The prevalence of identity politics is a side effect of progressivism in the United States, and too many people still don’t have the faintest idea of what it is.

Identity politics is the preference of female, younger, lower to middle class, racially diverse people as opposed to their male, older, whiter, upper class counterparts.

The preference towards a certain group of people has existed since early humans first fenced off their group of huts from those filthy apes across the river. In our multi-cultural society, many people from radically different backgrounds interact and people gradually learned to coexist. However, the observative part of our brain is quite good at noticing patterns.

The people of our country looked up to the top and saw that those who are in power are (almost) all older, richer, white men. The same ones who barely got a grasp of flip-phones, and they are the ones who (mostly) run our country. These men who lived in luxury their entire lives, listening to soft rock and paying their college tuition using pocket change just aren’t in tune with the needs of a generation more anxious about climate change and social issues.

The younger generations have seen what the “greatest generation” has to offer in terms of leaders, and now they’re looking for younger alternatives, but the outlook is pretty grim so far.

For a look at identity politics in action, we can use this year’s Democratic primary as an example.

We Had the Most Diverse Group of Candidates in History. Now It’s Down to Two White Guys -Michelle Ruiz

This quote is an example of political identity politics. Political identity politics is the discussion of a candidate’s identity and background, and how it affects how they rule. A young millennial black woman candidate is seen to be more progressive than an “old white male” candidate who is assumed to have more conservative beliefs. That doesn’t mean that an old white male can’t have preferred pronouns, or that a young black woman can’t support the abolition of taxes, but under political identity politics they are assumed not to.

Even more extreme political identity politics views are that even if an old white male and a young black woman hold exactly the same views, and both ran for office, the young black woman should win because she would add diversity to the position.

According to google statistics, identity politics is on the rise. Search interest for identity politics has increased by 26% since January, but as the not-so-old adage goes, Twitter rarely mirrors real life, and on March 3, 2020, Tulsi Gabbard, the young fresh-faced American-Samoan progressive lost to Michael Bloomberg, the old white billionaire male in her home territory.