elections can be won with "identity politics." As everyone from King to Cleaver to Debs understood, there are stark lines of demarcation in this country, BUT they're between the oppressors and the oppressed, not between neighbors.