Identity Politics
By: W. Island
Tags: Bernie Sanders, Elections

Identity politics for me not thee

Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy yesterday arguing “We have got to look at candidates not by the color of their skin, not by their sexual orientation or gender and not by their age. I think we have got to try to move us toward a nondiscriminatory society that looks at people based on their abilities, based on what they stand for.” Translation. I know there are a lot of POC and women candidates so don’t discriminate against me because I’m white.

For the last three years, Bernie has claimed that the White working class hasn’t been heard and that White men have been forgotten by society. Bernie, and Trump for that matter, claimed they would stand up for the White working class and make sure that their jobs are not going away. They will make sure that their factory jobs will stay in this country. And if they are in college, Bernie will make sure they can go for free. Because student loan debt is the same thing as slavery (Bernie didn’t say that but one of his Bernie bros actually did).

We are supposed to believe that the White man is the real victim in this country. Men like Kavanaugh who was traumatized because he had to answer for his actions instead of just walking into the SCOTUS seat he wasn’t qualified for in the first place. Men like Bernie Sanders who could not understand why Democrats preferred a Democrat to represent them in 2016 and who spent the last 3 years telling everyone the election was rigged against him and also he wants to be the Democrat nominee in 2020. Even White boys like the Covington High School teenager who was vindicated by the media. Even church leaders decreed he did absolutely nothing wrong, and who got the softest of softball interviews on a major network but still plans on suing the Washington Post because they didn’t immediately believe his story over videos. And of course, Trump who is uniquely unqualified for the position he holds and yet he still receives over 30% support in this country. I could go on and on and on.

Every election cycle, the media goes to rural America and interviews White voters sitting in mom and pop diners, local bars or in small businesses. According to the mainstream media, these voters are the backbone of this country and what they are feeling we all feel. Liberal media groups like the New York Times and the Washington Post ran story after story of rural Trump voters. How they were excited about a President Trump who would address their issues of the lack of job opportunities, stagnant wages, and inadequate healthcare. The stories ran literally every week of rural voters affected by the Opioid epidemic and of poor White grandparents raising their grandchildren because they own children were caught up in a cycle of drug abuse. And after reading another story (ok, not reading, glancing through it), I wondered, why isn’t the issues affecting these rural White voters considered “identity politics”?

Bernie Sanders claims that we shouldn’t focus on identity politics. And his supporters agree. In their minds, Black people talk too much about racism; women talk too much about sexism; and gays talk too much about discrimination. These people were more offended at Black people kneeling during the anthem then at the over policing, and lack of police accountability which was why they were kneeling in the first place. Black folks are told over and over again not to focus on racial issues at the very same time we are bombarded with calls to appeal to the White working class. Women are told not to focus on sexual harassment, pay inequality and our lack of opportunities for advancement since it turns away White male voters because equal pay is offensive, I guess.

But let me make it clear, in the minds of Bernie and Trump supporters, identity politics means civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights. They are perfectly comfortable with identify politics for White men. And let’s not get this twisted; Bernie believes this too. Bernie thinks his way to the nomination is to get those disaffected White voters who accept Trump’s racism just don’t like his tariffs, tax cuts for the rich, and tax increases for everyone else. They would overlook Trump locking little brown kids in cages if they had gotten better tax refunds. Bernie is whistling to those voters that he will focus on their identity issues not those other people.

So Bernie Sanders continued his divisive rhetoric to start the 2020 campaign against opponents that are people of color and women. His not so subtle message is that his opponents are running on being Black or a woman or gay. He is already implying that the people who support Harris or Booker or Klobouchar are doing so just because of their identity. Bernie said “I come from the white working class, and I am deeply humiliated that the Democratic Party cannot talk to the people where I came from.” It seems Bernie is against identity politics except for those he can identify with.