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Re: Time for Republican Reset?
I agree that both sides engage in identity politics. My wife saw me checking in on this thread this morning and we discussed it. I told her that the phrase "identity politics" had gotten more use in the last week than I had heard over the past 10 years. Although it is a new term for many it is an old tactic to both political parties.
It is a very interesting topic to me how the democratic party made a conscious decision to turn away from the labor movement and go toward this philosophy. There was a consensus that the labor movement was independent, a little too powerful, and that the distrust of the largely white male group of some other important initiatives of the democratic party made them expendable. And TBH where else were they going to turn? There have been books, good ones, written about this process. Studies have shown that this group was, sadly, completely correct in their assertion that workplace advances for other groups would come at their expense. The ballot box has shown that the party was completely correct in their guess that most would stick with them as the lesser of two evils.
In any case the democratic party has, and continues to, engage(d) in identity politics.
The problem as I see it is that the coalition of republicans who also engage in this method is a shrinking one. For the first time it seems the party has awoken to the fact that this tactic is a losing one given the demographic cards they've been dealt. For them to continue to be a national party they are going to have to move beyond identity politics. And brother that is going to be a tough one for them. The natural path to break out of this cycle would be through economics. But how can you do so when you have so many anti-union stances like the RTW laws, so many anti-US worker/industry stances like globalization and free trade pacts, and so many anti produce/consume economy stances like deregulation at all costs and financialization as a viable basis for the economy?
In the end, although I can buy into some of the resentment felt toward democratic policy planks, the method espoused in the post above is incorrect. Look, growing up as a lower middle class white hillbilly male I well understand how special treatment of every other ethnic group can grate on you. I completely understand the frustration with policies that just assume that I had a privileged background because my skin is white and my surname is Scottish. I cannot tell you how maddening it was to see people I competed with in college and the workplace get special handling in spite of the fact that many of them had backgrounds that were a hell of a lot softer and easier than anything I experienced as a kid.
But imVho you can't give in to just throwing out accusations and ill feelings toward everyone who is in a group that may get these benefits and special treatment. There are good people all over the place and they come from all areas and backgrounds. They wrestle with their own baggage and ill feelings as well. It would be a mistake to write everyone but your own little demographic niche off as freeloaders and future despotic rulers.
That said I do agree that immigration as it is known should have been ended decades ago. I say this mainly based on environmental concerns but also because I feel that giving everyone a break from the stress of such rapidly changing demographics would allow the younger generation to do what younger generations have always done and make such things irrelevant through cultural ties, marriage, and offspring. I don't think it is only whites who retreat into ethnic enclaves and that this is poisonous to the US long term.
But this is just the opinion of one man.
Will
I agree that both sides engage in identity politics. My wife saw me checking in on this thread this morning and we discussed it. I told her that the phrase "identity politics" had gotten more use in the last week than I had heard over the past 10 years. Although it is a new term for many it is an old tactic to both political parties.
It is a very interesting topic to me how the democratic party made a conscious decision to turn away from the labor movement and go toward this philosophy. There was a consensus that the labor movement was independent, a little too powerful, and that the distrust of the largely white male group of some other important initiatives of the democratic party made them expendable. And TBH where else were they going to turn? There have been books, good ones, written about this process. Studies have shown that this group was, sadly, completely correct in their assertion that workplace advances for other groups would come at their expense. The ballot box has shown that the party was completely correct in their guess that most would stick with them as the lesser of two evils.
In any case the democratic party has, and continues to, engage(d) in identity politics.
The problem as I see it is that the coalition of republicans who also engage in this method is a shrinking one. For the first time it seems the party has awoken to the fact that this tactic is a losing one given the demographic cards they've been dealt. For them to continue to be a national party they are going to have to move beyond identity politics. And brother that is going to be a tough one for them. The natural path to break out of this cycle would be through economics. But how can you do so when you have so many anti-union stances like the RTW laws, so many anti-US worker/industry stances like globalization and free trade pacts, and so many anti produce/consume economy stances like deregulation at all costs and financialization as a viable basis for the economy?
In the end, although I can buy into some of the resentment felt toward democratic policy planks, the method espoused in the post above is incorrect. Look, growing up as a lower middle class white hillbilly male I well understand how special treatment of every other ethnic group can grate on you. I completely understand the frustration with policies that just assume that I had a privileged background because my skin is white and my surname is Scottish. I cannot tell you how maddening it was to see people I competed with in college and the workplace get special handling in spite of the fact that many of them had backgrounds that were a hell of a lot softer and easier than anything I experienced as a kid.
But imVho you can't give in to just throwing out accusations and ill feelings toward everyone who is in a group that may get these benefits and special treatment. There are good people all over the place and they come from all areas and backgrounds. They wrestle with their own baggage and ill feelings as well. It would be a mistake to write everyone but your own little demographic niche off as freeloaders and future despotic rulers.
That said I do agree that immigration as it is known should have been ended decades ago. I say this mainly based on environmental concerns but also because I feel that giving everyone a break from the stress of such rapidly changing demographics would allow the younger generation to do what younger generations have always done and make such things irrelevant through cultural ties, marriage, and offspring. I don't think it is only whites who retreat into ethnic enclaves and that this is poisonous to the US long term.
But this is just the opinion of one man.
Will
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