The horseshoe theory of politics may be largely discredited, but when it comes to identity politics, the left and right may have far more in common than they admit.
The confusion around this term, and its frequent misuse across the political spectrum, sees it regarded with suspicion and contempt, as both conservatives and the traditional left use it as a slur to dismiss any discussions of racism and sexism.
Speaking at the Museum of Australian Democracy in Canberra recently, former Prime Minister John Howard took identity politics — or rather what he mischaracterised as identity politics — to task. Identity politics, he said, is 'poison to democracy', because it encourages 'the pursuit of individual groups', who may be reluctant to join a political party if 'they think it is dominated by one particular group'.
Similarly, Columbia University professor Mark Lilla blamed the Democrats' US election loss on identity politics, writing 'the age of identity liberalism must be brought to an end', because 'the fixation on diversity' discourages the concept of a shared destiny and duty towards all fellow citizens.
It's true that many identity politics enthusiasts appear to focus on the 'identity' aspect at the expense of the 'politics'. This can be seen in the proliferation of online 'call out culture' where feminist and anti-racist movements expend more energy taking down the 'problematic' figures in their midst than they do challenging the powerful institutions and politicians that oppress us all.
But neither this nor what Howard and Lilla describe is, as Mychal Denzel Smith explained in The New Republic, what identity politics actually is.
Denzel Smith traced its roots to the radical black politics of the 1970s and the black feminist group, The Combahee River Collective, and their manifesto, A Black Feminist Statement. In its original incarnation, identity politics was neither a distraction from economic issues nor a divisive tool to prevent social cohesion.
"It should come as no surprise that older white men such as Howard and Lilla are among the most hostile to the concept since, whatever side of the 'horseshoe' they reside, it is they who remain the closest to power."
Regarding black feminism as 'the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions' of race, class, gender, sexuality and so on, the Collective argued that since no one else was working to liberate black women, leaving them to suffer the worst marginalisation on multiple levels (we now call this 'intersectionality'), then it follows that 'the