Progressives Screwed Again by Identity Politics: The Miss VP America Pageant
Mark Cramer (author of Old Man on a Green Bike and Urban Everesting)
After congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib endorsed Bernie Sanders’ 2020 run for president, journalist Jane Eisner tweeted:
“I find it fascinating that women of color overlook female and minority candidates to endorse a white guy. Is ‘identity politics’ over? Is ideology more important than race and gender? Genuinely curious.”
Identity politics should have some role in achieving social equity. But in practice, it gets us Clarence Thomas. No algorithm is needed to predict his unreflective, genuflecting far-right Supreme Court votes.
The judges for this year’s contest, including Biden’s donors, have made their final decision. The winner is Senator Kamala Harris, the one-time California prosecutor who declined to sue foreclosure king Steve Mnuchin. (See “California declined to sue Trump nominee’s bank over foreclosures,” Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle.)
Originally a supporter of Sanders’ Medicare for All, Harris caved in after her donors chimed in.
According to Bloomberg News, prosecutor Harris faces questions on her “anti-truancy program that threatened parents of children who skipped school with prosecution and her handling of claims from men of color who had been wrongfully convicted of criminal charges.”
A spirited and aggressive repudiation of Trump’s racist and sexist attacks against Harris is imperative, but this should not take away the citizen’s right to question her policies. If Trump’s fascism frightens us into abandoning critical thinking, then he will have already won.
How We Got Here: A Breathtaking Case Study of Identitarian Futility
The June 23, 2020 democratic congressional primary pitted progressive educator Jamaal Bowman against the incumbent white guy, Eliot Engel, an Iraq war hawk.
Hillary Clinton, who “deserved” votes because she’s a woman, must have endorsed the black candidate because he deserved votes for being black. Wrong! She endorsed the war hawk.
Surely the Congressional Black Caucus under leader Hakeem Jeffries would join AOC and Bernie in endorsing Bowman. Nope. The Black Caucus joined Nancy Pelosi in endorsing the white corporatist. Identitarians inevitably press the mute button when facing a chance to back a progressive.
All the King’s Horses and All the King’s Men Couldn’t Put Engel Back Together Again
In today’s anti-royalist period, Engel became an anachronism. Bowman prevailed with nearly double the vote. I’m still waiting for another snarky “genuinely curious” comment from journalist Eisner on “how fascinating” it is that black leaders endorsed the white guy.
We’ve already seen how the Identitarians savaged civil rights activist Senator Sanders as insensitive to women and African Americans even though he had an impeccable voting record for women’s rights and had earned endorsements from leading African American public intellectuals such as Cornel West, Harry Belafonte, Keith Ellison, Marc Lamont Hill and Spike Lee.
Remember when whining Elizabeth Warren shamefully bashed Bernie for having allegedly told her, privately, that a woman could not win an American presidential election? Well, Bernie had begged her to run in 2015, stepping in himself only after Warren refused.
Which Side Are You On?
In a subsequent Dem class struggle between two African Americans, Kamala Harris lined up with Pelosi to endorse the entrenched Missouri dynasty incumbent William Lacy Clay Jr. over progressive activist challenger, single mother and nurse, Cori Bush, who opposed Clay’s incremental approach to change. Cori Bush prevailed. Like Jamaal Bowman in NYC, Bush will win the general election in a largely Dem district.
The “identity” choice should have been the woman, Cori Bush, but the Identitarians played hide-and-seek, remaining mute when the candidate they should’ve chosen was a progressive.
Progressive Minorities Need Not Apply
The Identity Politics Industry eliminated three of the most gifted and progressive black women in the competition for Biden’s VP candidate: Nina Turner (Sanders campaigner), congresswoman Karen Bass and the heroic Barbara Lee, the ONLY member of Congress to vote against granting George W Bush legal authorization to use military force following the 911 attack. It’s worth an extra click here to hear her courageous words.
Classic identity politics: Progressives (like Nina Turner and Barbara Lee) need not apply.
Biden, the same Democrat who provided clearance for Clarence because he is black, was not capable of backing Barbara because she is black. Identity politics is the anti-progressive gatekeeper. In this case, not only did it discriminate against progressives, but it targeted its discrimination against progressive blacks.
The Dems did what they could to choose a VP who fits squarely within the system, but the knee-jerk Republicans (or just plain jerks) will still call her a radical.
