Millions of Americans rejoiced last month as it became clear that Donald Trump would reclaim the presidency of these United States. Many are excited to see what victories will be achieved during Trump’s second term. But his biggest victory may already have been accomplished. And it wasn’t against Kamala Harris, the Biden administration, or the Democratic Party.
In 2012, President Barack Obama made a fateful decision that would undermine the stability of American culture for over a decade. Four years prior, Obama had won the presidency on a positive vision for America’s future. “Hope” was the rallying cry. Americans were promised that if they elected the first black president, it would be the deathblow to racism in our country.
But as he sought his second term, President Obama betrayed that promise. He politicized Trayvon Martin’s death and weaponized racial animosities. This devastating political calculation ushered in a new strategy for the Democratic Party. Their rhetoric divided Americans into groups (black, white, rich, poor, male, female, gay, straight, ect.) and pitted them against each other. Some groups were labeled “oppressed” and others “oppressors”.
This strategy was rewarded by a second Obama term. And so, the age of identity politics began.
It’s almost impossible to calculate how devastating identity politics has been to this country. For better or worse, before 2012, most Americans saw themselves as part of “one nation under God, indivisible.” But suddenly, “divisible” became the nation’s defining characteristic. People were taught not to see themselves as individuals united around common ideals, but as representatives of abstract groups with mutually exclusive interests. Such a divided nation is doomed to fail.
The negative impact of identity politics on our culture is widespread. Woke ideology, the BLM riots, the “transitioning” of children, racism masquerading as DEI, widespread misandry, the demeaning of traditional marriage, and many other ills bubble out of the toxic spring of this cultural Marxism.
Emboldened by Obama’s victories, the Democrats returned to their divisive playbook in 2016, confident that their new coalition of “oppressed” peoples would sweep Hillary Clinton to an easy electoral victory. It didn’t. But, the Democratic Party insisted that their commitment to identity politics was not to blame for their loss. They spent four years blaming Trump’s first victory on Russians, FBI directors, the Electoral College, and anything else that didn’t require them to change. Because Clinton won the popular vote, Democrats felt that identity politics was still a winning strategy.
Then in 2020, the Democratic Party accelerated their toxic rhetoric. Joe Biden leaned into the divisive language of the BLM movement. He picked a black woman as his running mate to ensure his DEI credibility. And so, Joe Biden ascended the presidency.
That brings us to the current year. 2024 was a test of the electability of identity politics. For Democrats, identity politics was not only a part of the campaign. It was the campaign. They booted out the white, straight male and replaced him with a black woman of Asian descent (or something like that). They made sure to check all the DEI boxes, while the Republican Party nominated two white men. While Trump pledged to make America great for all its citizens, the Democratic Party leaned into the message of identity politics.
And the people of these United States rejected it. Not only did Trump-Vance win the Electoral College, but a Republican won the popular vote for only the second time in this century. Americans refused to be bullied, guilt-tripped, or otherwise manipulated into voting for someone on the basis of their skin rather than the content of their character. A record number of minorities voted Republican.
In voting for Donald Trump and against Kamala Harris, we the people rejected the underlying premise of identity politics.
Trump’s final legacy remains to be seen. But it’s possible that his greatest service to this country may be as the presidential candidate who made identity politics inexpedient. While Obama’s second victory made identity politics a key weapon in the Democratic arsenal, Trump’s second victory may have disarmed cultural Marxism.
There’s still a lot of work to be done. Many of the philosophical assumptions that led to identity politics are still very pervasive in American culture. As a nation, we still need to find a common set of ideals to unite around. But, Donald Trump’s 2024 victory issued a major blow to the political expediency of identity politics. It proved that Americans are tired of the divisive rhetoric and ready to move on from such crude ideologies.
Our job now is to prevent identity politics from rising from the grave like a zombie. We must bury it deep and keep it there. Only then can we move forward as a unified nation once more.
It is our hope that the incoming administration will make America united again.
Joshua Stilwell is the editor-in-chief of Warren’s Voice. He lives with his family in Indianola.
Leave a Reply