But the core of the problem of identity politics is that it demands equality and/or rights for certain self-proclaimed victim groups and thereby drives away those people the victim groups deem to be privileged and therefore liable.
Not surprisingly, the privileged groups will respond by thinking - I worked for what I have and I am damned if I believe what I have was given to me. To hell with people who implicitly insult me by claiming "rights" for themselves by whining loudly.
In the end what happens is that someone like Clinton comes along with so much depending upon her appeal to known/claimed victim groups that she created an opposition from others who either thought of themselves as unrecognised victims or who thought of themselves as deserving of their success. Trump created an alliance of these people.
It may be that some folks are victims. Life isn't fair. We do our best to lean against obvious injustice. But there's no viable pathway to making the world perfect.
Rights are claims against other people. Competing rights always exist. Someone always loses when someone claims a right for themselves. The losers are always aware of it even as the winners claim their prize.
There are, of course, cases in which a group is victimised. And then, of course, something must change. But if your appeal is designed to corral over half of society in a victim group, then you are doing something different.
In my view, fracturing a society on a massive scale between victims and the privileged is undermining. It creates a weak and divided society. It encourages people to claim to be victims. It makes the political conversation a whining competition.
A healthy politics seeks to elevate virtues and to soften undeserved harms. The Republican appeal to individuallism and hard work is its charm. But really, this might easily be a Democratic message, leavened with the additional benefit of creating public goods as well. In my view, this is more-or-less the whole cake from a liberal viewpoint.
Identity politics is the excess butter which makes the cake too rich for many to digest.
| 
