I notice a new term being thrown around by the left and right, "Identity Politics". Can some of the intellectuals here school me on this one. What is the concept behind it and why is the national think tanks trying to program the rest of us to it?

 

Identity politics, a term that has been used in the sphere of the American political sphere since at least the 1960s, is a term with a variety of meanings depending on who uses it and the context. In the most basic form, it is based on the premise that members of interest groups, often marginalized but not always, come together to form an alliance to influence public policy under the auspice of a pressure group. However, the term has been widely misintepreted and deliberately misconstrued to refer to a political spoils system where "merit" and "hard work" has been eschewed in favor of narrowly-defined social variables such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation etc.

However, the concept of identity politics isn't necessarily a vice in itself. Identity politics goes a long way,dating back even before the advent of the United States. For example, identity politics is precisely the reason why the process of selecting a vice-presidential candidate is such an exhausting and thorough process. It is all in the name of "balancing a ticket"; namely, appealing to certain demographics that a two-person ticket of a similar demography might not necessarily entice. Heck, the reason why primaries exist is rooted in the appeal of ideological and demographic appeal and preference. Most importantly, for better or worse, most people want to be represented by people who share similar ideas, cultural concepts, backgrounds and virtues as they do. This can be practicalized in a number of ways and may indeed be open to debate, but the fact remains that politics is, and always has been a game of identity and collectivism.