Democracy has always been a messy affair. Each triumph achieved to empower people has been paid for with casualties of those left behind or marginalized. 

The democratic process cannot please all of the people all of the time as it is baked into the process itself simply by the fact that 51% of people agreeing to legally move forward on a resolution means that 49% of the people will not get their way.

As imperfect as democracy is it still has merit and historically has lifted more people out of poverty than any system that has come before it. 

I think that one of the things plaguing our democracy today is the concept of identity politics, an idea that when taken too far is corrosive to genuine debate and seems to divide us into opposing teams that make enemies of our citizens.

>### *Identity politics* ###
>
>politics in which groups of people having a particular racial, religious, ethnic, social, or cultural identity tend to promote their own specific interests or concerns without regard to the interests or concerns of any larger political group
>
>Identity politics is contemporary shorthand for a group's assertion that it is a meaningful group; that it differs significantly from other groups; that its members share a history of injustice and grievance; and that its psychological and political mission is to explore, act out, act on and act up its group identity 
>
>[Webster's Dictionary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/identity%20politics)

<center>https://i.imgsafe.org/58/589e03bf6c.png</center>

<center>[Source](http://www.creativededuction.com/2017/02/27/identity-politics-and-the-emergence-of-a-new-culture-war/)</center>

It could be argued that *all politics is identity politics to some degree* and the only difference today is that more groups who were historically underrepresented in the democratic process have been empowered to express their political voice when compared to the past. I believe that is a good thing and a testament to democracy itself.

Unfortunately, **identity politics** also has the potential to manipulate populations into giving up their freedoms, empower governments to rob us of our hard-earned income, blind citizens to our shared commonalities, distract us from issues far more important to a larger percentage of the population, and degenerate debate into reactionary, impulsive responses that offer no solutions. 

>### "Starvation is the creation of the devil, a rebel
>### I'm bringin' food to the people like a widow
>### Bringin' flowers to a grave in the middle
>### Of the city isolation is a riddle" - Michael Franti

In my view, the most corrosive of these is how identity politics, as it is portrayed today, is undermining our ability to have a constructive debate about issues we all face as a people. Identifying with a group over identifying as a community breaks people up into camps, or opposing teams, that predispose those on that team to see anyone with a different view as the enemy.

People with different opinions or beliefs to your own does not automatically make them your enemy and to fall on that as your default position is not healthy for democracy. They may have beliefs that are antagonistic to your own but that is not the same thing as an enemy. While there are similarities they are not the same thing. 

It's a matter of degree and intent. An enemy will actively seek to destroy you. Someone with a different position on an issue will make you feel insecure in your own position especially if you lack the skills to articulate your views and reasoning for that position.

>### *enemy* ###
>a person who feels hatred for fosters harmful designs against or engages in antagonistic activities against another; an adversary or opponent.

> [Webster's dictionary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enemy)


>### *antagonistic* ###
>showing or feeling active opposition or hostility toward someone or something. Showing dislike or opposition

> [Webster's dictionary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antagonistic)

<center>https://i.imgsafe.org/5a/5ac63ebfd1.jpeg</center>

<center>[Source](http://quotesta.com/abraham-lincoln-quotes/)</center>

Someone expressing opposing views on issues you personally feel strongly about should come as no surprise and if your position offends them it says more about them than it says about you.


Many underrepresented groups throughout history have been actively suppressed by other more prominent groups, some even attempting to outright destroy those interests, or at least silence them, and those groups being suppressed *should* take a stand and fight for their rights, but it is equally true that to identify only with your well-defined group, be it defined by race, religion, sexual orientation, or social status, and exclude identifying with the larger community leads to more problems than solutions.  

It is part of our human nature to identify with groups, but our media today, along with government, is manipulating those tendencies to their benefit and our detriment, pitting us against each other in an ever-increasing number of ways and distracting us from issues that are of more consequence to the larger population. 

As we fight over the issues they themselves created the tone gets so chaotic and divisive that the "problem" demands a "solution" and the people cry to the government to make laws to solve our differences, completely unaware that was the agenda all along. A ready-made solution that we as a people would have never embraced had the "problem" not come to our attention. 

