The changing character of political liberalism is yet another factor that helps explain the shift away from support for redistribution. From the late 1960s onward, the Democratic left has moved its emphasis away from an encompassing class-based agenda rooted in the New Deal coalition to a relative focus on a so-called identity group agenda, attacking discrimination against women, African-Americans, Hispanics, gays and other once-marginalized constituencies.These are what COTTonLINE calls "victim groups." They harbor grievances against the society at large and practice the politics of resentment.
How can Democrats wonder why they no longer have the support of white non-college males? These men are the "identity group" whose interests are normally harmed when the so-called "protected classes" are helped by asymmetric government policy. We wrote about this issue some weeks ago.
