Why identity politics is so toxic to the white working class

So, I really do hate talking about this subject. But I do love talking about how the democratic party screwed up 2016, and how they need to fix things going forward. As such, focusing so much in identity politics is a lesser evil here.

So today I want to talk about why exactly identity politics is so irritating and alienating to the white working class, and exactly what is so toxic about what it does to the discourse of this country. In short, I will go as far to say that identity politics is essentially the left wing equivalent of dog whistle politics, which divides the working class when we should be working to unite it.

First of all, let's just say the left does a HORRIBLE job in discussing what privilege is. I was raised white working class, and I was largely against identity politics when I was a conservative. I never really fully understood it, and it really took a college class that went into the nitty gritty of the subject to get it. Essentially, privilege is what happens when you are in a favored segment of society that generally has things better. Things are better for the privileged on average. Men make more money than women. Whites make more money than other races. They have an easier time getting a job or a loan or an apartment, and generally face less discrimination. They're less likely to be pulled over by police or arrested for minor crimes. This is true, on the whole, on the aggregate. And I don't think this is very controversial. Privilege is real, and we really should try to find ways to help those at the bottom here.

What is controversial, however, is how these advantages are overplayed. Privilege is true on the whole, on the average, but it does not stop those among more "privileged" classes from suffering. The problems of capitalism affect us all. Black, white, male, female, etc. Yes, some groups have it WORSE, on the AVERAGE, but that does not mean every member of a privileged group has it good, and this is precisely what the problem with these toxic politics is.

A lot of people are suffering in this country. A lot of "privileged" people are suffering in this country too. Many of us have not recovered from the great recession. Many of us in our 20s never really got out of our parents' basements and face grim economic prospects. Many of us are in increasingly economically precarious situations. The forces of capitalism are hurting us too. And maybe it's part of our privilege that we are only noticing it now whereas disadvantaged groups have been dealing with these problems for forever, but we are noticing it, and many of us want to do something about it.

There was a very real movement this election to do something about our economic problems. The democrats had Sanders, and the republicans had Trump. Clinton and the DNC pigeonholed Sanders, but Trump outwitted his opponents in the primary and managed to secure his party's nomination, much to the chagrin of its establishment. Both of these movements appealed to the white working class, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Trump, obviously, being a republican, only appealed to the white working class. But Sanders? Sanders had a more uniting message. But he was cast aside, and one of the reasons he lost was because the Clinton campaign made up the narrative that his movement was based in privilege and  then appealed to the more underprivileged groups, HARD. Like, full on pandering.

But on the democratic side, where did that leave the white working class? Well, it left us up a creek without a paddle. Unlike Sanders, Clinton was fairly hostile to us. When we wanted economic solutions, we were told shut up and take what we give you. We were berated as being sexist, privileged, and constantly reminded how much worse everyone else had it. I think that's the really bad part about identity politics here. When you're suffering and are desperate for change, the last thing you want to be told is how privileged and advantaged you are and how everyone else has it worse and how we need to shut up and stop complaining and vote for them because we need to care for everyone else who has it worse.

This is seriously the biggest mistake here the democrats made on this front, and fits in neatly with other problems I've had with the dems. The fact that the democrats attempted to force the white working class to give up their economic well being and prospects of change just so they can pander to all these other groups. The democrats basically gave the white working class a big middle finger and told them screw you, you'll vote for us because privilege or else you're a horrible person. We're told we gotta be grateful for just how well we got it, and we gotta "check our privilege" because other people need Clinton to be elected to survive. The reality of the situation is that there are poor whites too. There are poor males too. Being "privileged" is no guarantee of economic success, and no, we shouldn't shut up just because other groups have it worse, on the average. We need real solutions for everyone, and we need them 40 years ago.

In response to this middle finger, the white working class gave their own middle finger. On election day, some people stayed home, some voted third party, and some pulled the lever for Trump himself, and Trump won. And now we're stuck with him. I don't think Trump will be good for the underprivileged, I don't even think he will be good for many of the so called "privileged". He isn't going to fix the economic forces of capitalism that are so negatively affecting peoples' lives. He will make them worse, actually, if he cuts taxes and reduces social services and deregulates everything. But at the same time, Clinton offered little to fix these forces herself and basically alienated the crap out of enough people that it cost her the election .And this is precisely what needs to change in the democratic party. 

 Honestly, the way the democrats acted this year reminded me of the image I had growing up as a conservative in the 90s and 2000s (when Bill Clinton was the face of the democratic party), which I thought was a straw man when I became more educated on the subject. About how the democrats wanted to pander to a bunch of "minorities" and give them stuff for free and reverse discriminate while basically doing nothing for the middle class (aka white working class). This is where you get this very republican mentality of "I work so hard and I don't want my tax dollars to go to other people" BS. Because when you're working insane hours at crap jobs to put food on the table, the idea of paying taxes to help other people is very offputting.  So, in essence, identity politics like this actually inflames people into engaging in more racially motivated dog whistle politics. They're literally two sides of the same coin, feeding on each other and dividing the working class against itself. It's like that analogy of how you have an economy of 10 cookies and 3 people. The rich guy owns 9 of the cookies, the middle class guy owns 1 cookie, and the lower class guy has crumbs. The democratic party is the party that is pointing to the guy with one cookie and telling you just how good you have it and how you're lucky and privileged not to be the guy with none. The republicans come around and tell the guy with 1 cookie the guy with no cookies wants to steal his cookie and the democrats are gonna help him. And then the guy with 1 cookie and the guy with no cookies end up fighting while the rich guy with all the other cookies gets to just sit back and watch them go at it. Really, the whole goal of these politics is to keep the working class fighting itself over scraps while the elites control everything. You get a system of controlled opposition, in which the so called privilege votes republican and the underprivileged votes democrat. Both parties can safety deflect attention and criticism away from the biggest problem in the economy to keep people divided and fighting amongst themselves.

What we need to do is emphasize CLASS politics. We need to address the negative impacts of the forces of capitalism directly and raise everyone up. We need more labor laws, more safety nets that everyone can see the benefits from, workplace democracy, and unions. When we can secure shared prosperity for all, THEN maybe we can make things more equal for the underprivileged because then the so called "privileged" will have less to lose and be less threatened and alienated by these politics. Or, at the very least, address both together in a way that is mutually beneficial to both groups. We really don't want to divide the working class between white males who vote republican and others who vote democrat, we want to unite the working class and recognize that we need to improve everyone's lives. To privileged white males: underprivileged groups are not your enemy. To the underprivileged, the white working class isn't your enemy. The real problem is the elites at the top who are keeping us at each others' throats fighting for scraps. As such, we need to have a movement that unites the working class against the elites, and encourages better shared prosperity across the entire economic system, where even the poor have a pretty decent and economically secure life.

If the democratic party is going to change to be more than just another corporatist party, but a party that fights for the people, they can't just keep alienating and driving the white working class away from them, which is what the Clinton style corporate dems are doing. You will never ever convince a single straight white male who is struggling financially and putting in long hours just to put food on the table to care for the plight of the underprivileged by telling them how good they have it and how their concerns don't matter. You will alienate them. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Fixing the economy and fixing privilege are not mutually exclusive. We can focus on issues specific to the under privileged while also fixing the problems related to capitalism. It's only in our political system, in which both parties favor the rich, and they use these tactics to divide and conquer the working class against itself, that this is a problem, and it should be our first priority in trying to fix.