Exploiting our natural tendency to identify with a group of like-minded people has become a science used by the powerful to dominate the ignorant into submission who will not and cannot think critically. Instead of fighting against this oppression we fight among ourselves and "fight" for the government to enslave us even more, all the while thinking we are fighting for freedom.

Identity politics is being used as a tool to divide us so we can more easily be conquered, preying on our human nature to identify with a group and in the process conditioning us to react to "trigger words" without thinking of the larger agenda, predisposing us to see our differences as opposed to our commonality, and setting us up for even more control by those in power while sidestepping any meaningful, organized resistance.

There are things worth fighting for we can all agree on like clean air, pure water, a healthy environment, the right to live with dignity, and life-giving food, but to think that our governments care about providing the people with those things is naive. 

There are no leaders in the government. They are all followers, only moving to action when people, out of desperation, demand it. The true leaders of any movement have always found their genesis from individual people and communities demanding rights which seem obvious in hindsight. The politicians are always the last to take action and only do so to protect their own self-interests.

To truly forge a future that the majority of people can benefit from we have to move beyond identifying with our own smaller identities, beyond identity politics, beyond taking sides, and identify with commonalities we all share. When we do that we are an unstoppable force for the common good.

There are so many issues discussed on the national stage today that actually affect a small percentage of the population, and do not warrant so much attention when compared to more pressing issues we all face. 

That is not to say that those issues are not just as important to the people it affects, but the percentage of the population that it does not affect face more pressing issues that should be on the table for discussion.

Take sexual orientation and gender identity, for example. Our constitution clearly states:

>We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness.

You would think that it was obvious that the LGBT community would have those same rights, yet we are still excluding people after all these years.


<div class="pull-left"><center><img src="https://i.imgsafe.org/59/5952bb2f01.jpeg"/><a href="http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/349363/The-Fight-For-Gay-Rights-in-America/">Source</a></center></div>

I personally believe if you are gay, transgender, bi, or whatever your sexual orientation is, if it makes you happy and doesn't infringe on others rights then that is a non-issue according to the laws we have all agreed to live by.



 

We also have very clear laws that separate church and state so to oppose a gay couple living together on religious grounds is clearly not constitutional.

I have friends that are gay and I don't pretend to know what kinds of discrimination they have been subjected to but support their rights to organize and vote for legislation to protect their rights.

>### "To be surrounded by a million other people
>### But to feel alone like a tree in a desert
>### Dried up like the skin of a lizard
>### But full of color like the spots of a leopard
>### Drum and bass pull me in like a shepherd
>### Scratch my itch like a needle on a record" 
>### - Michael Franti



While they have clearly been discriminated against and should fight to have their voice and rights respected, the fact remains that only 3.8% of Americans identify as LGBT. (1.7% as lesbian or gay, 1.8% as bisexual, and 0.3% as transgender) 

I applaud their struggle and victory to have their rights represented and find it unfortunate they have had to struggle so hard for rights we are all supposed to have already, but for the majority of the population, this is not an issue. It is clearly an issue for those it affects, but for those who for whom it does not, why has it become a national issue? You're an American and you have rights and one of those rights is the pursuit of happiness. End of story.

This issue only affects 3.8% of the population and yet we have to make it a national issue?  

That doesn't mean it is not important, but from my point of view, it is an issue that affects a very small percentage of the population. 

Yet our media talks about it like it affects everyone and everyone has to take a position on the issue. The topic is so polarized that we can't even talk about it without someone being triggered to react which I'm sure someone will do in the comments to this post. 

<center>https://i.imgsafe.org/59/595e0dc337.jpeg</center>

<center>[Source](https://www.srune.com/lists/10-reasons-why-taiwan-is-the-beacon-of-gay-rights-in-asia/49)</center>



If you are that person compelled to feel offended by what I just said then please read what I just said again, not to offend you, but to see I just said I agree with you having the right to be you. So why are you offended?

I believe it's because identity politics is being used to divide us against each other in as many ways as possible to keep us from ever coming together as one and affecting real change in the world. Real change that would have an impact on the majority of the population and change the lives of generations to come.

