Mark Lilla’s argument in the Once and Future Liberal is that Democrats need to focus on their values and principals, rather than attempting to craft messages for different subsets through identify politics. While he makes important points, much of his message is prone to misinterpretation.
According to Lilla too many voters in our political process have been twisted around from “engagement with the wider world” to a focus on their inner self, grievances affecting their group, and thus, how our own grievances affects politics. Lilla says that this focus on the individual and his identity--the essence of identity politics--rather than on society as a whole, is generally a consequence of changes in family structure and child rearing. In addition, Lilla attributes this individualistic focus to Reaganism because it celebrated the picture of an “individualistic America where families and small communities and businesses would flourish one freed from the shackles of the state.” Liberals responded by adopting an identity politics in which groups sought to redress the grievances affecting them, rather than looking outward to address the grievances affecting society.
According to Lilla too many voters in our political process have been twisted around from “engagement with the wider world” to a focus on their inner self, grievances affecting their group, and thus, how our own grievances affects politics. Lilla says that this focus on the individual and his identity--the essence of identity politics--rather than on society as a whole, is generally a consequence of changes in family structure and child rearing. In addition, Lilla attributes this individualistic focus to Reaganism because it celebrated the picture of an “individualistic America where families and small communities and businesses would flourish one freed from the shackles of the state.” Liberals responded by adopting an identity politics in which groups sought to redress the grievances affecting them, rather than looking outward to address the grievances affecting society.
