Column: Campaigns flood us with reductive racial rhetoric. How can we push back?
If there’s one thing we know about the Democrats, it’s that they are masters at using “strategy” to sell and win elections. Their party is all about strategy. Their platform is about strategy. Their tactics are aimed at achieving a certain amount of voter “turnout.” Their political message is aimed at convincing a certain group of people to vote for a certain party member. Their narrative is about selling a certain group of people as being the best people for those jobs, even if they’re just immigrants or minorities. If you’ve ever read any of the so-called “Blueprints for Change” put out by the Democratic Party, you’ve probably noticed a lot of the rhetoric used to get people to vote for you is the same kind of rhetoric that’s used to get white people to vote for you. So, maybe it’s time we take a good hard look at how this strategy is working for us.
One of the most famous “strategies” used by the Democrat Party is what has become known as “identity politics.” It’s an ideology which can be described as “the politics of groups rather than of individuals.” It’s also an ideology which can be described as “politically correct” or as “politically correct-ese.” Essentially, it’s about how you talk with people rather than about them, how you communicate with and about them and about other people rather than about yourself. It’s about how you “create feelings” rather than “feelings” and about how you persuade rather than persuade. It’s an ideology which is focused on the groups rather the people.
Many liberal groups used to argue that this ideology of identity politics is just about the right of white men to “truly feel” for minorities or immigrants. This is simply a case of a group talking about itself when it should be talking about other groups. Orginality is something white men feel and something that
