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+--- Thread: Americans have had enough of identity politics? (Victor Davis Hanson style) (/thread-20814.html)
Americans have had enough of identity politics? (Victor Davis Hanson style) - C C - Jul 7, 2026
AFTER PARTY with Emily Jashinsky
https://youtu.be/X_7t7y1AGeg
VIDEO EXCERPTS: Ketanji Brown Jackson's legacy consists of talking incessantly, despite being the most junior member of the court. Once again, according to Scott's blog, she leads the aggregate chart at 53,299 words across cases.
[...] And unfortunately, she's not an accomplished judge, and she wasn't one when she was appointed. She doesn't write well. I thought she would have good staff, but her opinions are poorly written. She can't articulate what her points are, and they're almost always contemporary politics. There are always references to the binary. That this particular group is victimized. That the other specific group is an oppressor. And so there are no legal points there, just personal ideology.
And that has really hurt the left because those two appointments, Sotomayor and Jackson, are not the best left-wing judges they have had. They're actually the least educated in the law. They're not analytical and they don't write well, and that's hurt their cause enormously.
Let's be honest. They were DEI appointments at the time. I remember she said we need "a wise Latina" I think 20 times in one speech, and she said a wise Latina will understand problems better than a white male.
Katanji Brown had a series of lectures of that type, and I think part of the problem that they're encountering is that the public is getting fatigued. [...] This identity politics and this grievance culture and this constant whining continue across the country. It's not sustainable.
It's coming at a time when the people who are whining -- whether they're a Mamdani type immigrant or they're Katanji Brown or Joy Reid or Sunny Hostin -- have never been more affluent, never been more fortunate. And instead of just offering a little bit of gratitude, it's always railing about the US being a bad, bad, terrible country. It's unfair. I'm so victimized.
And I think people are just psychologically and intellectually exhausted about their identity politics. It's like a monastery of the mind that so many people are just checking out of. They don't watch the Grammys, the Oscars, the Tonys anymore. They don't go to movies. They've just said, "I've had it."
And I think with the pollsters, that's one of the things they didn't really pick up on. These people don't want to talk to a pollster. And that's why, you know, NPR had Kamala Harris four points ahead the night of the election. [...] They were five and a half points off because they can't calibrate that hidden dimension.
That's why I'm not as pessimistic as everybody else about the midterms. I think there are a lot of people who don't report to pollsters, and they're quiet. But they're adamant that they're tired of the whole progressive project from A to Z.
Victor Davis Hanson on KBJ ... https://youtu.be/X_7t7y1AGeg