The reductio ad absurdum of identity politics

What do you do when the person who matches you in the external identity calculus — say, she’s a woman and you’re a woman — proves not to be the women’s champion you hoped? Even worse, what do you do when the person who is the champion you hoped, doesn’t match you in external identity — for example, he’s male and you’re female? Turns out there’s a very simple answer: You redefine the identity of the person who matches your political goals. That’s what a PBS show host has done, after finding Hillary a disappointment.

Young women have rushed to latch onto Obama’s comet coattails. A friend of mine who is fundraising mightily for him says “Obama is a woman” because he’s more pro-choice than Clinton. After all, on that most stereotypical of women’s issues, Clinton refers to the “tragedy of abortion.” She loses progressives as she attempts to navigate the non-existent common ground on this most divisive of issues. Obama, on the other hand, talks about the tragedy of unwanted pregnancies. In what seems to be the sunset of the era of the religious right, that’s quite the courageous stand to take.

If Clinton loses the nomination, do women lose? Rights? Power? Visibility? Clout? Are they not taken as seriously by the political establishment? A month ago I would have told you yes. Now I believe the answer is no. Why? Because metrosexual, pro-choice, pro-health care, anti-poverty Obama is, in every political sense at least, more of a woman than Clinton. (Emphasis mine.)

I hope you got all that. Women were supposed to vote for Clinton because Clinton is a woman. Now that Clinton is failing (and flailing), the question for them is how they can justify taking their vote from her. A little abracadabra and the answer presents itself: Women declare that the next best candidate, all external and biological signs to the contrary, is in fact a woman. It is to laugh, as a friend of mine would say, but for the fact that the consequences of this type of insane “political” analysis have the potential to be so deadly serious for us all.

Hat tip: American Thinker