Identity politics blinds us to discussing facts and the fact is that 3.8% of the population in the U.S. identifies as LGBT. By comparison, 20% of the US population does not have access to safe drinking water, 40.4% of the population is unemployed,  and14% of adults are illiterate, but those discussions are not getting the same attention they deserve.

These issues cause more adverse consequences for a larger slice of the population than who a gay person is sleeping with and discussing that fact does not take away from homosexuals rights to sleep with who they want to sleep with nor does it disrespect their choice to do so. Those kinds of discussions don't make the headline news.

Why are we not offended by those statistics? Why do those issues not get as much attention? Why are we not having that discussion?

Instead we make the front page issues about where a transgender person can and cannot go to the bathroom. Really?

If you are homophobic and frightened by the thought that a transgender person may be peeing in the next stall I have some news for you. There have been transgender people in our communities since communities have existed and they have been peeing in the stall next to you all this time. As the saying goes, when you got to go you got to go. 

<center>https://i.imgsafe.org/59/593ee7cb63.png</center>

<center>[Source](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wd7enm/passing-when-youre-transgender)</center>



Why is this an issue all of a sudden? Who made it an issue and why do you care? In my view, transgenders can pee wherever they want. Why should you give a shit where they are taking a shit?

Only 0.3% of the population identifies as transgender and there are no known cases of men dressing up as women so they can enter public bathrooms and assault women, which was the basis for opposing laws to protect their right to go to the bathroom. I feel bad for the transgender community that they even have to deal with an issue like that.

I mean no offense to anyone in the LGBT community or any other letters of the alphabet. I'm am just making a point which is, the media is manipulating us and distracting us from discussing issues that affect most of the population in an effort to divide and conquer us, keep us separated and unable to come together as a unified community regardless of our differences. 

By pitting us against each other according to our race, social status, gender, sexuality, age, nationality, politics. identity, we lose sight of the things we all have in common which far outnumber our differences.



These divisions are hindering our ability to have a civil discussion about our different views and is detrimental to finding solutions to much more pressing problems we face. If we can't find a solutions moving forward than one will be provided for us by those in power. Historically, most solutions that our governments provide us with either chip away at our freedoms, our pockets, or both.

We spend billions to fight terrorism, for example, even though your chances of being killed by a terrorist is 1 in 3.6 billion. By comparison, your odds of being struck by lightning this year are 1 in 960,000. In your lifetime those odds drop to about 1 in 12,000. Why are we not outraged that our taxes are being drained on fighting terrorists that pose such a small threat to our well being? Why is it seen as un-American for even talking about the facts?

We are being robbed blind and all we can do is fight each other over issues of no great importance to most of us.  Fighting over rights we all have supposedly agreed we all have. Why are we still excluding people from their rights?

<center>https://i.imgsafe.org/59/59281e407e.jpeg</center>

<center>[Source](https://rampages.us/ncc1701d/2016/09/)</center>



There is an unspoken agenda being plied on the community that is draining our national coffers of much-needed resources and we can't even talk about it without our integrity being put into question. 

We cannot look to political leaders to guide us and unite us. It's up to us to stand united against tyranny. The more [we allow the government to divide us against each other the less freedom we all have](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX3kEehmBpE)

Those in power are actively working to take away our democracy. If you don't believe that you should watch 

[Requiem for the American Dream - English Version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX3kEehmBpE) 

[Requiem for the American Dream - Spanish Version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT0SUmrDQpY) 


>### "Full of life like a man gone to Mecca
>### Sky high like an eagle up soaring
>### I speak low but I'm like a lion roaring
>### Baritone like a Robeson recordin'
>### I'm givin' thanks for bein' human every morning" 
>### - Michael Franti



My family immigrated to the US and became citizens and I was raised to believe in the freedoms the Constitution protects. Unfortunately, the very same Constitution did not protect everyone's rights equally and many have had to fight to have the same rights we profess to hold dear. 

It's not fair and it is a messy business with many groups underrepresented. The right to peacefully assemble is so important to how a democracy works and we also need to be able to have discussions about issues if we are to find peace. But how can we have honest communication if we can't even have a discussion?

Identity politics is minimizing the opportunities to have meaningful discussions. When someone identifies with their group without identifying with the larger, human community, communication breaks down as we take sides to defend our point of view.

