“One of the many lessons of the recent presidential election campaign and its repugnant outcome is that the age of identity liberalism must be brought to an end. Hillary Clinton was at her best and most uplifting when she spoke about American interests in world affairs and how they relate to our understanding of democracy. But when it came to life at home, she tended on the campaign trail to lose that large vision and slip into the rhetoric of diversity, calling out explicitly to African-American, Latino, L.G.B.T. and women voters at every stop. This was a strategic mistake. If you are going to mention groups in America, you had better mention all of them. If you don’t, those left out will notice and feel excluded. Which, as the data show, was exactly what happened with the white working class and those with strong religious convictions. Fully two-thirds of white voters without college degrees voted for Donald Trump, as did over 80 percent of white evangelicals.”
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Mark Lilla, The End of Identity Liberalism
Mark Lilla punctures the myth of coalition liberalism, where explicit appeals to identified liberal-leaning minorities has backfired, because those not mentioned feel – justifiably – excluded.
We will be seeing new rhetoric from the new crop of liberals, now that all the baby boomer leaders – Hillary, Sanders, Warren, Pelosi, Schumer – are sidelined by… who exactly?
from Stowe Boyd http://www.stoweboyd.com/post/153426196247
