A note to identity politics

Reminder: Identity politics and economic justice are not mutual exclusive.

Previous elections were ruined, and lost to Trump, for a big part, by the Clinton campaign making the whole thing about identity (’you criticize me just because I’m a woman’ & ‘Bernie Sanders voters are just naive white college kids’). But now, after the elections, many democrats blame identity politics for the loss against Trump. That’s also not right. It’s very important that Obama was the first president and that a woman came so close to the US presidency. Those are real victories. The problem with Clinton was that she had very few to offer aside from that. She rolled mostly on identity and that was problematic, because aside from being a woman, she was Bill Clintons wife, a famous New Yorker, a very white woman, and longtime member of the political establishment.

Identity politics is not a bad thing, but it’s not a complete political program. It needs the backup of a longterm view on at least world politics, the economy and poverty.

The political center is blaming everything. Everything except these pale years of economic austerity and deregulation, that Clinton wanted to continue. Identity politics is the next bogus culprit.

If you find this interesting, follow Adam Johnson on twitter. And read his latest piece: Lashing Out at ‘Identity Politics,’ Pundits Blame Trump on Those Most Vulnerable to Trump.

Try to praise the mutilated world

Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June’s long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You’ve seen the refugees going nowhere,
you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the gray feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.

By Adam Zagajewski
Translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh (and via)

The 10 best things I’ve read during the Elections 2016

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I posted this today on twitter (click here to see the tweetstorm). This is the full list. Let me know if I’m missing a crucial piece?

1. Hillary’s Millenial Problem

@emmettrensin: There is no pathology here. Only politics. It’s maddeningly simple.

2. Divided by meaning

This brilliant piece by @chrisarnade on the philosophical differences between Trump voters and Clinton voters.

3. When Truth Falls Apart

How the audience doesn’t trust any media anymore, by @MariaBustillos. Not The New York Times, nor Fox, nor twitter.

4. Would Progressive Economics Win Over Trump’s White Working Class Voters?

It’s not easy to recover from years of faux-liberal politics, says @rortybomb.

5. I’m with the banned

This was hilarious, and frightening. @pennyred with the biggest Trump-trolls at the RNC.

6. The Obama Doctrine

A huge (HEWGE) article on Obama’s foreign policy with a glimpse on what Hillary will do. Probably more intervention.

7. Why many political journalists don’t get politics

This one by @BrianBeutler on how political journalists can only see politics as a spectacular game.

8. Withering on the Vine

These elections were also the twilight of liberal politics. Thomas Frank of the @thebafflermag wrote brilliantly about the politicians whose minds refuse to leave Martha’s Vineyard.

9. Are Polls Ruining Democracy?

Jill Lepore of the @NewYorker wrote this great, historical essay on the problems of polling.

10. The Trump-Putin Fallacy

And finally: I read back this piece of @maschagessen several times. How blaming Putin for Trump is a failure of imagination.