With so many Democrats tossing hats into the 2020 presidential ring, it’s hard to say who would be the best bet to thump President Donald Trump. But a shrieking no-no should greet any candidate glued to the Democrats’ version of identity politics.
Identity politics is baked into Democrats’ DNA. Many in the party will not be happy unless they nominate a black female Muslim atheist lesbian amputee.
There’s nothing wrong with identity politics as such. It’s a natural result of injustice: decent people want to give disadvantaged minorities a boost. Identity politics turns sour only when it focuses on certain groups and ignores other groups equally hurting.
Democrat identity politics, sad to say, wears blinders. It sees a few disadvantaged minorities and overlooks others with equally serious problems.
Where, for example, is Democrats’ compassion for residents of southeastern Kentucky? Eight counties in that coal mining region rank among the poorest in the country. And where is Democrats’ sympathy for farmers, who are dying by suicide at a rate five times higher than the country as a whole? Farmers and Kentucky coal miners, despite their deep hurt, do not register on Democrats’ radar.
No surprise, then, that in 2016, farmers and Kentucky coal miners voted heavily for Donald Trump. He played to their sense that they are scorned and powerless, they put him in the White House.Democrats, if they truly champion the hurting, should widen their vision of hurt. They should campaign as hard in Harlan County, Kentucky, and Lincoln County, Nebraska, as they do in San Francisco and Harlem. Go down into coal mines and ride combines, smell coal dust, wheat chaff and sweat.
Ain’t a-gonna do it? Then practice your dance steps for Donald Trump’s second inaugural ball.
— Dale Gerboth
Anchorage
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