Liberals, in virtually every instance, make the mistake of assuming that since their identity politics is exclusively race, gender, and sexual orientation, that right-wing identity politics must be the same, but opposite.

For example, since liberals identify with minority races, conservatives must identify with whites.

While there is a grain of truth to that, it's only a grain.

The reality is that most of white America has simply opted-out of the whole race debate. Most conservatives feel that liberals have put them on the defensive about race, so they refuse to engage on the issue at all.

Some liberals say that this is itself racism, but actually that is just liberals projecting.

But just because most of the right-wing doesn't spend its time dwelling on their whiteness, doesn't mean they don't engage in identity politics.

It's just that their identity isn't about race. It's about nationality.



Ordinary people, who honestly pay taxes, love their land, are far more patriotic than false patriots.

Jingoism, false patriotism, is causing concern worldwide with the rise of people like the U.S. President Donald Trump.

jingoism: Excessive patriotism or aggressive nationalism especially with regards to foreign policy.

xenophobia: A fear of strangers or foreigners.

Liberals accuse Trump of racism, and they are correct, but usually for the wrong reasons.

Trump and the right-wing are primarily xenophobic, which is the kissing-cousin of racism.



For example, Mexicans aren't a race. They are a nationality.

So when Trump says to be afraid of Mexicans because they are killers and rapists, that's xenophobia.

“[W]hen people are anxious economically, the politics of fear oftentimes can override the politics of hope," he said. That anxiety can express itself in anti-immigration rhetoric and "in cheap jingoism and militarism and nationalism that’s not grounded in our national security interests. And it’s a dangerous path."

- President Obama

I don't like admitting Obama is right, but the right-wing response to it speaks volumes.



In other words, if you oppose Obama’s Iran deal, or his cowardice in Syria and Ukraine, or his decision to destroy the power and might of the American military, it’s because you’re poor. If you oppose the wave of illegal immigration brought on by Obama’s executive amnesty, that’s just because you’re ignorant and poor.

...

More importantly, Obama has always despised the American people. A great majority of Americans support gun rights, oppose slashing the military, and think Obama’s foreign policy has been disastrous. But for Obama, that’s just evidence that Americans are benighted, inbred morons with two teeth.

To Ben Shapiro and conservatives, not bombing someone when you have the opportunity is cowardice.

Having the largest, most bloated and wasteful military budget in the world is no reason to cut it.

Obama may have deported more illegal immigrants than any president before him, but it was never enough.

I'm of the opinion that most right-wing identity politics originate from jingoism, such as their twisted and limited idea of liberty.

To a right-winger the 2nd Amendment is the most important for defending freedom (although they can't tell you how that actually works), while they are mostly indifferent to the 5th and 6th Amendments, while having contempt for the 8th Amendment.

To a right-winger, tyranny can only come from the government, thus the government is the enemy of liberty.

Private tyranny is a concept that is simply denied, despite endless numbers of historical examples.

Which is convenient for certain wealthy interests.

The ruling elite have worked hard to destroy every institution that working class people might find solidarity in, but the need to belong remains.



This is because national attachment is central not just to the functioning of political institutions but also to the very structure of society. At the individual level, nationalism fulfills a basic psychological need to belong — it gives people a sense of security and status.

At the social level, it fulfills the essential function of consolidating the group and its identity above and beyond individual needs. Nationalism has (too) often been a force for exclusion, discrimination and violence...

It’s not so much the surge of national loyalties but the narrow, exclusive way in which ideas of “the nation” are constructed.

Along with religion, jingoism keeps society from falling apart, after the ruling elite have torn down all of the progressive institutions.

The ruling elite need that, because ruling exclusively with an iron fist is expensive and inefficient.