Identity Politics is Dead, Long Live Identity Politics

This week's spotlight on race (as well as gender and religion) and politics focused on the Democratic primary race in Tennessee's 9th Congressional District. Incumbent Steve Cohen was challenged by Nikki Tinker for the seat.

What makes this contest remarkable is that Cohen, who is white and Jewish, represents a district that is mostly black (and presumably Christian) as is Tinker, yet Cohen overwhelmingly defeated Tinker.

Tinker's defeat from constituents who look like and worship like her came on the heels of her campaign ads which were widely denounced as anti-Semitic and Cohen's sponsorship of a formal apology for slavery.

In other words, Democratic voters in Memphis voted for the candidate who identifies with their issues and interests rather than the candidate who only shares their racial and religious identity.

While I believe that it is important for women and people of color to work to increase our political representation at every level of government, shared political and policy vision should trump the candidate's race or gender if only the latter matches and the former does not.

In Tinker's case, she was denounced and Cohen endorsed by many black political bloggers. Now and Planned Parenthood endorsed Cohen and EMILY's List had to backtrack from their initial endorsement of Tinker. And, unsurprisingly, conservative Republicans tried to use Tinker's ads and defeat to attack Barack Obama because, hey, have you heard, he's black you know. Sigh. Once again, Obama responded because Barack Obama

is bearing a lot of weight these days, between being a presidential candidate and fielding requests that he respond to all foolishness perpetuated by any black person in America

A few blogging women's reactions:

rikyrah at Jack & Jill Politics reports the shock of some to Cohen's win:

"But... I thought Black people ONLY voted for Black candidates. ….."

Jill Tubman, also at Jack & Jill Politics, points out:

Black folks are pretty smart voters, y’know. Because of our history, we take choosing representatives pretty seriously. Here’s proof.

SJ Reidhead at The Political Voices of Women takes a contrary point of view and asks Did Racist Behavior Defeat Nikki Tinker?

I would like to think we have progressed enough as a nation to the point where the color of one’s skin or a person’s religion (or lack thereof) but we all know this is not the case. I think we can also begin to assume the epitaph of racism is now going to be tossed at any GOP candidate, or anyone opposing a losing Democratic candidate - anytime, anywhere.

BlogHer CE supports candidates who share her identity as a policy nerd at her blog PopConsumer.

Submitted by Maria Niles (view blog

) on Sat, 08/09/2008 - 18:38

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Are we shifting our thinking and growing up?

Great post, Maria, and when I read it I thought of a recent BookTV interview with Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland.

We still seem to be fighting our political battles using the same language bequeathed to us by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagon in the 60s even though the reality on the ground is truly a lot less contentious. (BookTV interview with Rick Perlstein)

After analyzing a recent special election in Mississipi in which the Democrat defeated the Republican who used the same old southern strategy for winning (the let's scare the white voters with black people strategy), Perlstein thinks there's a ray of hope that we're stepping into a new way of looking at our culture and politics. He said the Republican ran scare tactic TV ads with typical southern strategy rhetoric like the Democrat refused to denounce Obama for his "hateful, anti-American" preacher, and the Democrat refused to denouce Obama for his statements about bitterness among rural (white) people. Nevertheless, the Republican lost his conservative district, one that Bush won in 2004.

I read your post and considered that possibly Tinker got a taste of this from the black community. She went to an old-school textbook strategy of racial division for winning elections, assuming people feel the same way they felt years ago, but it backfired. And that's a good thing.

Perlstein's still undecided on whether we're shifting our thinking and growing up when it comes to cultural divides and politics, but he's entertaining the idea, he says.

Thank you again, Maria.

Nordette is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.com whose personal blog is hosted on another site at this link. Her most recent post on BlogHer at the time of this comment is "Bernie Mac Dies of Pneumonia at 50"

Submitted by Nordette on Sun, 08/10/2008 - 11:35

Thanks, Nordette and I hope you're right

Thank you, Nordette for providing additional context. I agree that it is a good thing that Tinker's desperate attempt failed. I do hope that indeed the outcomes in these races indicate that we are "shifting our thinking and growing up."

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Submitted by Maria Niles on Sun, 08/10/2008 - 18:44

Thanks for noting this race

I started following it back in March or April or something - i'm embarassed to check out exactly when because my memory is getting so bad I'll have to admit how far off I am. BUT - it was several months ago. I'd heard about the anti-Semitic flyers and then learned more about Cohen, what he was doing in Congress and how his constituents felt about him There really isn't any better story about how strong we have the potential to be and how most voters are not stupid and can't be duped than a story like this one.

I really appreciate you highlighting it, Maria.

Jill
Writes Like She Talks

Submitted by Jill Miller Zimon on Thu, 10/23/2008 - 19:18