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Here’s Why Democrats Must Not Abandon Identity Politics
The Daily Beast ^ | 20 Dec, 2016 | Craig Mills

Posted on 12/22/2016 8:45:15 PM PST by MtnClimber

It’s all the rage now: Dump on multiculturalism and identity. But identities are vitally important in motivating voters. And besides, white people have them, too.

Since Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election, the victors and the vanquished have disparaged identity politics—coded language for multiculturalism. Most notably, in a New York Times op-ed, Mark Lilla argued, in part, that Democrats are so enmeshed in linguistic minutiae they can’t develop effective messaging. Predictably, Democrats are apoplectically tripping over one another to distance themselves from the term, a core tenet of the party. (Hearing Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio use Obama’s word “shellacked” while discussing the Democrats’ need for better messaging is humorously ironic, as there is very little original messaging in reusing a word someone else introduced into the vernacular.) A Democratic retreat from identity, however, could prove just as costly as anything we experienced last month. It is time for Democrats to get a backbone, own its identity as a liberal tent, and stop retreating at the smallest hint of criticism.

Lilla’s broader premise for identity abandonment is an affront to liberals who are not white, male, and straight, because it asks them to subjugate their political goals to the larger group, a presumably heteronormative one focused on that group’s economic needs—very similar to how Donald Trump campaigned. We are also left to assume the notion that meritocracy, a false concept if ever there was one, would sort out leadership and policy concerns.

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: blackvote; democrats; dnc; hillary2016; homosexualagenda; identitypolitics; multiculturalism; racism
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To: nathanbedford
Why is the issue of race always the hammer and never the nail?

:) I liked that!

21 posted on 12/22/2016 9:27:01 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: nathanbedford

The democRATs have not been this upset since 1863 when the Republicans freed all of their slaves!


22 posted on 12/22/2016 9:29:01 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: Williams

All we need at this time is for the leftards to keep listening to their own advice to themselves.

There’s no one better at driving away people that aren’t brain dead idiots than leftards preaching their own virtues and practices.


23 posted on 12/22/2016 9:31:36 PM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: MtnClimber

“Do they even know who they are threatening?”

No, they don’t. They are deaf, dumb and blind to anything besides their own narrative. And no one will be more shocked when they get exactly what they’ve been asking for.


24 posted on 12/22/2016 9:32:53 PM PST by Noumenon (Proud Irredeemable Deplorable, heavily armed Infidel. Islam delenda est.)
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To: RedWulf
Democrats should stay with identity politics... It's ‘working’ for them - AND it's working for us. A few more years of it and there won't be a democrat or democrat party left.
25 posted on 12/22/2016 9:43:58 PM PST by GOPJ (Anyone remember New York Times CRYBULLIES calling for 'moderation' when Obama was elected '08?)
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To: MtnClimber

I’m sure lexicographers are poring over their history of the vernacular to ensure that Obama the wise is truly the one who brought the term shellacked into the fold.

What puffery...


26 posted on 12/22/2016 10:10:48 PM PST by jurroppi1 (The only thing you "pass to see what's in it" is a stool sample. h/t MrB)
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To: MtnClimber

Double down on stupid, it’ll work this time. Really. That’s how it always works out, you do the same thing again and again and expect a different result and get severely disappointed if we’re not enlightened enough this time for it to come out right... Damn racist homophobics!


27 posted on 12/22/2016 10:14:33 PM PST by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: nathanbedford

” Do race and gender also “correlate closely” with criminality, bastardy, unemployment, drug abuse, alcoholism, dependency?

Why is it desirable to associate distribution of wealth, income and social status with race but not criminality and other manifestations of social disintegration? Why is it illegitimate to associate “merit” with these matters? Why is the issue of race always the hammer and never the nail?”

Very well said


28 posted on 12/22/2016 11:01:20 PM PST by Fai Mao (PIAPS for Prison 2016)
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To: MtnClimber

Collectivists and their anti-truth, anti-freedom, anti-individual, anti-life collectives. DEFUND.


29 posted on 12/23/2016 1:51:02 AM PST by PGalt (CONGRATULATIONS Donald J. Trump)
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To: MtnClimber

This is really the only way to see where ‘race relations’ really are. Let’s do away with ALL of this race based crap and see...


