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e divisive zero sum world of identity politics losing a sense of what binds us together as a nation what went missing in the reagan years was the great liberal democratic we little wonder that so few now wish to join us there is a mystery at the core of every suicide and the story of how a once successful liberal politics of solidarity became a failed liberal politics of difference is not a simple one perhaps the best place to begin it is with a slogan the personal is the political this phrase was coined by feminists in the 1960s and captured perfectly the mind set of the new left at the time originally it was interpreted to mean that everything that seems strictly private sexuality the family the workplace is in fact political and that there are no spheres of life exempt from the struggle for power that is what made it so radical electrifying sympathizers and disturbing everyone else but the phrase could also be taken in a more romantic sense that what we think of as political action is in fact nothing but personal activity an expression of me and how i define myself as we would put it today my political life is a reflection of my identity over time the romantic view won out over the radical one and the idea got rooted on the left that to reverse the formula the political is the personal liberals and progressives continued to fight for social justice out in the world but now they also wanted there to be no space between what they felt inside and what they did in that world they wanted their political engagements to mirror how they understood and defined themselves as individuals and they wanted their self definition to be recognized this was an innovation on the left socialism had no time for individual recognition rushing toward the revolution it divided the world into exploiting capitalists and exploited workers of every background new deal liberals were just as indifferent to individual identity they thought and spoke in terms of equal rights and equal social protections for all even the early movements of the 1950s and 60s to secure the rights of african americans women and gays appealed to our shared humanity and citizenship not our differences they drew people together rather than setting them against each other all that began to change when the new left shattered in the 1970s in no small part due to identity issues blacks complained that white movement leaders were racist feminists complained that they were sexist and lesbians complained that straight feminists were homophobic the main enemies were no longer capitalism and the military industrial complex they were fellow movement members who were not as we would say today sufficiently woke it was then that less radical liberal and progressive activists also began redirecting their energies away from party politics and toward a wide range of single issue social movements the forces at work in healthy party politics are centripetal they encourage factions and interests to come together to work out common goals and strategies they oblige everyone to think or at least to speak about the common good in movement politics the forces are all centrifugal encouraging splits into smaller and smaller factions obsessed with single issues and practicing rituals of ideological one upmanship symbols take on outsize significance especially in identity based movements the results of this shift are now plain to see the classic democratic goal of bringing people from different backgrounds together for a single common project has given way to a pseudo politics of self regard and increasingly narrow and exclusionary self definition and what keeps this approach to politics alive is that it is cultivated in the colleges and universities where liberal elites are formed here again we must look to the history of the new left to understand how this happened after reagan s election in 1980 conservative activists hit the road to spread the new individualist gospel of small government and free markets and poured their energies into winning out of the way county state and congressional elections also on the road though taking a different exit on the interstate were former new left activists heading for college towns all over america conservatives concentrated on attracting working people once attached to the democratic party a populist bottom up strategy the left concentrated on transforming the outlook of professional and party elites a top down strategy both groups were successful and both left their mark on the country up until the 1960s those active in the democratic party were largely drawn from the working class or farm communities and were formed in local political clubs or on union dominated shop floors that world is gone today they are formed primarily in our colleges and universities as are members of the overwhelmingly liberal dominated professions of law journalism and education liberal political education such as it is now takes place on campuses that are far removed socially and geographically from the rest of the country and particularly from the sorts of people who once were the foundation of the democratic party and the political catechism that is taught is a historical artifact reflecting more the idiosyncratic experience of the 60s generation than the realities of power politics today the experience of that era taught the new left two lessons the first was that movement politics was the only mode of engagement that actually changes things the second was that political activity must have some authentic meaning for the self making compromise seem like a self betrayal these lessons though have little bearing on liberalism s present crisis which is that of being defeated time and again by a well organized republican party that keeps tightening its grip on our institutions where those lessons do resonate is with young people in our highly individualistic bourgeois society a society that keeps them focused on themselves and teaches them that personal choice individual rights and self definition are all that is sacred it is little wonder that students of the facebook age are drawn to courses focused on their identities and movements related to them nor is it surprising that many join campus groups that engage in identity movement work but the costs need to be tallied for those students who will soon become liberal and progressive elites the line between self discovery and political action has become blurred their political commitments are genuine but are circumscribed by the confines of their self definitions issues that penetrate those confines take on looming importance and since politics for them is personal their positions tend to be absolutist and nonnegotiable those issues that don t touch on their identities or affect people like themselves are hardly perceived and classic liberal ideas like citizenship solidarity and the common good have little meaning for them as a teacher i am increasingly struck by a difference between my conservative and progressive students contrary to the stereotype the conservatives are far more likely to connect their engagements to a set of political ideas and principles young people on the left are much more inclined to say that they are engaged in politics as an x concerned about other xs and those issues touching on x ness and they are less and less comfortable with debate over the past decade a new and very revealing locution has drifted from our universities into the