“In other words, you must show that a man is wrong before you start explaining why he is wrong. “
Read MoreI lament the subversion of ideas and policy to the passions of the electorate, but it is hard to escape that reality. The more distant we get from our founding principles, both chronologically and intellectually, the more divisive we become. When you do not know what you believe everything becomes an argument. Without the unity of commonly held ideas we descend into the combat zone of identity politics.
Read MoreHalf of Trump supporters like his anti-elite, control the narrative, fearless and aggressive posture. Half of his supporters have great problems with his style, lack of diplomacy, thoughtless tweets, and divisive rhetoric; but fear the radical ideas that are pouring from the barrel of Democratic candidates like liberal tourettes.
Read MoreIdentity Politics is just a politically correct form of racism. We should not be surprised to hear more accusations of racism in response to greater reliance on identity politics as a political strategy. The more that racism is used as a political weapon the less moral authority it retains.
Read MoreThis is the slow-motion suicide of identity politics. When everything is about race or sex it loses its power because it becomes impossible to identify. The Squad cannot even disagree with its own party and leaders without attributing differences to racism. Pelosi tried to minimize the power of these few House Democrats yet was unable to pass a meaningful anti-Semitic resolution against the support these few actors garnered. Yet they had little trouble passing a resolution condemning Trump’s ‘racist’ comment.
Read MoreIn college they were deferred to with respect they did not earn or merit. Now they have power and it has gone straight to their woefully underused brains. We have replaced thoughtful policy with juvenile unicorns like the Green New Deal. We are now in the “cheap seats”. How can we be surprised today to see what tolerating these petty tyrants in college has led to? What you tolerate you teach.
Read MoreIdentity politics and its accusation of “privilege” is collective guilt. It is the opposite of individual rights. In the case of Kavanaugh it is used to undo due process and the basis of our legal system. The illusion of social justice is used to destroy the reality of legal justice, the justice that truly counts and protects all of us from the mobs feared by our founders.
Read More“And it is the very cheapness of the identity that causes us to cling to it ever more angrily. Women are more liberated than ever before, but they grow louder about their oppression. “
Read More“It’s not a coincidence that many of the loudest critics decrying white privilege are . . . privileged whites.”
Read MoreIdentity politics only works when another identity is excluded. It only exists in opposition. Identity politics is racist.
Read More“Diversity among different “kinds” of people is celebrated everywhere, but intellectual, ideological, and political diversity among those groups is demonized.”
Read Moreby Henry Oliner Did Donald Trump win the election, or did Hillary Clinton lose it? It may seem irrelevant, but it does have bearing on the midterms. Hillary’s likability is used as a cloak to obscure severe character flaws and…
Read MoreMark Lilla is a committed Democrat who admonishes his party for the its descent into Identity Politics in The Once and Future Liberal- After Identity Politics What replaces argument, then, is taboo. At times our more privileged campuses can seem stuck…
Read MoreMark Lilla is a committed Democrat who admonishes his party for the its descent into Identity Politics in The Once and Future Liberal- After Identity Politics The paradox of identity liberalism is that it paralyzes the capacity to think and…
Read MoreA book review by Henry Oliner Politics is little more than a marketplace of ideas. Like the markets for products and services it is more complex and nuanced than it appears, and resistant to central control. Competition serves us well…
Read Morefrom the editors of The Wall Street Journal, The Poison of Identity Politics A politics fixated on indelible differences will inevitably lead to resentments that extremists can exploit in ugly ways on the right and left. The extremists were on…
Read MoreMark Lilla writes a great analysis of the rise of identity politics in the Wall Street Journal, The Liberal Crackup All that began to change when the New Left shattered in the 1970s, in no small part due to identity…
Read Morefrom the editors of The Wall Street Journal, The Poison of Identity Politics Yet the focus on Mr. Trump is also a cop-out because it lets everyone duck the deeper and growing problem of identity politics on the right and left.…
Read MoreMark Lilla writes a great analysis of the rise of identity politics in the Wall Street Journal, The Liberal Crackup As a teacher, I am increasingly struck by a difference between my conservative and progressive students. Contrary to the stereotype,…
Read Moreby Henry Oliner The first Progressive Era from Teddy Roosevelt through Woodrow Wilson established the regulatory and administrative state and changed the nature of our government. It was tainted by an elitist view of race that used the science of…
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