While I'm aware that groups like the LGBT community have suffered from discrimination, they are not immune to dishing out unprovoked discrimination themselves. They are after all human.

I have been verbally attacked by gay people, both men, and women, in the past without doing anything to provoke their attack. I didn't say anything, imply any disrespect, or taunt them in any way that would warrant their aggressive response. Seeing how many people in that community have been victims of attack themselves it was really shocking to see they can be just as cruel.

I played music for a living for many years and one woman I saw perform once really impressed me. I never met her or talked with her before. One day I walked into our local bar to order a drink and saw her at the bar so I walked up and said, "Hi, I saw you perform at your show last week and really enjoyed your music." 

She immediately began verbally attacking me and then started swinging her fists at me to the point that people stepped in to pull her away. There was nothing in my tone or approach that could have been mistaken as a come on or an insult. It really left me dumbfounded. She didn't appear intoxicated and the whole encounter took me and everyone in the place by surprise.

<center>https://i.imgsafe.org/59/597f9e93ba.jpeg</center>

<center>[Source](https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/divide)</center>



A few weeks later I saw her again and she approached me and apologized. She explained that she had heard about me and had the impression that I was a womanizer as if somehow that justified her behavior. 

She confessed that she was a lesbian, which I wasn't even aware of, and prejudice against me for the very fact that I was a white male.  And based on her preconceived idea she jumped to some conclusion that I was a threat to her so she went on the offensive. 

Some of her friends who also knew me had a talk with her about me and explained to her that she was mistaken about who she thought I was.  It made her realize how she had behaved the exact way she has fought against for years.   

We had a deep discussion about how she felt and how humans can behave badly even when they themselves have felt victimized. She was abused by men who happened to be white. As sad as that is I am not those men. Not all white men are abusive or racist. (she happened to be black) You see, I didn't see her as a black person or a lesbian person, I just saw her as a person who happened to be a great musician. I like talking with musicians and just wanted to say I enjoyed her show.

It made me see that sometimes we can identify with a group so much that we make assumptions about people not in our group that are totally incorrect and misguided.

The point being, that by not identifying with what we have in common with people we lose our ability to communicate effectively and resolve our differences. Differences are what gives us strength as a community, arguably just as much strength as our solidarity.

I'm glad to say we became friends.

>### "Be resistant
>### The negativity we keep it at a distance
>### Call for backup and I'll give you some assistance
>### Like a lifesaver deep in the ocean
>### Stay afloat here upon the funky motion
>### Rock and roll upon the waves of the season
>### Hold your breath and your underwater breathin'" 
>### - Michael Franti



Identity politics corrodes our ability to reach consensus and predisposes us to make incorrect assumptions. Any debate offered that differs from our own view is immediately seen as a threat to our very existence, to us as human beings, to our self-worth. From that perspective, it dissolves any means of bringing people together.

When we lose the ability to have a discussion with people who hold opposing views and instead react by defending ourselves as if our life depends on it, or worst, going into attack mode and belittling the person who challenges your position, no resolution is possible. 

Hearing views different to your own as a personal attack deafens our ability to think clearly and if that kind of divisive behavior continues, we can internalize the prejudice we have been struggling against.

We see this played out in many ways in society. For example, law enforcement that spends years fighting corruption until the law itself becomes corrupt. After many years of taking a stance that it is us against them, they soon become indistinguishable from each other. The same has happened with the FDA, EPA, IRS, DEA and so on. Organizations that fought against organized crime have become organized and criminal. 

Institutions that were created to protect our environment and our health are destroying our environment and our health. Where is the outrage about that? Why are we not offended and fighting against that?

Democrats and Republicans are all bought and paid for by the same organizations and no longer represent the people, instead, they bow to the corporations that support them.

Democracy is not perfect but is the best system we have come up with so far. For most of humanity's existence, we were poor, violent, bloody creatures and our human nature has not changed. We're still the same mess we were 10,000 years ago. What has changed are our values, norms, and institutions we erect to protect those values and if you don't have gratitude for them and try to protect them they will go away. Each day they are being overrun and these issues affect us all. That is what we should be rallying to fight for and protect.

