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.”
Millions tap Trump tax cuts this filing season as refunds top $3,400
Trump-Tillis tiff deepens as president says he ‘quit,’ concedes Fed fight could doom new chair confirmation
Man with Joker-inspired rifle fires gun, runs into traffic near Trump golf course, deputies say
Bahamian authorities plan to suspend search for missing American woman amid US Coast Guard criminal probe
Trump Says China Is ‘Very Happy’ With What He’s Doing With the Strait of Hormuz and Has Agreed to Comply
Sanity Is Returning: Teens Identifying as ‘Nonbinary’ Has Crashed 70 Percent in 2 Years Among CA 16-Year-Olds
Federal judge hands Biden’s home state a loss in battle of ICE access to labor data
Watch: Biden Drags College Administrator Up to Podium to Compare Him to Obama
Vance anti-fraud task force suspends 447 hospices in Los Angeles over more than $600M in suspected fraud
Pakistan Police Allegedly Torture Roman Catholic Man to Death
Republican seeks blue-state breakthrough, distances from Trump while taking aim at ‘socialist’
Suspect in string of random attacks in Georgia is naturalized citizen from UK, DHS says
DOJ sues Connecticut, New Haven over sanctuary policies: ‘Open defiance’
House avoids unprecedented four-member expulsion week as Swalwell and Gonzales resign instead
BREAKING: DHS Employee Among Victims in Georgia Murder Spree by Naturalized US Citizen
“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.
Millions tap Trump tax cuts this filing season as refunds top $3,400
Trump-Tillis tiff deepens as president says he ‘quit,’ concedes Fed fight could doom new chair confirmation
Man with Joker-inspired rifle fires gun, runs into traffic near Trump golf course, deputies say
Bahamian authorities plan to suspend search for missing American woman amid US Coast Guard criminal probe
Trump Says China Is ‘Very Happy’ With What He’s Doing With the Strait of Hormuz and Has Agreed to Comply
Sanity Is Returning: Teens Identifying as ‘Nonbinary’ Has Crashed 70 Percent in 2 Years Among CA 16-Year-Olds
Federal judge hands Biden’s home state a loss in battle of ICE access to labor data
Watch: Biden Drags College Administrator Up to Podium to Compare Him to Obama
Vance anti-fraud task force suspends 447 hospices in Los Angeles over more than $600M in suspected fraud
Pakistan Police Allegedly Torture Roman Catholic Man to Death
Republican seeks blue-state breakthrough, distances from Trump while taking aim at ‘socialist’
Suspect in string of random attacks in Georgia is naturalized citizen from UK, DHS says
DOJ sues Connecticut, New Haven over sanctuary policies: ‘Open defiance’
House avoids unprecedented four-member expulsion week as Swalwell and Gonzales resign instead
BREAKING: DHS Employee Among Victims in Georgia Murder Spree by Naturalized US Citizen
“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.
