If identity politics undermines the sense of universalism necessary for a healthy (classic) liberal democracy, then it would also erode support for democratic norms in favor of power politics. Trump and his followers certainly have expressed their contempt for democratic norms. The author of this piece and the sympathetic posters align with Trump against democratic norms and in favor of power politics.
That's what I'm pretty sure is going on. It's easy to understand all points from here -- if your way of life is in danger, why wouldn't you attack? Because "moral high ground?" The SAME moral high ground that people tend to use when giving lipservice to everyone else, but never fixing problems?
The woman who would be considered a man and ostracized because she isn't "biologically" a woman if Trump and his supporters have their way isn't going to care if she gets arrested or not, because gasoline, kerosene, beer, and towels are cheap and burn extremely well, and society will push her into suicide, like so many more before her. The black kid who would get shot by a cop for the crime of looking imposing to someone isn't going to give a damn. Any moment and he could be dead for something that isn't his fault -- the ones that do it sit in their ivory towers, looking down from, again, their "moral high ground" they so happily claim, to provide lip service. Nothing ever gets done. Maybe if he's going to end up in jail or shot because of a broken system anyway, he'll decide to shoot you first.
There are very real people with very real problems that aren't only not getting addressed, but aren't even taken seriously by half of the country. Even some DEMOCRATS will tell me that, though I suffer from gender dysphoria, I shouldn't be allowed to "indulge my mental illness." Some DEMOCRATS believe that "maybe he shouldn't have been a thug" is a good excuse for why yet another black kid got shot for no legitimate reason, or why it took 6 officers to choke someone, or why an officer decided to just hold the tazer button down for longer than it should be.
The FRUSTRATION at these problems not being solved is something close to the anxiety from living at, in, or near a war zone. Because make no mistake, we ARE at war. We're just lucky enough that they haven't started using guns agains- oh. Oh, wait.
At the same time, the OPPOSITE side feels as if they are at war. They've been immersed in propaganda, dog whistle politics, lies, and worse. When people haven't fallen for them but bring up a legitimate claim, it's easy to discredit them and tell them to their face they're just as bad as all the rest. What would normally be a voice for reason has no place, because the No Man's Land between both factions is fucked. So you have someone saying "I'm a warrior for the babies!" and gunning down a dozen innocent people, or you'll have growing poverty, incarceration, and drug use, with the blame rested on everyone else. This is what compromise is for -- grasping the people who would normally only come if you dragged them kicking and screaming, and walking the middle of the road where possible. They fear what they don't understand, and fail to understand a lot. It's prohibitively difficult to educate them because they think we're trying to pass one over on them (rational) or that they're part of the conspiracy(irrational). To them, progress such as "allowing transgender individuals to use the bathroom corresponding with their gender" is scary as hell. It was never a problem before, because they never thought about it. To them, "Transgender" might be something closer to "Drag Queen." Religious overtones already portray that as a sinful perversion. A perversion, at all, that they need to defend themselves against. Thus, enforcing it feels, to them, as an attack on their religion, on their very way of life. Why WOULDN'T you defend yourself against an existential threat like that?
And all of this goes onto the internet, passed around, contexts changed or removed. So we keep fighting against each other, never really making any ground either way, because victory today is defeat tomorrow.
It's really no wonder why some turn to violence, or populist candidates come within spitting distance of the presidency (or at least nomination), or why nothing gets done. People are tuning out of the rat race. Apathy runs high, and the easily manipulated passionate(or crazy, or both) people vote. What we're seeing here is how it's always worked -- marginalized groups become more and more extreme as they are backed further and further into a corner. They may be smaller, but louder, more dangerous. Interestingly enough, the only thing that comes to mind when looking for a rebuttal for this is when the DNC capitulated after Mcgovern's loss in '72, and "liberal" became a bad word for Republicans AND Democrats.
What followed was 40 years of the architecture of both economic and social failure, the worst the country has seen since the Civil War. Deregulation across theboard, poor modeling, poor math, and gut feelings passed off as economics, fear mongering (the criminals! the drugs! the gays!) tearing down social barriers and forcing people into hiding to be who they are. Bill Clinton's election was the spoiled brat finding broccoli under his mashed potatoes after his daddy told him "no broccoli." It is only VERY recently that left liberalism has made a resurgence, and ONLY because fascism has, too.
