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Identity politics is not the problem

As the blame game starts on why Democrats lost the 2024 election, a similar argument of identity politics being the problem is emerging.

James Woods
5 min readNov 9, 2024
Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash

The day after the Democrats lost the 2024 election, news outlets were already proposing why it had occurred. Some were blaming Biden for staying in the race too long, others blamed the lack of an open primary, and few blamed Harris for having a lack of a compelling story to tell to the American people. But a similar excuse emerged, the Democrats needed to stop focusing on identity politics. Shortly after the lose, news outlets like CNN and newspapers like the New York Times were already creating talking points about how identity politics doomed the party. This isn’t new.

As far back as 2004, identity politics has been repeatedly cited as a factor for why the Democratic party lost elections. After the 2004 Presidential election for example, John Kerry was told he focused too heavily on social issues, which alienated rural and working-class voters. After the 2010 and 2014 Midterms, Obama was blamed for focusing on issues like race, gender, and sexuality over economic anxieties. As you can see, a familiar pattern emerges whenever Democrats lose elections. Mainstream media will immediately point to identity politics as being a factor…

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James Woods
James Woods

Written by James Woods

I’m not afraid to challenge the status quo. Editor-in-chief of Perceive More! Find me at https://perceive.substack.com too.

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