6 Jan 2023 3:39 pm
Are issues related to race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity too divisive for Liberals especially within the Democratic Party to address? Should we focus on issues important to all Americans or at least working-class white men whose concerns and votes have been essential to Democrats especially Liberals in the past? Are left leaning activists especially college students just as big of a threat to politics and society as certain rightwing Conservatives? Would love to know what anyone thinks.
Mark Lilla a Liberal critic of identity politics writes in his book The Once and Future Liberal:
“The more obsessed with personal identity campus liberals become, the less willing they become to engage in reasoned political debate.
“Democratic politics is about persuasion, not self-expression. I’m here, I’m queer will never provoke more than a pat on the head or a roll of the eyes. Accept that you will never agree with people on everything—that’s to be expected in a democracy. One effect of engaging in social movements tied to identity is that you’ve been surrounded by the like-minded and like-faced and like-educated. Impose no purity tests on those you would convince. Not everything is a matter of principle—and even when something is, there are usually other, equally important principles that might have to be sacrificed to preserve this one. Moral values are not pieces in a puzzle where everything has been precut to fit.”
Mark Lilla a Liberal critic of identity politics writes in his book The Once and Future Liberal:
“The more obsessed with personal identity campus liberals become, the less willing they become to engage in reasoned political debate.
“Democratic politics is about persuasion, not self-expression. I’m here, I’m queer will never provoke more than a pat on the head or a roll of the eyes. Accept that you will never agree with people on everything—that’s to be expected in a democracy. One effect of engaging in social movements tied to identity is that you’ve been surrounded by the like-minded and like-faced and like-educated. Impose no purity tests on those you would convince. Not everything is a matter of principle—and even when something is, there are usually other, equally important principles that might have to be sacrificed to preserve this one. Moral values are not pieces in a puzzle where everything has been precut to fit.”