Can You Have It Both Ways?
I have never been a fan of identity politics. If you are not sure what that term means, identity politics is when an individual’s political philosophy is shaped by their identity to a race, gender, sexual orientation or some other immutable trait. In college I was very skeptical of the people who ran around screaming about black power. Usually they were lighter-skinned blacks who grew up in the Chicago suburbs and felt they had something to prove. However there was nothing funnier that catching them in a bar with a white woman.
I bring this up because of the recent Indianapolis Star article about three openly gay candidates for the Indianapolis City-County Council: Zach Adamson, Jackie Butler and Todd Woodmanse. I’ve known Adamson for a while and I have met Woodmanse once. I don’t know Butler, but I have no reason to think that they would not make for good public servants even though my disagreements with them would be over policy.
Where I do take issue though is the local chapter of the Indiana Stonewall Democrats. A group of Democrats that predominantly focus on gay issues. For months the group has been promoting on its Facebook page events for Adamson; encouraging members to come out (no pun intended) and support an openly gay candidate. That’s fine, but you can’t have it both ways. If you don’t want the fact a candidate is gay to be a big deal, then don’t make it a big deal. It is bad enough that some people will vote against Adamson simply because of his sexual orientation and not because they know where he stands on the issues, but it is just as bad to vote for someone because of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation without knowing their positions on issues.
If you want to be judged on your own merit, I agree with you wholeheartedly. However, if you are going to support someone simply because of an immutable trait, then you can’t get upset if someone opposes you because of an immutable trait. Luckily, the bulk of the political class publicly says this is no big issue. Now it’s time for the players of identity politics to get the message as well.
