Back in Print: Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We?

I've blogged this book many times, but it was out of print for a while.

No longer. I guess there's increased demand in the age of making America great again.

At Amazon, Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity.

This is the book to read on American national identity.

Shelby Steele, Shame

I bought this book when it came out, but I'm now engrossed in it.

Steele offers perhaps the best explanation yet of our current (crushing) era of political polarization; it's an  merciless indictment of radical left-wing identity politics.

Not to be missed, at Amazon, Shelby Steele, Shame: How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country.

The Social Justice Left vs. the Identitarian Alt-Right

From Ben Sixsmith, who's just a kid, by the looks of his Twitter profile.

But he's good:

Both social justice warriors & Alt-Right shift to more extreme positions to gain social status (& clicks, media etc) https://t.co/YTMQc0SayI

— Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) December 3, 2016

The Year We Obsessed Over Identity

One of the themes of my earlier post is how the Democrats have become a cultural Marxist party on identity politics, while keeping a surprisingly centrist economic policy. See, "How Did the Democrats Become Favorites of the Rich?"

And there's more on that, especially on the larger pop cultural trends, at the New York Times, "2015's headlines and cultural events have confronted us with the malleability of racial, gender, sexual and reputational lines. Who do we think we are?"

How Did the Democrats Become Favorites of the Rich?

This is interesting, from Thomas Edsall, at the New York Times.

No Apologies: Darla Neugebauer, Owner of Marcy's Diner, Screams at Toddler to Stop Bawling (VIDEO)

WTF, the damned kid was screaming for an hour?!!

Talk about some divine patience that most people do not have.

And the entitled parents can just STFU. My wife and I would have had our own baby out of the restaurant in minutes. If the kid doesn't stop crying we'll take our dinner to go, thank you. It's not acceptable to upset everyone else's meal with a spoiled, screaming brat. And people are outraged as Ms. Neugebauer? Sorry, go get a life people. You and your screaming princesses.

At the Portland Press-Herald (careful the auto-play video ads), "Owner of Portland diner defends yelling at screaming child":

The Marcy's Diner proprietor says the girl was disrupting her customers' dining experience.

You think?



Great advertising for the establishment. Rational people are no doubt swarming the place, slapping down 25 percent tips.

Democrats Sic Identity Politics on Their Own

It's come to this.

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "The left has handicapped its ability to debate policy, even among themselves":

They told me if I voted for Mitt Romney, we'd have a condescending president who looked down on his female critics as "little ladies" who didn't understand how the world works. And they were right! I voted for Romney, and, well, keep reading.

Sure, we wound up with President Obama, not with Mitt. But that didn't change how things turned out. Just ask National Organization for Women President Terry O'Neill. Right before Obama's trade bill cratered in the Senate last week, Obama complained that its chief Senate critic, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., didn't understand the real world. O'Neill then chalked Obama's attitude up to sexism.

O'Neill told The Hill she took issue with Obama calling Warren by her first name during an interview with Yahoo News published May 9.

"Yes, I think it is sexist," O'Neill said. "I think the president was trying to build up his own trustworthiness on this issue by convincing us that Sen. Warren's concerns are not to be taken seriously. But he did it in a sexist way."

O'Neill said Obama's "clear subtext is that the little lady just doesn't know what she's talking about."

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, joined the chorus, also suggesting Obama's remarks were sexist, and then refused to apologize. Now some are tittering over Obama's supposed "seven-year history of sexism." This caused Twitter humorist David Burge to joke: "NAACP president: NOW president's critique of Obama's critique of Elizabeth Warren is racist."

Well, that's fair. The worst aspect of Obama's presidency has been the willingness of some defenders to characterize any and all criticisms of his policy or style as racist. With Warren (despite her denials) revving up for a potential 2016 presidential campaign — and already with Hillary Clinton's effort — we're seeing a new line of argument: That any criticism of a female politician is sexist. Apparently, the only kind of politician you can criticize on the merits in America nowadays is a white male.

The Democrats' tendency to argue identity politics over policy is more awkward when it's aimed at other Democrats. As The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin comments: "Is the 'war on women' being waged by the White House, or have Democrats become so accustomed to demonizing their opponents that they can't engage in civil debates even among themselves? It does not speak well of the Democrats' ability to persuade and lead. But it does portend a non-stop stream of gender bias claims in the 2016 presidential election."

Ugh. I'm dreading it!

Keep reading.