The long shadow of the identity politics "constitution." Mike Gonzalez writes:
The identity policy mindset has become so pervasive—not only in the academy and media, but in government policy—that more and more thinkers and politicians see the United States as now having two rival constitutions: the official one framed in 1787, and an unofficial one of much more recent vintage—the identity politics constitution.
A constitution is the fundamental law of a country, and as such it is always an important document. But in a place such as the U.S., where we lack common ancestors or a single, unifying religion or race, the Constitution takes on almost talismanic meaning. It is much more important than, say, the German Basic Law is to Germans.
Until this standoff between our rival constitutions in the U.S. is resolved, the country will engage not in normal politics but in the more volatile “regime politics,” which decides what regime we are to live under.
[Mike Gonzalez, "The Long Shadow of the Identity Politics ‘Constitution’,” The Daily Signal, December 18]
