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Identity politics caused Democrats’ loss in Virginia

By Adam B. Coleman

The morning of November 3rd, 2021, shock waves were felt throughout the Democrat establishment. Hours before, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) lost his reelection bid and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) barely edged out a win. 

It was especially felt in Virginia because the political establishment brought out all the big names for Terry McAuliffe. Even Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at one of his events. 

Many Democrat analysts were stunned and angered at the lack of results they assumed would head in their favor. But how did the elitists at MSNBC and CNN get it all wrong? 

Before I answer this question, I want to go back to the 2020 Democratic Party Presidential nominee process. Early in the nomination process, I had growing concerns with what I noticed happening on a consistent basis. There was an overt use of identity politics, especially from a racial lens. 

For example, when candidates entered a state with a large black population, they suddenly couldn’t stop talking about reparations and prison reform. However, when they went to New Hampshire, not a peep. 

Similarly, when immigration came up, they’d trip over themselves to speak Spanish. Admittingly, watching Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker battle to be the kings of Espanol on the same stage as Julian Castro was quite amusing. 

It was this constant racial pandering that I found increasingly insulting. Identity politics ultimately boil down to someone’s identity being a monolithic group identity with a monolithic interest. It turns people into cliches and caricatures. 

In politics, there is always pandering, without a doubt. It’s expected for politicians to use buzzwords to signal their policy interests. However, pandering to ‘identity’ always felt dirty and insulting to me. It assumes my primary policy concerns as a black man can’t align with another identity’s primary policy concerns.  

Majority of the time, the policy concerns they believe black people have are incredibly superficial or fantastical. The main problem, however, is that sometimes identity politics works on their target. People like to feel as though they’re being paid attention to, regardless of if they’re being used to fulfill an objective. 

Before the nomination process, I was already on the fence with being done with the Democrats, but watching this racial circus play out on national television made me want to no longer have any association with this party. 

After leaving the Democratic party, I met more and more former Democrats with a similar experience. They were tired of the racial politics. If they were white, they were tired of being called a racist for not liking a particular policy or questioning the purpose of said policy. If they were black, they had a similar experience as me. They were tired of being put in a political box expecting to advocate for something simply because of their pigmentation. 

The politically homeless are ethnically diverse as well as intellectually diverse. Many of them still call themselves liberals, but they don’t feel the Democratic party celebrates traditional liberalism anymore. They’re done watching their party move further and further left as they accept a fringe leftist ideology as their political starting point. More so, they’re done being chastised for attempting to warn others of this impending political doom. 

As a result, they’ve left the party and they’re somewhere in the middle, like me. Not a Republican, but for damn sure not a Democrat. 

Most Americans aren’t exceptionally politically inclined. They are people who wake up every day, bring their kids to school, and go to work. They are simple people who just want to live their lives relatively freely. 

However, the Democrat strategy of measuring everything based on some form of oppression has radicalized average Americans to some degree. People who used to mindlessly go about their day have woken up to what is happening, and they’re tired of being insulted. 

The Democrat’s strategy of guilting white people for having imaginary ‘white privilege’ is not working anymore. Gaslighting parents over their concerns on their child’s education is not working anymore. The American public has racism fatigue, and it’s the Democrats’ fault. 

This brings us back to November 3rd, 2021. Although it is two states, Virginia and New Jersey show a potential precursor to what may happen nationwide during the next couple of election cycles. The full embrace of identity politics has only made moderate Democrats despise the party for allowing the extremists within it to demonize them. 

Thus far, the Democrats have not learned their lesson. The political pundits and politicians are doubling down on blaming ‘white supremacy’ for their downward spiral. 

As a former Democrat, I say keep it up. It’ll only prove my point further.

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Adam B. Coleman

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