The rise in populist fervor and identity politics in the U.S. raises the question of where America is headed. America was founded on ideals, not identity. These ideals were laid out in the Declaration of Independence. Arguing that diversity is what defines us is saying that race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., and not the universal truths laid out by Thomas Jefferson and later reiterated by Abraham Lincoln and even Martin Luther King Jr. suggests a revision of the founders principles.
But attempts at unity over the years by identities, i.e. religions, classes, race, etc., have all failed when identities supplanted the ideals. Unity around religious ideas only worked when the ideal was above ethnic, class or political identity. The Bible says: “There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female.” When Christians placed race or ethnicity above this ideal, unity failed, and they killed each other for centuries. The Marxist ideology based on class failed to unite people because this was the epitome of identity politics. Marx attempted to unite people on identity alone and preached that history was nothing more than a class struggle.
In America, the proposition of equality and the right to pursue one’s happiness has remained an ideal that defined and united Americans. If at times in our history we failed to live up to these ideals, we always found ourselves eventually returning to them. When women met at Seneca Falls in the 19th century, for instance, they sought to write their own declaration, which was, essentially, a mirror of Jefferson’s, but adding the word “woman” to man. Those women sought not to be defined by their gender, but rather their demand that Jefferson’s ideal be fully recognized to include them.
When Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address, he stated that we were formed on Jefferson’s proposition and that the Civil War was a challenge to see if such a nation could endure. A hundred years later, Martin Luther King Jr., in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, echoes the American dream by quoting Jefferson and asking the nation to live out its creed. He then destroys the politics of race by saying he looked forward to the day when people would be “judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.”
Today, populism coupled with identity politics has set us on a course for a new tribalization, not one based on ideals, but based on race, religion, gender or sexual identity. That, coupled with what is a profound ignorance among the population for our history, and politicians seizing on sound bites and tweets, is bringing a new danger of disunion to America.
Veterans from all ethnic and racial backgrounds, genders or sexual preferences have fought and died, not for those identities, but for the ideals set forth by Jefferson. That is the core of what made us a united country. Whipping up tribal identities, not the ideals, and the nature of that cultural attack will unite no one and devour those who preach it.
Racial, sexual and other identities, to a considerable extent, have lead to a rightist reaction, which is currently making its way through American politics. Making identities exceptional instead of ideals will eventually destroy America’s capability of weathering the coming storm. The Bible predicts that “Christian identity” is predicted to eventually dominate American politics so much, for instance, that those who refuse to worship in the legalized Christian way will be marginalized and persecuted (See Revelation 13:11-17). Identity politics could well lead the United States to the fulfillment of the following prediction.
“Secular rulers and religious leaders will unite to enforce the observance of the Sunday; and as milder measures fail, the most oppressive laws will be enacted. It will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the land ought not to be tolerated….” Maranatha, page 188.