Mike Gonzalez is the — and let me get this right — Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He drops by the Kabana today to discuss one of the hottest of the hot-button topics in America right now: identity politics.
Mike has just written a book titled The Plot to Change America: How Identity Politics is Dividing the Land of the Free. He was very generous with his time and we had a long conversation about the book, which covers a lot. But here is something helpful from the Heritage site’s promo that sets it up well:
The first myth that this book will expose is that identity politics is a grassroots movement, when from the beginning it has been, and continues to be, an elite project. For too long, we have lived with the fairytale that America has organically grown into a nation gripped by victimhood and identitarian division; that it is all the result of legitimate demands by minorities for recognition or restitutions for past wrongs. The second myth is that identity politics is a response to the demographic change this country has undergone since immigration laws were radically changed in 1965. Another myth that we are told is that to fight these changes is as depraved as it is futile, since by 2040, America will be a minority-majority country anyway. This book will help to explain that none of these things are true.
The demographic-shift argument is a particular pet peeve of mine. It’s what the California GOP has been using as an excuse to roll over and play dead for the last twenty years or so when they actually could have been winning many state-level elections with just a little more effort.
I had a great time talking to Mike and I will definitely be having him back.
I’m not sure what’s up for next Friday’s episode yet. Maybe we’ll just have a party.
America needs more parties.
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PJ Media Senior Columnist and Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.” His columns appear twice a week.