media mainstream speaking as an x this is not an anodyne phrase it sets up a wall against any questions that come from a non x perspective classroom conversations that once might have begun i think a and here is my argument now take the form speaking as an x i am offended that you claim b what replaces argument then are taboos against unfamiliar ideas and contrary opinions conservatives complain loudest about today s campus follies but it is really liberals who should be angry the big story is not that leftist professors successfully turn millions of young people into dangerous political radicals every year it is that they have gotten students so obsessed with their personal identities that by the time they graduate they have much less interest in and even less engagement with the wider political world outside their heads there is a great irony in this the supposedly bland conventional universities of the 1950s and early 60s incubated the most radical generation of american citizens perhaps since our founding young people were incensed by the denial of voting rights out there the vietnam war out there nuclear proliferation out there capitalism out there colonialism out there yet once that generation took power in the universities it proceeded to depoliticize the liberal elite rendering its members unprepared to think about the common good and what must be done practically to secure it especially the hard and unglamorous task of persuading people very different from themselves to join a common effort every advance of liberal identity consciousness has marked a retreat of liberal political consciousness there can be no liberal politics without a sense of we of what we are as citizens and what we owe each other if liberals hope ever to recapture america s imagination and become a dominant force across the country it will not be enough to beat the republicans at flattering the vanity of the mythical joe sixpack they must offer a vision of our common destiny based on one thing that all americans of every background share and that is citizenship we must relearn how to speak to citizens as citizens and to frame our appeals for solidarity including ones to benefit particular groups in terms of principles that everyone can affirm black lives matter is a textbook example of how not to build solidarity by publicizing and protesting police mistreatment of african americans the movement delivered a wake up call to every american with a conscience but its decision to use this mistreatment to build a general indictment of american society and demand a confession of white sins and public penitence only played into the hands of the republican right i am not a black male motorist and will never know what it is like to be one if i am going to be affected by his experience i need some way to identify with him and citizenship is the only thing i know that we share the more the differences between us are emphasized the less likely i will be to feel outrage at his mistreatment the politics of identity has done nothing but strengthen the grip of the american right on our institutions it is the gift that keeps on taking now is the time for liberals to do an immediate about face and return to articulating their core principles of solidarity and equal protection for all never has the country needed it more posted by michael kaplan at 5 50 pm email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday august 3 2017 fareed zakaria why trump won why trump won by fareed zakaria cnn july 31 2017 fareed zakaria trump s victory was a class rebellion against people like us video mediaite july 31 2017 youtube full cnn new day segment here here donald trump and the endgame of the end of history the latest news from world war iv by andrew o hehir salon august 5 2017 francis fukuyama on why liberal democracy is in trouble interviewed by steve inskeep npr april 4 2017 see also rush limbaugh real clear politics zakaria the real question of the 2016 presidential election isn t so much why did donald trump win as why did he even get close after all trump was a totally unconventional candidate who broke all the rules and did things that would have destroyed anyone else running for president so why did he break through here s the answer america is now divided along four lines each one reinforcing the others call them the four cs the first is capitalism there was a time when the american economy moved in tandem with its middle class as the economy grew so did middle class employment and wages but over the last few decades that link has been broken the economy has been humming along but it now enriches mostly those with education training and capital the other americans have been left behind the second divide is about culture in recent decades we ve seen large scale immigration african americans and hispanics rising to a more central place in society and gays being accorded equal rights all of this has meant new cultures and narratives have received national attention and it s worried a segment of the older white population which fears that the national culture they grew up with is fading one comprehensive study found that after party loyalty the second strongest predictor of a trump voter was fears of cultural displacement the third divide in america today is about class the trump vote is in large part an act of class rebellion a working class revolt against know it all elites who run the country these voters will stick with donald trump even as he flails rather than vindicate the elite urban view of him the final c in this story is communication we have gone from an america where people watched three networks that provided a uniform view of the world to one where everyone can pick their own channel message and now even their own facts all these forces have been at work for decades but in recent years the republican party has been better able to exploit them and identify with those americans who feel frustrated anxious angry even desperate about the direction that the country is headed in donald trump capitalized on these trends even more thoroughly speaking openly to people s economic anxieties cultural fears and class rebellion he promised simple solutions mostly aimed at others mexicans muslims chinese people and of course the elites and the media it worked he won whether his solutions are even enacted is another matter but the real victory will come for this country when someone looks at these deep forces that are dividing it and tries to construct a politics that will bridge them rather than accept that america must remain a country split between two tribes each uncomprehending of the other both bitter and hostile he or she would speak in a language that unites them that kind of leadership would win not just elections but a place of honor in american history posted by michael kaplan at 11 27 pm email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday july 12 2017 tucker carlson vs ralph peters and max boot on putin and russia tucker carlson vs ralph peters russia putin syria assad status of middle east iraq war video and partial transcript real clear politics july 11 2017 youtube also at mediaite fireworks tucker carlson vs max boot on russia you dismiss anyone who doesn t share your view as a nazi video and partial transcript real clear politics july 13 2017 youtube also at fox news insider see boot s comments at foreign policy commentary posted by michael kaplan at 12 36 a...
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