AMERICA HAS IDENTITY ISSUES
As is so often the case in the strum und drang of politics, the cry that the U.S. presidential election is about the “future of democracy” perversely both emphasises and hides another serious matter; a national identity crisis.
For a significant segment of MAGA-world denizens, racist and misogynistic slurs pass for wit and wisdom.
Donald Trump saw it as a campaign plus to tell a group of Black journalists “I didn’t know she (Kamala Harris) was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black. So I don’t know, Indian or is she Black?”
In a world where job applications, surveys, government forms and I know not what else provide an ever-growing list of “gender identity” options, which Western societies are being encouraged (nay ordered by some “activists”) to allow one to change on a daily basis, what difference does racial identity make?
As far as I know, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation have no bearing on intelligence, character, honesty, generosity, manners, tolerance or anything else that matters in assessing a person’s worth as a human being.
Why is it that a person of mixed black and white heritage must inevitably and only opt to be black?
That Harris would be the first female president is significant, but needs to be seen in the context that she would not be the first female head of state in the world.
While (some) Americans might ask why it took so long for them to catch up, in the end it’s really just an affirmation of the quote by Ann Richards, the second female governor of Texas: “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards in high heels”.
To gild the lily on that: Marjorie Taylor-Greene, and several of her Republican cohorts aren’t clueless merely because they’re white females. They’re demonstrably, incontrovertibly crass, clueless human beings.
COUNTER MEASURES
Democrat operatives might view the almost inevitable knee ‑jerk, rote references to Harris’s black and Asian ethnic background as an electability plus. But U.S. politics need less emphasis on that and a lot more on leadership encompassing competence, intelligence and decency.
Treating slurs that she is a “DEI” (Diversity Ethnicity Identity) candidate choice with disdain, countering florid rhetoric with facts, ballyhoo and bombast with reasoned argument,and verifiable acts, vitriol with humour, derision and class will drive Harris’s opponent to distraction.
Words like “galvanised” and “spectacular transformation”, floods of campaign cash complimented by “an outpouring of volunteer energy, a rebound in the polls” are all useful ways to help put the opposition off-kilter, but as an indicator of potential if not imminent victory for Harris, they hover dangerously on the edge of delusional.
It’s made all the more difficult to overcome by Trump’s almost pathological fascination with the term “fascist”.
His “base” seems blissfully unaware that cheering for Trump’s promise: “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote” is identifying with fascist-style ideology.
In authoritarian states 99,9% percent of the votes will go to the ego already in charge, no matter how many opposition candidates are on the ballot paper, or who turns up at the polling stations.
Perhaps as a campaign gimmick the Democrats could hand out free Merriam-Webster dictionaries, with the definition of fascism bookmarked and highlighted: “Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime…that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition”.
Copy Number 1 could go to J.D. Vance who, being in thrall to the man he once equated as the equivalent of Hitler, would seem to have an identity crisis that requires professional help.
AS FOR WHAT IT ADDS UP TO
Whatever people tell pollsters or shout in public, truth abides in the curtained secrecy where a pen or an electronic device marks their real choice.
The best summation of that I know is from – of all places – the very undemocratic days of apartheid-era South Africa.
English speakers were generally lumped as being more benign than Afrikaners when it came to belief in a more equitable society (although not necessarily total racial equality). The Progressive Federal Party (the “Progs”) were the local equivalent of liberals. The United Party, (the “UP”) was kin to centrist U.S. Democrats (without the numbers). Power was firmly held by the Afrikaner-dominated National Party (the “Nats”) which invented apartheid and held the reigns of power that maintained it.
When it came to voting, however, the saying was that English speakers “talk Prog, vote UP and thank God for the Nats”.
That “identity crisis” was eventually resolved at the ballot box.
To get over the American one, it seems Kamala Harris will have to come up with a “one size fits all” identity.
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4 thoughts on “AMERICA HAS IDENTITY ISSUES”
Well written and well said!
Thank you
identity crisis allen?…
america faces more than that…
in the next days, as kamala harris names her
running mate we face a greater crisis…
a test of our political maturity…
will the best person be chosen or will it be
the most practical?…
in my opinion on the best side we have a
jewish man(josh shapiro) and pete buttigieg
(a gay man)…practically we have a governor who is willing to throw down with anyone
(andy beshear) and a border state rookie
senator(mark kelly)…
i think this choice will be a telling measuring
stick of how advanced we are…or how stuck in the past we shall remain…
winifer…are you kate’s daughter?…
your mom was very important to me as I
navigated through my early days at CBS News…
she set a wonderful professional route for me
to follow…
Interesting post, Pizz. I remind you though, we in South Africa voted for change when finally offered the choice, (I remember seeing you on the very day) and we continue to do so, in what could be one of the few decent sustained examples of democratic process. We have our glitches, but as an independent election observer who spent 24 hours in a voting station in May this year, through the vote and the count, I can say with certainty that the full spectrum of voters in SA had a free and fair opportunity to make their marks and our President accepted the results without question, despite a terrible result for the ruling party.
I disagree with you (I have no doubt you are rolling your eyes at this moment) about differences though. Women bring very different characteristics to leadership than men do — as do people of different colours. We are the sum of our life influences and experiences and I guarantee mine are very different than yours because I am a woman and you a man, and we should celebrate that. I have worked closely and traveled with a young black woman colleague for years and have learned so much from her, in a very conscious process that has been an absolute joy and has expanded my world view significantly, as well as my ability to communicate better with people of different backgrounds. I’m just back from two weeks of working in rural Nigeria again; four years ago in the first workshops I facilitated there, there were 25 male participants and 1 woman. I have persistently demanded more gender equity, and this time I got it. The men in the room agreed that what came out of the sessions was much richer and more insightful for it, despite their earlier resistance.
I am so excited about Kamala Harris — and despite the comment I read above, it seems she has chosen a thoroughly decent man to run with her, and that feels important. I too wondered if the US was ready to elect someone who doesn’t look or sound like what mainstream American politicians have traditionally been , but it seems from the outside at least, that there is change coming? I so hope so. When Trump was president, he ruled that no American aid could be spent on advocacy, advice, assistance, referral or the provision of any termination of pregnancy services. In Africa, we need reproductive justice at least as much as we need donor funds (I could argue more than, but I’ll stop now). So I’m with the childless cat lady, all the way!