Vincent Emanuele writes:
I think we’ve all had enough of the bullshit: identity
politics has been a curse to leftist movements in the U.S. for far too long.
How could anyone argue otherwise?
During the Obama years, leftists
were chastised for their critiques, with many, including myself, being accused
of racism.
Racism, really?
I’ve spent the last ten years of my life dedicated
to progressive social movements, yet I’m a racist because I think that Barack
Obama is an imperialist scumbag? Piss off…
Today, the same is happening in
the context of Hillary Clinton’s run for U.S. President.
Any and all critiques
of Hillary are deemed “sexist” by HRC’s bootlickers.
On a recent DemocracyNow! program, Clinton lackey Bertha Lewis
(former CEO of ACORN and currently of the Black Institute and Working Families
Party of New York) had some profoundly ignorant and misinformed things to say.
Of course, none of this is surprising, nor is it really out of the ordinary,
but it is disheartening and troublesome.
The best part of the interview
was Bertha’s statement that, “If you want to see a revolution, then elect a
female president!”
Indeed, Bertha may be right: under Thatcher, the U.K.
underwent quite a revolution, although not the type of revolution leftists
would like to see.
However, the Curse of Identity
Politics isn’t relegated to the electoral sphere: I’ve been told by activists
that the U.S. can’t pull out of Afghanistan because women will be treated
worse.
I’ve been told that women serving in the U.S. Military Machine is a
progressive accomplishment.
And I’ve been told that because black and brown
people overwhelmingly support Democrats, I too should support the “lesser of
two evils.”
When I sat on the board of
directors of an national antiwar organization, we talked about meeting ethnic,
racial and gender quotas as much as we talked about ending wars and militarism.
In fact, during one strategy retreat in Chicago, we started out each day by
exploring what pronouns each of us would prefer to use.
Yes, this is what
modern activism, for some, has turned into.
At the same time, people are
learning valuable lessons, particularly young folks, about the world of
progressive politics – its failures, inadequacies and so on.
Fortunately, young voters (84% of
women under the age of 30) in Iowa overwhelmingly supported Sanders over
Clinton.
In my thinking, this trend will continue.
The Age of Identity Politics
is coming to an end. The wrath of middle-aged, middle-class white women is
quickly losing steam.
Young women are tired of hearing about the first female
U.S. President – they’re interested in policies that will actually help the
vast majority of females in the U.S., not bourgeois feminism aimed at the
dwindling white middle-class.
The real question is: how long
are we going to play the identitarian game?
In 2020, will we have to go through
the same song and dance with a centrist Latino or LGBTQ candidate? I sure hope
not.
In the end, Iraqi and Afghan
children don’t care whether it’s a man or a woman who drone strikes their
family and friends.
They just care that someone is trying to kill them.
Domestically, the same is true:
most Americans don’t care whether it’s a white woman or a black man who’s
trying to pass the worst trade deal (Trans Pacific Partnership) in history –
they simply know they’re getting screwed by powerful elites.
I would argue that the more the
identitarians try and play their identitarian games, the more they will lose
support and standing in progressive communities.
Already, young black activists
with Black Lives Matter and various other community organizations are
challenging the dominant liberal narrative that having people of color in
powerful positions will automatically result in better conditions for people of
color.
As a result, my black activist
friends are not interested in replacing a white police chief with a black
police chief.
And my female friends are not interested in replacing patriarchy
with patriarchy-light.
Hence the reason young activists aren’t engaging in the
same absurd ideological games as their elders. Here, we should be excited.
In many ways, the identitarians
have already lost the ideological battle.
After all, Latinos are being deported
in record numbers, African Americans are worse off today than they were prior
to Obama taking office, and women are facing unprecedented attacks from
religious conservatives.
All of this after forty years of identity politics.
Obviously, focusing on what Chris Hedges calls “boutique political issues”
hasn’t resulted in better living conditions for people of color or women.
Yet,
the public is more educated about these issues than ever before.
So, what gives? A complete
lack of power and organization.
Without question, the Left has virtually no
power and is utterly lacking the infrastructure and institutions that would be
necessary to rectify the problem.
Instead of talking about the brutal realities
of power, leftists often talk about “shifting narratives” and “changing
dominant discourses.”
Indeed, the more the Left focuses
on the most prescient issues of our time – ecology, militarism and economics –
the more likely people will be to gravitate toward leftist political
organizations and movements.
But those days are coming to an end.
As the seas continue to rise and
the rich continue to plunder, people will seek truly radical alternatives, not
liberal rubbish.
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