Tag: Jeff Mayers

He said as much Thursday at an event in the Capitol and has made similar comments before. At a Q&A with Jeff Mayers of Wisconsin political news site WisPolitics, Ryan said: Twenty-first-century technology has proven that tribalism and identity politics is effective. Internet, money has proven identity politics and tribalism works. It’s morally wrong, but it’s politically effective. What bothers me is it’s being practiced on both sides: the right and the left. It’s not that surprising that Ryan criticized identity politics. For years — particularly those tea party years when Ryan began to climb the leadership ranks, Republicans criticized the concept of identity politics as a weapon that liberals use to stoke division. I think identity politics is neutral. According to Dictionary.com, identity politics is “political activity or movements based on or catering to the cultural, ethnic, gender, racial, religious, or social interests that characterize a group identity.” Obviously, we can see how something like identity politics can be abused, and perhaps that is what Ryan is referring to, but just because something can be abused and manipulated does not make it inherently wrong. The reality is that throughout American history, groups have had interests and even priorities based on their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, class or another identifier that, at best, was not a significant concern for people outside of their group.