We are at an unprecedented moment in America right now. The rise of identity politics has become a phenomenon not just in America, but in the West in general. Identity politics is shaping the politics of our time and poses a significant challenge in particular to the United States, a multi ethnic country with identity lines more deeply etched than in more homogenous societies. The concept of the melting pot has worked for a long time, but I am no longer optimistic for the future because of demography and the far left’s manipulation of identity politics. Because the left leaning Democratic party is out of the control, they have become so weak and insensitive that they have lost all sense of rationality when it comes to politics and social issues. Most Democrats have moved so far to the left, operating like a militia, so that it feels like freethinking, free speech, law and order, equality under the law, and the expression of new ideas have become foreign. Anything that does not align with the far left’s interpretation of social justice thinking is deemed racist, sexist, transphophic, enslaving, or oppressive, even if is the complete opposite of such a claim. Democrats are playing with identity but fail to recognize their ploys are actually hurting people and damaging our society.Freedom of speech gives people the right to say what they feel, but it also gives other people the right to point out if they are being offensive. Freedom of speech does not mean a speaker’s word cannot be criticized; it just means that individual cannot be silenced. In fact, dialectic positions undergird democracy and public debate underpins freedom.
In a times when millions of Americans have lost their jobs, health care remains an uncertainty for many, workers are laboring longer hours for lower wages, and the planet is facing catastrophic environmental change, it seems that too many in the Democratic party are more concerned with criticizing those who do not agree with them. Democrats need to start focusing on issues that truly affect Americans and not lose their minds whenever someone does or says something that is not aligned with their ideology. Democrats fail to subject their ideas to challenge thus disrespecting free speech and becoming victims of their own weakness.
The United States of America is a melting pot in which different cultures, African American, Latin American, Asian American, Native American, Muslim American, and feminists, all have their own values, histories, and identities separate from one another. So the question is, what holds these groups together regardless of their different background and values? The answer is the American law that make every one equal binds them.
Historically, identity has only really been a question for non-dominant groups in society. If an individual is a member of the dominant group, his or her identity is taken for granted precisely because it is not threatened. But the combination of demographic shifts and demagogic politicians has transformed the landscape of American politics. Now, white identity has been fully activated and in the process become the scapegoat for all ills.
White Americans have lost their majority and with it their cultural and political power. This fall is also tied up in the belief that whites are experiencing reverse discrimination now. President Trump, for sure, exploited identity politics as an effective political strategy to win the election. Even though not every white politician chooses to exploit identity politics, since Donald Trump effectively employed this strategy, other white politicians are going to be tempted to follow his footsteps. But Democrats have taken the strategy to a new level in making every event the outcome of a national xenophobia. Because the Democratic party has gone so far to the left and does not have any constructive policies or initiatives to contribute to American interests or to solve its problems, then conservative and patriotic Americans will need to cry “enough” of the Democrats and their labeling.
We are living a postmodern era in which the big narratives of religion and political ideology have collapsed. The dominate ideology and values have been replaced with a crusading desire to right perceived wrongs and a weaponization of identity, both accelerated by the new forms of social and news media. Narrow sets of interest now dominate the agenda as society becomes more and more tribal with the casualties being crucial. Today identity politics means putting American society into atomized groups which they weaponize against each other. What the Democratic party is doing right now is replacing the segregation of the past with the segregation of the present. The new versions are called “diversity“ or “black lives matter,” which is more than identity at birth or being black, white, Latino or Asian. They take on the mantle of the oppressed purchased from the oppressor, the main schism now.
Every major religion and nation once approval of slavery. Arabs owned slaves, Africans owned slaves, Asiatic people owned slaves, and immigrants owned slaves. Slavery existed in every part of the world. At the time, slavery was practiced through different means; people were enslaved through kidnapping, abduction, wars, trading, and debts. Today we call it modern day slavery with such manifestations as labor and sex trafficking. Slavery was a global fact of life, but, ironically, white men ended slavery. There is no doubt that slavery is wrong and evil, because all people are free since God Almighty created them. But in modern times nothing is seen as more evil. In fact, the American slavery of the past is denigrated more than sex trafficking, even of children, in the present. No media show nightly scenes of children being held and abused but one scene of racial injustice will be aired repeatedly every night for weeks.
Responding to chaos is not easy, whether by word or deed, and Trump could quickly fall into the trap of overplaying his hand furthering the notion that he is a racist. No modern president, however, has faced such constant attacks and ridiculous roadblocks at every turn. Conservative people have been censored, and the American people have been censored. The elites among the Democrats have undermined the public confidence about elections. Rather than a peaceful transform of power, the way to resolve a contested election is to elections charge the candidate first with Russian involvement and then collusion with other international leaders. Some of the Democratic states have started the practice of mail-in ballots, thereby opening the floodgate for the potential fraud. This undermines confidence in the outcome of the upcoming election, so that it will take the country in a dark place where people lose faith in the results.
