One of the many things that are most peculiar about our politics today is how many people of ordinary means, people without much money on hand and almost nothing coming in, voted for George Bush.
Bush with his tax cuts blatantly promised to take money out of the pockets of ordinary people and put it into the pockets of rich people in order to “stimulate the economy” and to “cut taxes.” And millions of the plain people of America voted for Bush in large enough numbers to put him close enough for the Supreme Court to finish the job.
How can this happen? How can people be blind to where their interests lie? As it turns out, “blind” is the operative word; a new form of politics has engulfed the U.S. and it is specific purpose is to blind people to their interests.
Today our politics has explicitly become a struggle between two kinds of politics: the old-fashioned politics of interests and the politics of identity.
Now the politics of identity was originally a term of the left, a term to identify a politics of shared injustice: blacks, Hispanics, gay-lesbian politics that made their very difference, their identity the primary fact of their politics.
But conservatives have taken this theme over. Today, we find conservatives speaking a form of identity politics. The politics of identity dominate the talk-radio airwaves and the national media. This is the politics of war, of family values, of cultural conservatism and the like. This is the politics of who we are, not what our interests are. This is a politics of character and shared values and morality and what we stand for, not a politics of what we want government to do for us.
People vote for people like George Bush because they identify with him: They say that Bush is “just like me.” That is to say, Bush believes in standing tall, he’s a man's man, he is resolute, he is against coddling terrorists or the U.N, and he is for life (meaning anti-abortion and sexual abstinence for teenagers).
The other guy despite being a decorated Vietnam hero is for all those other things that are weak, intellectual, effete, elite, or what have you.
Never mind that government is bigger now than at any other time since WWII. The point is that Bush believes in cutting back big government; it is confessing a belief that counts, not what actually is occurring.
Identity politics is fueled by keening resentment. At the heart of identity politics is a strong sense of grievance, a sense that someone (government, liberals, foreigners, Europeans, newcomers to Bisbee) has done us wrong again.
Political conflict is good if it can lead to persons seeing the other person’s view, their interests. But the specific point about identity politics, its specific strength, lies in not seeing the other person’s view.
The fundamentalist who believes that every abortion, every form on contraception, every sex education class is an attack on a way of life that some hold sacred also and at the same time believes that others outside of their world cannot understand what they are talking about or their point of view until they come to Jesus.
It seems to me that the brouhaha over the proposed “noise ordinance” here in Bisbee is being fueled by one local pop-radical version of a politics of identity. To some people, any ordinance against too much noise pollution is an attack on the very identity of Bisbee and the identity of those who stand ready to defend it.
This small group of people is firmly convinced that the town is being overrun and even governed by a group of “outsiders” who simply don’t get Bisbee and a few old-timers who are asleep at the switch. The newcomers will never “get” Bisbee because they weren’t here when Bisbee was being saved by a small group of people on the run from life elsewhere. This group is totally uninterested in the winning of $30 million for the wastewater project; what has that got to do with who we are and what Bisbee stands for?
Well, give me a break. I have written about the uniqueness of Bisbee from almost the first day I got here. I think I get Bisbee although I don’t have to buy a pickup to prove it.
But this was a town built on copper interests and the practical business of running what was once one of the world’s largest copper mines. People who worked in the mines didn’t waste much time on who they were or their identity; they tended to their interests.
An awful lot of old-timers in this town, including many who have lived in the Gulch for decades, want something done about barking dogs, loud music from bars with all the doors and windows wide open and going strong until 2 A.M, and neighbors who raise hell all night long, and so I and others on the council have to somehow reach a compromise. These people, old-timers and newcomers alike who make up the great majority, want their interests tended to without going overboard in the process.
We on the council will likely come to a compromise but it will happen without the handful of folks who reduce politics to no-win clashes over identity. We will pass an ordinance that strikes a balance between those who want Bisbee to swing (as I do) and those who want it to swing with a little more regard for others who live here (as I also do).
We will take into account those in Bisbee who don't want a noise ordinance for practical reasons or because they think local government has better things to do. I'm sure there are plenty of these folks and I believe that they will listen when we try to keep the proposed noise ordinance down to the bare essentials.
In other words, we will try to ignore the “my way or the highway” posturing of identity politics and get down to the practical business of adjusting interests.
A somewhat different version of this blog is found at my truth to power webblog.
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