5 ms·

Rhetorical question: are republicans really alone in this?

Spooky23 9y ago
Pretty much. Democrats do identity politics. The GOP needs flood media in cheap places with pivot issues (guns, abortion, etc).
- kelukelugames 9y ago
  Pretty sure Trump does identity politics. Examples are claiming the NFL protests are about disrespecting the flag, comments about Mexicans, a lot of shots at China, etc.
  - Spooky23 9y ago
    Trump != GOP. He is a game show host and parasite. The base voters who show up are people who value specific issues like abortion, taxes, guns, etc and a red line that cannot be crossed. Compare that message to the gotv efforts for democratic candidates. They’ll target ethnic voters, women, unions, lgbt, etc with messages specific to them. Depending on where they are, Democrats will stay silent on abortion or guns. It’s a big reason why voter suppression is such a priority for the GOP. When there aren’t enough old white people, it’s expensive and difficult to convince gays or African Americans to flip. I live in a very democratic state, and my little city probably has 30 polling places open from 6am to 9pm on Election Day with hardly any wait time.
    - ifhd 9y ago
      Trump is 100% GOP. You don't vote for him in the primary and general elections then get to claim "oh, he doesn't represent us really".
      - apocalyptic0n3 9y ago
        And yet, I know a half dozen people doing just that right now. :/
      - zimpenfish 9y ago
        Especially when every policy he's pushing is a bog-standard GOP policy (even if they've been a lot more polite and dogwhistled them rather than outright screaming.)
    - trumpownsyou420 9y ago
      enjoy the next 7 years, kiddo!
    - dashundchen 9y ago
      GOP definitely pushes identity politics, just the identies they claim to represent are frequently not actually oppressed or are the majority: Some tropes: * "Real" rural Americans vs city dwellers * Oppressed Christians vs atheists and Muslims (despite both being a tiny minority nationally vs the majority Christians) * blacks and Hispanics vs their majority white base * College educated vs uneducated (somehow ignoring the party elite and backers frequently have elite educations) * Gun owners vs everyone else I cynically believe many people, including the GOP national leadership, realize these are much more manufactured than oppression faced by actual opressed minority groups. But stirring up culture wars provides a great smoke screen for their agenda while fracturing socially or racially what would otherwise be natural opposition to their policies among class lines. See: GOP rallying the rural poor and elderly against ACA, despite the two groups being some of the biggest groups on Medicare/caid
      - vim_wannabe 9y ago
        The only people who voted for Trump are rural and suburban idiots. City people all voted for Hillary.
- weirdstuff 9y ago
  I don't really get the identity politics thing. Aren't all politics identity politics?
  - cooper12 9y ago
    It's just another word the right has latched on to in order to sound more intelligent, c.f. "cultural marxism". It's the same as people who throw around words like "Social Justice Warrior" as if that's a bad thing and make critiques of feminism without having actually taken even a second to read feminist literature on topics like intersectionality. It's the age of buzzwords. Ironically, caring about "identity politics" is identity politics as well, but the people using the term will still feel holier-than-thou and pretend they're rational, impartial, impassionate, and indifferent beings.
    - Karunamon 9y ago
      There’s that word “just”, here used to broadly denigrate anyone who might have an issue with how those topics are approached in the real world. Not very conducive to discussion, and quite ironic in a thread about divisive echo chambers.
      - cooper12 9y ago
        Thankfully you policed my tone instead of being constructive to the discussion.
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
        Karunamon 9y ago
        Tone and lack of respect for the person being conversed with is one of many reasons politics have become so divisive - let's not pretend it isn't important when the topic is constructive discussion.
    - noobermin 9y ago

Pretty much. Democrats do identity politics. The GOP needs flood media in cheap places with pivot issues (guns, abortion, etc).

kelukelugames 9y ago
Pretty sure Trump does identity politics. Examples are claiming the NFL protests are about disrespecting the flag, comments about Mexicans, a lot of shots at China, etc.
- Spooky23 9y ago
  Trump != GOP. He is a game show host and parasite. The base voters who show up are people who value specific issues like abortion, taxes, guns, etc and a red line that cannot be crossed. Compare that message to the gotv efforts for democratic candidates. They’ll target ethnic voters, women, unions, lgbt, etc with messages specific to them. Depending on where they are, Democrats will stay silent on abortion or guns. It’s a big reason why voter suppression is such a priority for the GOP. When there aren’t enough old white people, it’s expensive and difficult to convince gays or African Americans to flip. I live in a very democratic state, and my little city probably has 30 polling places open from 6am to 9pm on Election Day with hardly any wait time.
  - ifhd 9y ago
    Trump is 100% GOP. You don't vote for him in the primary and general elections then get to claim "oh, he doesn't represent us really".
    - apocalyptic0n3 9y ago
      And yet, I know a half dozen people doing just that right now. :/
    - zimpenfish 9y ago
      Especially when every policy he's pushing is a bog-standard GOP policy (even if they've been a lot more polite and dogwhistled them rather than outright screaming.)
  - trumpownsyou420 9y ago
    enjoy the next 7 years, kiddo!
  - dashundchen 9y ago
    GOP definitely pushes identity politics, just the identies they claim to represent are frequently not actually oppressed or are the majority: Some tropes: * "Real" rural Americans vs city dwellers * Oppressed Christians vs atheists and Muslims (despite both being a tiny minority nationally vs the majority Christians) * blacks and Hispanics vs their majority white base * College educated vs uneducated (somehow ignoring the party elite and backers frequently have elite educations) * Gun owners vs everyone else I cynically believe many people, including the GOP national leadership, realize these are much more manufactured than oppression faced by actual opressed minority groups. But stirring up culture wars provides a great smoke screen for their agenda while fracturing socially or racially what would otherwise be natural opposition to their policies among class lines. See: GOP rallying the rural poor and elderly against ACA, despite the two groups being some of the biggest groups on Medicare/caid
    - vim_wannabe 9y ago
      The only people who voted for Trump are rural and suburban idiots. City people all voted for Hillary.
weirdstuff 9y ago
I don't really get the identity politics thing. Aren't all politics identity politics?
- cooper12 9y ago
  It's just another word the right has latched on to in order to sound more intelligent, c.f. "cultural marxism". It's the same as people who throw around words like "Social Justice Warrior" as if that's a bad thing and make critiques of feminism without having actually taken even a second to read feminist literature on topics like intersectionality. It's the age of buzzwords. Ironically, caring about "identity politics" is identity politics as well, but the people using the term will still feel holier-than-thou and pretend they're rational, impartial, impassionate, and indifferent beings.
  - Karunamon 9y ago
    There’s that word “just”, here used to broadly denigrate anyone who might have an issue with how those topics are approached in the real world. Not very conducive to discussion, and quite ironic in a thread about divisive echo chambers.
    - cooper12 9y ago
      Thankfully you policed my tone instead of being constructive to the discussion.
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - Karunamon 9y ago
        Tone and lack of respect for the person being conversed with is one of many reasons politics have become so divisive - let's not pretend it isn't important when the topic is constructive discussion.
  - noobermin 9y ago