When we fight to protect our own individual groups we identify with even if those groups only represent a minute percentage of the population, we lose sight of our humanity and burn bridges we should be building. There's nothing wrong with a little identity politics and fighting for its causes and ideals, but is it good for the largest percentage of a community? Must we also attack and destroy those who hold opposing beliefs?

As an analogy, there's nothing wrong with a pinch of salt to bring out the flavor of the meal, too much salt ruins the meal, and way too much is literally poisonous. All poisons are determined by the dosage. 

<center>https://i.imgsafe.org/59/598485daae.jpeg</center>



<center>[Source](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/324048135659850527/)</center>

By all means, fight political incorrectness if that's what you're inclined to do, but just because being rude is politically incorrect doesn't mean being rude is good. So much of what is happening on both sides of the political aisle is this idea that you can do almost any horrible thing if it annoys the right people.

In my view, that idea is politically bankrupt. Having the right enemies is not good for moving the world forward in a positive direction.

Politics is drifting into a space where it is only about picking teams and whatever your team does you defend and whatever the other team does you pick the opposite position. Facts are ignored if they don't work in your favor. This can only lead to the decline of the community.


>### "To be rhymin' without a real reason
>### Is to claim but not to practice a religion
>### Is television is the drug of the nation
>### Satelite is immaculate reception
>### Beaming in they can look and they can listen
>### So you see don't believe in the system
>### To legalize you or give you your freedom
>### You want rights ask'em, they'll read 'em
>### But every flower gotta right to be bloomin'
>### Stay human..." 
>### - Michael Franti



There are many things in American history we need to atone for and we have plenty of problems today we need to fix. These challenges exist in every generation. 

It is human nature to want to be part of your tribe. We are hardwired to be part of a group. That's how we evolved. We'll do everything to help our team, our friends, our family, our allies, our coalition, and the stranger is the enemy.

It is said that a child is taught to hate and naturally wants to love, but I don't think that is totally true. We have to teach a child to not be selfish, to share, to have empathy. We have to teach people that strangers have human dignity, that they are decent people, and just because you don't know them or agree with them it doesn't make them the enemy.

I think we're falling short on that in our politics and our education and instead we're telling people to just go with their feelings. That their rage is more important than facts or their argument. 

The focus directed on identity politics escalates to the point that everyone not in their group becomes the enemy and that creates an environment that makes it difficult to find common ground. When groups attack each other based on their differences we all become soldiers in a physiological war. 

<center>https://i.imgsafe.org/59/59b50186b0.jpeg</center>



<center>[Source](http://www.azquotes.com/author/543-Karen_Armstrong)</center>



Democracy has never been about agreeing with others, it's about having arguments. Big messy arguments. It's moved away from that. It's not about having arguments at all. Facts don't matter. 

The whole point of the enlightenment is that you could persuade people to understand your point of view even if they disagree with them. A lot of people are giving up on persuasion and just attacking the opposition tooth and nail with no holds barred. Winning for the sake of winning is amoral if it's not backed by ideas worthy of fighting for. The underlying ideas are meaningless if they divide people at a fundamental level and strip people of their dignity.

America needs to focus less on identity politics on both side and more on merits because merits are what moves a society forward.  That said, some people's merits are overlooked *because of* identity politics. I'm not saying that there isn't discrimination out there. Obviously, there is. The founding fathers themselves were hypocrites in that they were slave owners who created a nation where one of the primary values was that all men were created equal. They were fleeing from oppression from a king while they themselves oppressed the indigenous natives and the slaves they brought with them to build a new world based on freedom. How the irony of that was lost on them reality boggles the mind.

All I'm saying is that all a civilization is, is the story we tell ourselves about ourselves.

One of the reasons Martin Luther King was so persuasive is he was appealing to the best ideals of Americans by saying we should take people as we find them. He was persuading all Americans, not just black Americans. He is right and it spoke to the truth we all know in our souls.

>### "Because the streets are alive with the sound of Boom Bap
>### Can I hear it once again!
>### Boom Bap tell your neighbor tell a friend
>### Every flower got a right to be bloomin'!
>### Stay Human!" 
>### - Michael Franti



One of the great things about the Constitution which is no longer taught is we got rid of titles of nobility, the notion that simply by the accident of birth one person is better or somehow nobler than another person.

