All politics is identity politics. The difference is the left embraced it without trying to sugar coat it.
It’s too bitter and now there’s some backlash.
It’s too bitter and now there’s some backlash.
That's only true if you define the term broadly enough to be useless. What about, say, anti-war demonstrations during Vietnam?
In a nation state, politics tend to be divided more on ideological and regional lines, because everyone shares an identity.
In a nation state, politics tend to be divided more on ideological and regional lines, because everyone shares an identity. There has never been a "nation" where everybody shares an identity in the sense discussed above.
A better example would be European nations like Hungary, which have reinforced their national identities in the face of the recent migrant crisis.
You can think of the whole cosmopolitan urban vs salt-of-the-earth rural aspect of American politics as one example. Or southern identity/culture. “As a veteran who served”/“As a parent”, or the cross-denomination “moral majority”— it’s all based around the idea that your lived experience as something shapes your political perspective and is intrinsically valuable to the political conversation.
And even Occupy: was occupy simply making a statement about economic politics or was it the identity of “the 1%” or “Bankers” vs the rest of Americans? These categories were somewhat arbitrary and basically represented which group you identified with.
Then the term "identity politics" shouldn't be applied. But even if we accept that extremely narrow view: there are numerous political segments that are notorious for doing what you describe across the political spectrum. Most notable the rural Scotch-Irish, often criticized for routinely voting against their self-interest and instead choosing to vote for pols who simply provide them cultural validation and do nothing to address their material concerns.
People used to be able to listen, understand, empathise and compromise with those that they don't agree with. Showing a due amount of respect for people. This has been sorely lost with the tail end of the Millennial generation, and it shouldn't be surprising that nothing of value is being accomplished at all imho.
I may not agree with all politicians, but there are some I feel that I genuinely respect. Those who lean on identitarian tribalism are not in the list.
* Force ever expanding identitarianism view
* Force corporations to align with their views
* Make anti-semetic statements while supporting other religions
* Seek to ignore the foundations of government and the press
* Work to displace government
* Are willing to use physical violence to accomplish their goals
?This is probably as true today as at any time in the past. What has changed, for the worse, is the definition of "other" identities (those that are not our own).
What did "rural america" mean to "city dwellers" in the 1970s? What does it mean now? I'd guess the definitions most of us carry in our minds have narrowed.