After Identity Politics

Mark Lilla’s seminal book, The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics has been getting a lot of attention lately…thankfully!

The lede from Lilla’s August 11th Wall Street Journal article sums it up:

“Liberals should reject the divisive, zero-sum politics of identity and find their way back to a unifying vision of the common good.”

This book should be required reading for all citizens, both left and right. Liberals and conservatives are the left and right legs of the body politic. We need both to work in harmony and mutual respect to achieve the best outcome for all of us. That process begins with the understanding and embrace of the fundamental, and laudable, objectives of both streams of thought.