Identity Politics, Social Justice Warriors and the Collapse of the American Left

Left wing politics are in trouble these days as right wing populism continues to break out across Europe and the West after the Brexit Vote, the US election and now more recently the failure of Italy's constitutional referendum.

Although largely neglected since the end of the Cold War, the rise of reactionary right wing populism functions on some level as a re-emergence of class warfare.  Working class whites in the UK, US and Europe whose economic and medical living standards have declined in actual terms over the last quarter century are moving in mass towards populism.

The brutal decline in quality of life and economic well being was documented by Princeton scholars Anne Case and Angus Deaton in their recent journal article titled, "Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century". The study found a quiet epidemic responsible for taking the lives of over half a million Americans over the last 15 years. The rise in morbidity is mirrored by a corresponding increase in prescription pain killers and opioid addiction to the point where one in three working class white Americans report chronic pain or sciatica.

The dramatic collapse in living standards of labour occurred at the same time as the leadership of left wing parties, academia, civil servants and human resource professionals all moved towards identity politics as their philosophy du jour. Unfortunately, what this meant in real terms was that the traditional left wing leadership basically abandoned their base and started trying to solve non-existent problems instead of tackling issues linked to their base's interest.

Bi-partisan commitment of decision makers to globalization without implementing support measures like re-training or improved public sector management practices exacerbated this problem further by failing to deliver.

The dogma of political correctness and the associated social justice warriors have been so focused on niche issues that solving real world problems that plague everyone are relegated to afterthoughts.

This relegation of real concerns and replacement with a narrative blaming non-Hispanic whites for their historical privilege galvanized a reaction against identity politics and left wing leadership. In a community where, morbidity and addiction rates are skyrocketing while good jobs were disappearing, messages blaming that same community for society's problems naturally fell on deaf ears.

Donald Trump saw the gap between the leadership in both parties and the citizens' grass roots and exploited it.