Wolf Howling: gender

Friday, March 14, 2008

The Entertainment Value of Identity Politics

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't it seem the person most enjoying the Democratic political contest for the presidential nomination is Charles Krauthammer

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Of all the pundits taking glee in the fact that identity politics is coming home to roost with a vengance on the Democratic side of the house, seemingly the one most appreciative of the spectacle is Charles Krauthammer. This is not surprising, really, since Mr. Krauthammer has been regularly bludgeoned by the left over identity politics issues. To define "identity politics," it is a Marxian construct whereby the identity of an individual as part of a "victimized" group is more important than the substance of their discrete acts. That means that any criticism of an act is treated as an attack on identity, as in "race card" or "gender card."

It is a very toxic and distorting brand of politics. And we are being treated to the spectacle of the race and gender cards being tossed about inside the Democratic tent as the race for the Democratic nomination becomes ever more cut-throat.

As Mr. Krauthammer notes in his piece in today's Washington Post, there are three possible grounds for discriminating between political candidates - issues, personality or identity. Within the current Democratic race, there is little difference on the issues between Hillary and Obama. Obama is hard left, and Hillary has joined him on that perch ever since her more centrist views came effectively under attack earlier in the campaign. And in a contest of personality, that playing field is so tilted in favor of the likable Obama over the screeching Hillary, she stands no chance in that type of a race. Thus, the Clintons have embraced their last hope, identity politics - an area that Obama is also using very much to his advantage, even as he claims to transcend such identity politics. This from Mr. Krauthammer:

The pillars of American liberalism -- the Democratic Party, the universities and the mass media -- are obsessed with biological markers, most particularly race and gender. They have insisted, moreover, that pedagogy and culture and politics be just as seized with the primacy of these distinctions and with the resulting "privileging" that allegedly haunts every aspect of our social relations.

They have gotten their wish. This primary campaign represents the full flowering of identity politics. It's not a pretty picture. Geraldine Ferraro says Obama is where he is only because he's black. Professor Orlando Patterson says the 3 a.m. phone call ad is not about a foreign policy crisis but a subliminal Klan-like appeal to the fear of "black men lurking in the bushes around white society."

Good grief. The optimist will say that when this is over, we will look back on the Clinton-Obama contest, and its looming ugly endgame, as the low point of identity politics and the beginning of a turning away. The pessimist will just vote Republican.

Read the entire article.

To Sullivan & Steinem: Knock it Off With The Groundless Charges of Discrimination

I am not sure when my white male guilt ended. But at this point its long gone. I will happilly speak out against discrimination if I see it. Barring that, trying to tell me that I bear the stigma of original discriminatory sin just pisses me off and gets me defenisve - aggresively so. Enough already with the race and gender cards.

What brought this little rant on? Well, according to the dogma of today's Democrats, my status as a white male makes me the enemy and one who inherently discriminates against African Americans on account of race and women on account of gender. Taking that shibboleth to its logical conclusion, any decision that I might make to vote for a future President of the U.S. that rejects either an African American or a woman is, respectively, racial discrimination (Andrew Sullivan today) or gender discrimination (Gloria Steinem yesterday).

The race card and gender card are simply ludicrous. Whatever may have been the history of America through its first century and a half of existance, America of today elects people of every race, religion, color and gender to public office. Clearly than, to tag Americans as a group with discrimination sounds more than a bit questionable.

That said, I will never vote for Barack Obama for president. That has nothing to do with the color of his skin and everything to do with my belief that he is a hard line liberal whose domestic and foreign policies would damage America, perhaps mortally so given the challenges we face. My opposition to Hillary Clinton is on precisely the same grounds. Find me a Margaret Thatcher or Thomas Sowell, put them in the presidential race, and the chances that they would get my vote are incredibly high. All that said, idiots like Gloria Steinem and Andrew Sullivan playing the discrimination cards are not doing Obama or Clinton any favors whatsoever. It invites a backlash.