Kamala Harris cannot rely on identity politics to win this election

When was the last time you tested yourself for COVID-19?

There was a period where plans were scrapped at the first hint of a sniffle.

Four years later, the strange grip of COVID has diminished: The fever has subsided.

Life carries on as it did before the pandemic, but with the lingering memory of how the pursuit of blind emotion — fear, in this case — clouds our judgment and compels obedience.

Identity politics is a different kind of virus, one that was planted by the far left to secure the 2020 election.

Designed to calm fears during a time of social unrest, “progressives” convinced us that all of society’s issues could be resolved by yielding to the demands of social justice warriors.

Their carefully crafted media persona — as a remedy to alleviate Trump fatigue with the Democratic Party’s empathy — facilitated their triumph.

Yet with triumph came disdain for at least half of the electorate.

President Biden has repeatedly referred to “MAGA Republicans” to categorize Trump supporters as dangerous authoritarians.

Democratic political advisors seem to have settled on this tactic to camouflage their divisive and detrimental policies over the past four years.

Millions of dollars fuel this machinery — ads, focus groups, tailored polls, and an army of canvassers — to create the illusion that with Kamala Harris, the party is gaining tremendous traction.

However, the spell of identity politics is wearing thin, and the cracks in its foundation are becoming visible. Its fever is breaking, too.

When the faltering Biden was replaced by Harris, the transition was coated with a layer of woke rhetoric.

She was portrayed as an inspirational figure: “a daughter of immigrants”; “the first female vice president in US history”; “the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket.”

Yet the media fanfare celebrating Harris for her gender and racial identity does not align with voter priorities.

Last year, only 18% of US adults agreed that it was “extremely” or “very important” for a woman to be elected president in their lifetime.

Identity politics has become a luxury belief that Americans can no longer afford.

Over the last four years, it has become evident that woke policies promising unity and safety have produced the opposite effect.

Profound despair on the streets of Democrat-controlled cities such as Portland, Los Angeles, and San Francisco contradicts the image of a compassionate party.

Economically, Americans continue to endure the government’s excessive regulation and the heightened inflation caused by the continuous printing of money and anti-growth energy policies.

Parents have been drawn into politics out of necessity as they witness the anguish of their children: The relentless march of woke ideology in schools puts every child at risk of manipulation and indoctrination.

This government marketed itself on social justice, but no justice can be found in a distorted system that shows leniency towards criminals, while its candidates endorse movements to defund the police.

White men, in particular, are awakening to the fact that they were guilt-tripped into blindly giving their votes, money, and loyalty to progressive groups and causes.

They now see that the supposed beneficiaries of those campaigns are worse off, while they themselves are stung and demonized by increasingly radical progressives.

Take Silicon Valley, formerly a hotbed of wokeism — but interventionist policies, it turns out, stifle innovation.

Radical progressives brought in from the humanities simply do not fit in an industry that relies on meritocracy, so techies are increasingly turning away from the Democrats.

Feelings of betrayal have shattered the compassionate facade for many Jewish voters, too.

The October 7 attack on Israel sparked an upsurge of antisemitism, the lenient treatment of pro-Hamas demonstrators, and the appeasement of Iran on the global stage.

This alarming totality does not align with the predictions that Harris-Walz is a winning ticket.

It has become evident to many moderate Democrats that identity politics was not motivated by a desire to liberate or seek justice for the marginalized.

Quite the contrary: The struggles of vulnerable communities were exploited to secure unchecked power for a select few, as the woke hardliners enforced policies through the administrative state rather than through representative government.

Luxury beliefs, like luxury goods, come with a hefty price tag.

It is now 2024, and Americans are unwilling to pay the price this time, regardless of the narratives spun by the polls and the media.

Those who do are either naive or masochistic.

You decide.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and founder of the Restoration Bulletin.