30 posted on 12/23/2016 1:57:38 AM PST by Altura Ct.
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To: MtnClimber

Trump’s election is the beginning of the Reconquista - not the end of a presidential campaign. The left’s identity politics are going to morph into a more strident anti-american anti-christian stance. They will isolate themselves in the hope that will clarify the argument. They will just be targeting themselves more clearly though.


31 posted on 12/23/2016 2:04:18 AM PST by x_plus_one (A man cannot know himself until he knows those who define themselves against him.)
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To: MtnClimber

Stay with it, Dems! It worked brilliantly in the last election. Don’t change course now.


32 posted on 12/23/2016 2:29:54 AM PST by jazminerose (Adorable Deplorable)
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To: MtnClimber

No slave was freed in 1863.


33 posted on 12/23/2016 2:30:47 AM PST by Midnitethecat
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To: RedWulf

...”Diversity is a code word for hunting down and killing all the white males.”...

Notice how they want to base “diversity” on skin color while the iron fist will not allow diversity of ideas, which is by far the most important concept in repelling tyranny. The Democratic party promotes tyranny of the few over the many. All you need to be aware of is the attack from the maniac against beautiful and good Ivanka Trump and her little children on that plane yesterday. That is the perfect description of what they want to do to us in every way. We must fight against it because the real truth is that the man who did that represents a very small group in this nation. He just chose a situation where he could get the attention of the big media. I suspect, in the end, he will be reviled by both the normal liberal and conservative for what he did. We must keep things in perspective when we see and hear about these travesties.


34 posted on 12/23/2016 2:47:59 AM PST by jazzlite (esat)
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To: MtnClimber
Here’s Why Democrats Must Not Abandon Identity Politics

Here’s Why Democrats Must Not Abandon Racist and Sexist Politics.

Fixed it.

35 posted on 12/23/2016 2:53:12 AM PST by TruthFactor (Hang em', Hang em' High.)
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To: MtnClimber

God bless ya, keep pushin’ that Old Time Religion.

(snigger)


36 posted on 12/23/2016 2:54:56 AM PST by Lazamataz (TRUMP LIED TO ME!!!! ....He said I'd get sick of winning.... AND I'M NOT SICK OF WINNING YET!!!!)
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To: MtnClimber
identity abandonment is an affront to liberals . . . because it asks them to subjugate their political goals to the larger group

Actually, it's the opposite of what the writer suggests.

White heterosexual males have been asked to subjugate their identity to others' political goals.

37 posted on 12/23/2016 3:03:32 AM PST by Jess Kitting
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To: MtnClimber; All

“Identity politics” mentioned @13:30 here by Paul Joseph Watson...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fj9jm6tqrY


38 posted on 12/23/2016 3:17:18 AM PST by PGalt (CONGRATULATIONS Donald J. Trump)
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To: MtnClimber
(Hearing Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio use Obama’s word “shellacked” while discussing the Democrats’ need for better messaging is humorously ironic, as there is very little original messaging in reusing a word someone else introduced into the vernacular.)

Aw ain't he cute. He thinks that "original messaging" -- only Lord Obama can now use the word "shellacked", apparently -- is more important than the message itself -- that the Dems were, in fact, "shellacked".

And for that reason, this would fall under the 95% of times that a "journalist" or reporter mis-uses the word "ironic" as well.

39 posted on 12/23/2016 3:30:21 AM PST by jiggyboy (Ten percent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: MtnClimber
But identities are vitally important in motivating voters. And besides, white people have them, too.

Yes, conservatives have identities too. I'm a patriotic American, and I vote for patriotic Americans, just like the overwhelming majority of decent people in our country.

Conservatives were okay with Governor Sarah Palin, even though liberals were skeptical because she is female and in a mixed-race marriage. Sensible people were indifferent to those details and loved her for her love of our country. Similar statements could be made about Carly Fiorina, Dr. Ben Carson, Justice Clarence Thomas, and many others that the left would like to categorize and label based on superficial factors but we see as matching our American identity. Today's left is racist and sexist.

40 posted on 12/23/2016 3:36:19 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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