Just as outside agitators have gone to Ferguson to use a local issue to advance their wider agenda, so too have Democrats in hopes of improving their rather dim electoral prospects for November. They are pandering for votes. When Jay Nixon, a lawyer for thirty years, repeatedly calls for the prosecution of a police officer as a means of obtaining "justice for the Brown family", he is not speaking as a governor who has taken an oath to support the US and Missouri constitutions. He is a Democrat politician in a very red state whose only hope of electoral success is tied to securing the urban black vote. Justice is not on the table here. This is about politics now.
The Democrats have been latching on to any issue other than the stagnant economy, the incompetent roll out of ObamaCare, the utter failure of US foreign policy and the myriad of scandals swirling around Obama's administration. Since the election we have had a non-stop parade of manufactured outrage over inconsequential issues; gay marriage, 'war on women', the Washington Redskins.....anything but what really matters. Democrat politicians and their media enablers have done everything possible to take public attention off of real issues that have real consequences for this nation and the rest of the world. Instead, the pick at the scabs of hot-button cultural issues that have little or no bearing on America's future, but they do inflame the passions of special interest groups.
This is the product of the progressive movement's focus on identity politics. They have taken the Marxist tactic of exploiting class envy and expanded it to cultural issues. Class envy wasn't an effective tool for sparking revolution in the United States, because our individual liberties and limited government allowed an unprecedented degree of socio-economic mobility. With that tried and true method of limited usefulness, the progressives turned to driving wedges between cultural groups. They used the Frankfurt School's methods of 'critical theory' to attack all that is good about our culture. Once the seeds of dissatisfaction were sown, they used identity politics to exploit public anger and envy. Each demographic group was told that whatever dissatisfaction they had with life was due to oppression by some larger more powerful entity. Each demographic group became victims. Women, blacks, Latinos, gays, the handicapped.
However loathsome and disingenuous this tactic may be, you have to admit it has been remarkably successful. Marxism tapped into a very powerful emotional driver; envy. Victimization and identity politics take that even farther. They use envy, greed and anger and attach those powerful emotions to personal identity. It taps into very basic human needs to belong to a group. This is political tribalism. People identify with those like themselves. Now you add into that tribalism the notion that you and others in your tribe are being victimized, repressed, disenfranchised. The natural response will be to band together with others of your tribe and fight back against the perceived threat. Basically, identity politics and victimization have given a social element to the envy and resentment of Marxist class warfare.
E pluribus unum. "Out of many, one". The motto on the Great Seal of the United States. From thirteen separate colonies, one great nation. Individuals from many disparate lands, faiths, races and social strata become one people; all bound by one thing-the Constitution. The very embodiment of our national identity. All are equal under the law.
Well, at least that's the way it used to be. Now we create, interpret and enforce laws differently for each group. We say that this group or that has been victimized, so they will be treated differently. Ostensibly, this is done out of compassion. What it really is though, is a means to bring down the existing order. It is a tactic to weaken the Constitution. It is a tool used by those who look at the Constitution as an impediment to achieving their goals. It is a direct attack on the rule of law.
