Identity politics

I think Clinton focused so much on the minority groups, that she partly forgot the larger groups.

And as M0nica says, the blue collar workers voted for Trump. In droves.

Ah - that was more how they seemed to be talking M0nica. They were transferring what had been seen in the USA and viewing Europe through that lens. It was to do with the upcoming elections.

Identity politics is much more than the politics of religion, gender or ethnicity. In terms of what has been happening in the United States and in Europe it could be described as the uprising of the working class (blue-collar workers, in the US) against a rich liberal elite.

The people who backed Trump were the blue collar workers who have seen their manufacturing jobs disappear overseas and nothing fill the gap and seen more and more immigrants come into the country to compete for the poorly paid jobs left for them driving wages still lower. When you have large groups of threatened insecure economically deprived people like this they tend to break up into small special interest groups; fundamentalist religious groups, anti-immigrant groups; extreme right wing political groups. They all seek simple solutions to complex questions.

What was so clever of Trump was to see that there were an awful lot of special interest groups, groups feeling downtrodden under the current system - and he exploited them. To the underpaid and unemployed was 'gonna bring manufacturing back to America, penalise companies opening plants in other countries.' To the anti-immigrant groups he was 'gonna stop all those illegal immigrants coming in and taking 'your' jobs, he would build a wall along the Mexico/US border. To the fundamentalist christians he said he was, gonna send all the muslims home and not let anymore in'.

Do not deceive yourselves, the same politics of identity is developing in the UK and in Europe. The rise of anti-immigrant groups, ethnic groups developing a ghetto mentality to protect themselves. UKIP is the Trump of the UK. They are appealing to those who have lost most economically. Those in the zero hour/gig economy with uncertain employment, and poor pay, who see themselves as being made poorer by the number of immigrants in this country.

Take the Stoke by-election. UKIP If elected, has promised to “make Britain great again”. Money from the foreign aid budget would go to the NHS. They would have a “firm but fair” immigration policy, would put “British people first” and pledged to put locals “at the top of the queue for housing”. Not really that different to what Trump said in the run-up to his election.

I havent heard of it for, or concerning the UK, is a better way of putting it.

Identity politics has been big news in america for much of the election I would say.
I havent heard it in the UK.

I agree - 'divisive politics' was all the rage a week or two ago!

All these new 'buzz' words mean something to someone presumably!

It sounds like a case for the Plain English Campaign

I think I have got it backwards, all. I thought they were saying that groups were finding their identity through these rising populists but I am sure you are all right and that it is the previous identity politics and PC (gone made) that has caused the problems - according to some. So I wonder what they will call the 'new' politics?

Thanks for sorting a fuzzy brain out

Note to self: must listen more carefully!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_politics

It is thought by some that Hillary Clinton's attempt at it backfired, or didnt work as well as the Democrats wanted.
I could do a link for that as well, but the link does look utterly biased. And somewhat vulgar!

Thanks both. These words start popping up and it helps to pin them down. Perhaps others will give us even more insight when they come along

This is just speculation on my part gg but perhaps it's different in the US because of the proportions of the different racial groups are much higher in the US than in the UK.
African Americans comprise 13.2% of the population & Hispanics/Latinos 17%.
Compare that to U.K. where people of Asian origin comprise 6.9% and Black/Afro-Caribbean 3%.

Maybe in the US it is more worth the politicians' while to concentrate their efforts on particular identity groups, particularly in cities where minority groups are likely to be concentrated.
And maybe because those groups are bigger, they feel they have more 'clout'.

Researched this a bit now and I clearly confused a specific area of identity politics with its wider meaning.

I am not sure it is just about religion, sexuality, etc. Jane and Fitzy but then I am not sure

I have heard it on a couple of programmes and it seems to be being applied to the upheavals in the USA and Europe away from party politics but I really don't understand what they are getting at

"identity politics
noun
a tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics."

Possibly related to single issue politics?
I suppose the development of identity politics is inevitable if people feel excluded on the basis of their race, religion, sexuality etc but I feel it is a retrograde step. It would be better if mainstream parties could tackle these issues imho.

No expert but I think it's around gender identity. E.g. Whether or no a person may have undergone formal, surgical (or indeed any form of medical) gender reassignment, they might wish to be identified as the opposite to their biological gender. Some people, I understand, don't want to be recognised as either specific gender. There is probably a lot more to it that this though.