The political polarization of recent years is now turning increasingly violent and far reaching. Political leaders in the USA consider their interests over national interests. The Democratic far left party thinks that minorities in America are not being treated equally, are attacked, bullied, persecuted, and discriminated against. The Democrat Party thinks that the best way to win this election is to play identity politics, but this tactic is very dangerous. Free speech in a country releases some of the pressure and its absence changes dynamics. If people are prevented from expressing their views, it will not bode well for the country. With its two standards of justice, the Democratic left party is acting on one for itself and demanding a second for other parties.
The current system has been in place for hundred of years based on a very simple idea: All people are created by God and, thus morally, have equal value. Every one of them is a life and for that reason, and for that reason alone, all Americans are treated equally under the law of the United States. In the United States individuals will be judged based on what they do, not how they were born. That idea has been the defining principle since America’s eighteenth century. For that reason American is the fairest society in the world. For that reason, many people would love to live in America or they have moved there. For that reason many call America the land of dreams and opportunities.
What America is facing now, but has never faced before, is that these iconoclasts are attacking the basic principles of America and telling us that not all Americans have been treated equally. Some of them were born morally stained with the guilt of their ancestors; other were not, but were burdened with the victimhood of theirs. Some Americans are guilty; some are not. America has one set of laws; that set of laws should apply to all equally and cannot apply one law to some and another to others because that kind of law characterized the feudal society like that in earlier centuries in Europe or in a kingship or a totalitarian society in recent times. In this view, we can punish children for the sins of their ancestors because the accusers are saying not every one has been created equal, and some have less moral value because of their predecessors. Even during slavery, abolitionists did not agree that slavery was right and considered it evil, and even if the numbers were not many, that made their courageous stand to defend the basic principles of America more important.
How did the Democrats manage to hijack America so suddenly? No leader is stepping up and stopping them. The Republican party surrendered to them on day one without a fight. On live television major American cities have been scenes of destruction and looting, even with Americans being beaten and murdered by the fringe protestors, possibly fueled by infiltrators. Our shared history that connects us together is being destroyed and rewritten by illiterate mobs and looters. Where are the American protectors? Where are the Republicans who want a peaceful participatory democracy, one with rule of law?
Most factions are blaming the police, but none seem to be condemning the looters. Suddenly ordinary Americans are attacked for the color of their skin because they were once a majority, andno Republican has stood up and defended them. Republicans are even refusing to grant the principles of equality under the law, the bedrock of America. We voted for Republicans to protect the people and defend their rights and interests, but when the people’s interests are being destroy by the mobs and looters, then Republican leaders are silenced. So voting does not work on some levels when a group can riot, burn, destroy, steal, kill, and instead of the expected punishment, a very different response emerges: The officials give the perpetrators what they want because rioting and looting works in America. Furthermore, the message they are sending takes hold more because of the quarantine.
I fear that more statues will be destroyed, if not in this round of rioting, then in the next. More buildings will burn, and looters will attack more shops and other places besides, even if in the short term it will not change a thing about the train of events which must follow from the situation in which the Democrats have put themselves. What if many whites had gone to the streets protesting and looting when Obama, a Black American, became president of the United States? If they had destroyed the Civil Rights movement icons, such as Martin Luther King statues in public parks, most Americans would not have supported that; if people who were wearing a hat that supported Obama had been killed, if anyone had spoken against the mobs then, what would the media censor? How would Obama have responded? How will the media respond?
We have enough victims already. But when we compare America with the rest of the world, America is still one of the best in terms of fairness, and the public should continue to defend the principle of fairness. All parties should reject identity politics that assumes a shared experience of injustice of members of their group, that claims the persistence of oppression. All political parties should embrace the uniqueness of every individual and not consider him or her a member of a group first, but rather an individual, and should not use the excuse of past prejudices to create a racial patronage system. We should never accept this framing of the US. The promise of absolute equality under the law is all we have. Laws are designed to protect the weak and not the strong, privileged, powerful and popular. Those who are leading the Black Lives Matter or other deconstructive movements against the American current system are strong and do not champion the ordinary person. According to the Pew Research Center, most Democrats say the movement arises out of longterm oppression of the black race, but most Republicans see it as taking advantage of a crisis for criminal behavior. Agencies aide in rebuilding family structure, programs help fathers become part of children’s lives, and initiatives to return dignity and pride in their work ethic.
Dr. Aland Mizell is with the MCI, SETBI and a regular Mindanao Times.You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com
