Actually, Republicans are the masters of US identity politics

Democrats are falsely being blamed for what Trump's party did

- NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON

A question. Which party played identity politics in the 2024 campaign? Donald Trump and the Republicans or Kamala Harris and the Democrats? Left-leaning pundits think they know. Political consultant James Carville blamed Democrats' defeat on their "stupid, God-damn identitarian mission." CNN anchor and Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria argued that one of the big mistakes Harris made was "elevating identity politics." New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd declared that "woke is broke."

This one-sided attack on identity politics happens like clockwork when Democrats lose an election, even one where they were actually pretty quiet on issues of gender, race or sexual orientation. But what is rarely acknowledged is that Republicans also play identity politics. They just do it better—especially under Trump's leadership. "Today, white identity deeply influences American politics," writes political scientist Ashley Jardina in her 2019 book White Identity Politics. "White identity is sometimes latent, but it is also reactive—made salient by threats to the dominance of whites as a group."