While a little bit of identity politics is fine, just like a little nationalism or ethnic pride is harmless, when you start reducing whole categories of people to an abstraction and say all I need to know about you is the color of your skin (or your social status, or educational background, or sexual orientation, or religious beliefs)  that's when you start to have problems.

Black people have been discriminated against for centuries and have bravely struggled for their rights. If anyone should know how unjust it is to be judged by their ethnicity it is them. We are all in danger of becoming what we fight against. It is just as unjust today to say that all white people are racist. 

There are more interracial marriages today then there have ever been so they can't all be racist. When people say that all white people are racist they are being disingenuous, but we can admit that this system from the founding fathers was written in such a way that it would benefit one race over another. 

<center>https://i.imgsafe.org/59/5996a2856c.png</center>

<center>[Source](http://www.thethoughtworkandlifeskillsinstitute.com/2013/11/deepak-chopra-on-universal-equality.html)</center>



It is an outrage that this country took so long to include everyone in this idea of universal equality, but that is not an argument for getting rid of universal equality. We need to be more consistent in applying these ideals rather than saying these ideals themselves are bankrupt.

For all of human history most of the world lived on less than $3 a day and once these ideas started being put into action more people started living lives with more dignity. We still have a long way to go and there are many still living in poverty today, but we live in this moment where the greatest alleviation of material poverty in all of history is a reality and it's because of these ideas starting to germinate across the world and lifting people up.

Maybe we could have a little gratitude for the ideas behind our Constitution. Maybe we can acknowledge that this story isn't purely a story of oppression and tyranny.  Were we bad and did bad things happen in the past? Yes. Have things been getting better? Yes. And in some ways are things getting worse? Yes. All of these things are true and even if we disagree on issues we can have a civil discussion about our concerns and see where we are all partly correct. From there we can find solutions, we can reach consensus.

In all fairness, it's difficult to say to people to have gratitude when they are not living in the promise of what the country is meant to be.

While our rights give us the right to the pursuit of happiness it does not guarantee it. You have the right to pursue it. One of the great things about freedom is it gives more people the opportunity to pursue it. Could that get better? Yes. But I think it's safe to say that when you look back at any of the societal systems we had prior to 300 years ago they were not any better at it.


>### "You see Y2K ya know is a moment
>### In time we find that we can open
>### Up a heart that's locked or been broken
>### By the pain of the words not spoken
>### Or shot by guns a still smokin'
>### Cartwrights out on the Ponderosa
>### Or drive by bang in Testarossa
>### We need to heed the words of Dalai Lama
>### Or at least the words of ya mama
>### Take a mental trip to the Bahamas
>### Steam your body in a stereo sauna, sauna, comma...." 
>### - Michael Franti


When people say we fall short of our ideals, well, of course, we do. That's why we call them ideals. You're not supposed to be able to live up to your ideal. They act more as a North star and something to aspire to, something to march towards and strive to get better at.

Democracy is unnatural. If it were natural it would have shown up a little earlier in the evolutionary record of our existence. But it has lifted society up out of the muck and squalor, our struggle to survive and be civil with each other and should be shown a little more appreciation for what it has achieved to help humanity.

Like a golden goose it has laid many golden eggs even if it has shit all over the house more times than we can count and left us to clean up the mess.

Social issues are rarely divided into neat black and white solutions, but if we cannot even have a discussion about them we will never solve our problems. Throwing slings and arrows at each other is not the answer. Not now or ever. We need to be able to have a debate and accept that those who don't think like we do are still worthy of being heard and treated like decent human beings.
 

Regardless of how different we or our views can be, the fact remains, we all have more in common with each other then we care to admit. Let's not lose sight of that very simple fact, for no matter how messy democracy can be only our ability to respect each other can move us forward.

>### "All the freaky people make the beauty of the world" - Michael Franti 


<center>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb03HQ0Ar-4</center>

# <center> Stay Human (Album Version) - Michael Frant</center> #


<center>[![luzcypher-emoji-verified-2.png](https://s16.postimg.org/fg72y0snp/luzcypher_emoji_verified_2.png)](https://steemit.com/@luzcypher)</center>