Within the last decade or so, a new phenomenon has emerged in United States politics. So-called “identity politics” has become an increasingly preferred tool of the political left and to a far lesser extent the political right. Identity politics emphasizes victim status, systematic blame, negative energy, and divisive means. One of these means is the use of language control: a common tool of the political elite. The political left insists on placing all people into categories. An example is the left’s insistence on identifying all Americans as hyphenated Americans or members of a particular race or ethnic group (e.g. Irish-Americans, Jews, Whites, Blacks, light-skinned Hispanics, and so on). This was originally a tactic of the American political right, but it has worked so well as a negative tactic that the left has wholeheartedly embraced it.

People naturally desire to be members of a community; we are social creatures. Millennials are discovering that life is hard, and in response, many seek a group with which they can identify. If the millennial is a political leftist, the desire is to belong to a group that has been historically marginalized and discriminated against. There are people who cannot converse in Gaelic claiming to be Irish, and likewise with every other group that the left has divided us into. These divisions are false and are used by the political elites to control us.

The United States of America has never been perfect and is not perfect today. It has been and continues to be inhabited by bad people. It is, however, the only nation that was founded on a creed, not by blood and soil. That creed is basedinequitable justice,the ruleof law, and no aristocratic or racial privilege. We must reject the divisiveness of identity politics and embrace freedom. The political left is going to destroy our progress and drag us into a tribal reality.

The United States is the land of opportunity, where the free market does not discriminate. Only in the United States can one find people of German descent discussing ideas and concepts with people of Kenyan or Filipino descent freely, without government repercussions. Although we may take pride in our ancestors and their achievements, when everyone’s identity is hyphenated, it creates a false division that only feeds into a culture of negativity.

On campuses throughout the U.S., conflicts are arising between Jews and Muslims, Whites and Blacks, Christians and Atheists. In all of these conflicts, we see people seeking blame, rejecting our commonality as Americans, and abdicating their responsibility as Americans to respect the dignity of all. That is not to suggest the problems of the past should be forgotten, but no one should be blamed for the sins of their fathers or forget their own.