Q&A of the Day – Part 2: Identity politics & whether we can truly unify
Bottom Line: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals were successfully deployed by Barak Obama and set the stage for widespread division amongst Americans. It proved to be so successful that, for example, a higher percentage of Americans felt we had racial problems at the end of his administration than at the onset of it. Think about that irony as he was our first Black president. According to Gallup in 2004, 68% of Black adults and 74% of white adults thought race relations were good in the US. By Election Day 2008 that dropped to 61% for Blacks and 70% for whites. By the end of his administration just 51% of whites and 45% of Blacks thought race relations were good. Was the United States significantly less racist in 2004 than it was in 2016 or was it simply a byproduct of superficial differences being exploited? All of this set the stage for President Trump.
Donald Trump’s rise was largely born out of those feeling most marginalized by eight years of constant identity politics. And of course, he ran with it and in 2016 won with it. To answer your question regarding President Trump’s worst quality in my view, it was the continuation of the use of identity politics. While in office his policies led to record opportunity and prosperity for all demographics, however he never gained credit for it with his distractors because many who benefitted from his actions, still felt marginalized by his words. This is the case where actions didn’t speak louder than words for millions of these Americans. It’s the political equivalent of living and dying by the sword. I’ll note that even President Obama’s reelection in 2012 was by a significantly smaller margin than his landslide victory in 2008. History has shown there’s always a price to be paid for dividing and conquering.
So, here’s my hope for politics going forward and the way I prefer to passionately advance my beliefs... Focus on policy and vigorously debate policy rather than focusing on people and vigorously dividing them. If I had a rule it’d be this... If a political tactic is consistent with one of Saul Alinsky’s 13 Rules for Radicals – don't do it.
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