Presidential candidate Andrew Yang told Bill Maher on Friday evening that embracing “identity politics” is a “very poor way” for Democrats to try to win national elections.
At a time when the party seems intent on doubling down on every single type of identity politics and embrace “salad bowl” politics and separatism, Yang said that, as the son of immigrants, he understands “the impulse behind identity politics.”
But he said that “Democrats have to know that identity politics is a very poor way to approach winning national elections, and it’s a very poor way to bring our country together.”
Mysterious Washington, D.C., Power Outage Impacts Government Agencies a Day Before Midterms
Battleground Dem touts bipartisan record, but can’t name single issue she’d work with Trump on
Multiple people killed, others injured in shooting near California beach
Paxton’s Office Nails Felons Allegedly Voting in TX Election – Multiple Arrests, Numerous Investigations
Pentagon’s top spies tasked with ‘no-fail’ mission as Hegseth puts foreign midterm meddling in crosshairs
Mike Rogers Accused of ‘Cowardly Compromise’ After Stunning Abortion Flip-Flop
Breaking: Judge Dismisses Charges Against FBI Agents Accused of Lying About Hunter Biden Laptop
Woman, 20, identified as co-pilot of plane that crashed in Florida
Judge dismisses criminal complaint against two ex-FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about Hunter Biden
Union boss stuns with major Republican endorsement as election nears
Talarico campaigns alongside Democrat who called ICE ‘new KKK’ and demanded its abolition
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy Hospitalized After Suffering Stroke
Martha Stewart Makes Homeless Costume 10x Worse With One of the Most Disastrous Apologies We’ve Ever Heard
Haley Stevens’ endorsement stunt backfires with El-Sayed setting single-day fundraising record
Watch: Giant Man Picks Up Kicking, Screaming Woman and Simply Carries Her Away in Daylight Kidnapping Attempt
“We have to enact solutions that will help all americans. And when Martin Luther King championed a guaranteed minimum income in the ’60s, which is almost exactly like my and freedom dividend, he didn’t do it for any subset of Americans. He did it for all Americans and that’s again how we move our country forward,” Yang said on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) started the 2020 discussion about “identity politics” when she claimed the term is used to “shut you up” about issues dealing with race, sexual orientation and religion.
Mysterious Washington, D.C., Power Outage Impacts Government Agencies a Day Before Midterms
Battleground Dem touts bipartisan record, but can’t name single issue she’d work with Trump on
Multiple people killed, others injured in shooting near California beach
Paxton’s Office Nails Felons Allegedly Voting in TX Election – Multiple Arrests, Numerous Investigations
Pentagon’s top spies tasked with ‘no-fail’ mission as Hegseth puts foreign midterm meddling in crosshairs
Mike Rogers Accused of ‘Cowardly Compromise’ After Stunning Abortion Flip-Flop
Breaking: Judge Dismisses Charges Against FBI Agents Accused of Lying About Hunter Biden Laptop
Woman, 20, identified as co-pilot of plane that crashed in Florida
Judge dismisses criminal complaint against two ex-FBI officials accused of lying to Congress about Hunter Biden
Union boss stuns with major Republican endorsement as election nears
Talarico campaigns alongside Democrat who called ICE ‘new KKK’ and demanded its abolition
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy Hospitalized After Suffering Stroke
Martha Stewart Makes Homeless Costume 10x Worse With One of the Most Disastrous Apologies We’ve Ever Heard
Haley Stevens’ endorsement stunt backfires with El-Sayed setting single-day fundraising record
Watch: Giant Man Picks Up Kicking, Screaming Woman and Simply Carries Her Away in Daylight Kidnapping Attempt
“This term identity politics, people will use that term— it’s like people used to talk about the race card. They bring this term up when you talk about issues that are about race, about sexual orientation, religion,” Harris said. “They bring it up when we are talking about civil rights issues as a way to marginalize the issue, as a way frankly to try to silence you or shut you up.”
Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in recent months has also urged Democrats to triple down on identity politics, saying that identity politics is the way to win for Democrats.
“The notion of identity politics has been peddled for the past 10 years and it’s been used as a dog whistle to say we shouldn’t pay too much attention to the voices coming into progress,” Abrams recently said. “I would argue that identity politics is exactly who we are and exactly how we won.”
Yang credited President Donald Trump for realizing how much working-class Americans were hurting and said Democrats need to stop “condescending” to regular Americans who do not live in so-called “super zips” and other well-to-do liberal enclaves that have disproportionately benefited from the high-tech economy.
“When I was growing up, the Democratic party was the party of the working class, the little guy or gal. We need to get back to that. I can’t tell you how much credit Donald Trump got just for calling out the pain that many of these communities are in,” Yang added. “And so if the Democratic party stops condescending and says, ‘look, we’re here to actually work on solving your problems,’ we can go very very far with many of the people who voted for Donald Trump.”
Story cited here.
