Which Identity Politics Are We talking About?

Created
Sat, 30/11/2024 - 05:30
Updated
Sat, 30/11/2024 - 05:30
If you have time to watch this talk by pollster Cornell Belcher, (assuming you have the stomach for this kind of analysis right now) I urge you to do it. Whether he’s right is beyond my ken, but I found it interesting. David Neiwert, an expert on white identity movements, takes a stab at why that might have happened: @davidneiwert.bsky.social: It’s one of the more popular lines of self-flagellation Democratic Party critics and strategists have taken in the wake of the disastrous 2024 election: Harris and her “identity politics” caused many voters, including minorities, to look elsewhere. 2/15 @davidneiwert.bsky.social: But as Tressie McMillan Cottom already observed, Harris in fact tended to deemphasize the racial aspects of her historic candidacy and worked hard to win over Republican voters—to little avail: 3/15 www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/o… @davidneiwert.bsky.social: Nonetheless, the New York Times proclaimed that the results were about how “Identity Politics Loses Its Grip on the Country”—thereby erasing Trump’s obvious and pronounced white identity politics, which were they key to his victory. 4/15 www.nytimes.com/2024/11/02/u… @davidneiwert.bsky.social: The foundation of Trump’s entire campaign against Harris was racial identity politics. This was abundantly clear at the Republican National Convention, as the Washington Post reported at the time: 5/15 www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202… @davidneiwert.bsky.social: He kicked it all off shortly after she had secured the Democratic nomination by falsely claiming that she switched back and forth between her Indian and Black heritages for her identity: 6/15 @davidneiwert.bsky.social: Throughout the campaign, Trump’s MAGA cohort kept doubling down on white identity politics. A book emitted by the…