Which Identity Is Unworthy? It Might Be Yours.
By David Bittinger | December 19, 2025
Identity politics are still the clogged heart of America’s largest political party — still! It’s been decades since grocery stores stopped plaguing shoppers with elevator-rock music and that long wait in line while some goof writes a check for a loaf of bread. But after decades of contrary evidence, Democrats still believe their resentment-mongering identity politics are good for the country.
Utopian belief survives failure. That’s reflected in the party’s star players now proudly identifying as Democratic Socialists. The heart is ailing, the diagnosis wrong, but the beat goes on.
Politicizing inborn identities became the Democrats’ main 20th century agenda when they had no other marketable ideas. In this century, their racial pandering and demands for identity obedience are producing diminishing domestic popularity; hence, their free everything for countless millions of the world’s impoverished recruited progressives.
Meanwhile, they’ve moved on to a class-focused version of identity politics, one they never acknowledge. Having become increasingly attached to rich elites and the dependent poor, increasingly far-left Dems gradually abandoned people in the middle. Easy decision. The middlers kept getting poorer and less easily herded.
Their political calculations quietly produced a diffuse unworthy identity: the private-sector middle class, the middle outside Democrats’ warm embrace of 23.5 million government jobs (a huge majority unionized and voting for the correct party).
Have you been seeing fewer middle class people lately and far fewer happy ones? Look soon before they disappear. Or just look at California, where a middle class once large and healthy now has two options: accept more misery enforced by tax-happy, incompetent government or join the flight to a less miserable state.
If your identity is now deemed ignorable by progressive deemers, well, too bad for you. Like the no-bail, anti-prosecution policies that put repeat criminals back on streets of the cities Democrats control, middle class invisibility is a doctrine they don’t talk about.
Dems never gave up the politics of racial identity. Broad-minded, they expanded their reach to include Hispanic / Latino, Asian, Native American, and Pacific Islander (of course, not Long Islander).
Then they took identity politics international. In a 2019 presidential debate, Joe Biden — at that point still able to recite talking points carefully explained to him — addressed a global identity. He urged potential immigrants to “surge to the border” as “people are seeking asylum.”
That promoted an enlarged parade to the U.S. of 10 -15 million more of the world’s indigent or criminal, hardly any being political victims, virtually all eager for free food and shelter, free education and health care, and — for certain street merchants — ready cash customers.
There’s also a religious identity favored by Democrats, now an important constituency for them in two northern states. It’s not Christian.
I probably missed some other worthy identities. Please don’t send me to re-education camp.
One identity ineligible for Democrats’ political merchandising remains obvious. It includes most hockey fans, most collectors of vintage lunch boxes, most people who dance awkwardly — you know, people who find croquet exciting.
Of course, gender identity is also marketable now. If you missed the lettered identity update (I did until I looked it up just now) it’s grown to LGBTQIA+. The boring traditional option is now called cisgender or cis, potentially confusing, especially if you have a sister you called “Sis.” Identity politics keep getting more challenging.
The Socialist-Marxist left now raging through our streets and the pages of The New York Times keeps villainizing the especially unworthy identities electorally (the 77 million who voted for you-know-whom) and recognized dermatologically (you might have noticed them ballroom dancing).
Since Democrats can’t pander to everyone, this identity abandonment required a trade-off. So, they off-loaded a class they’d earlier claimed to champion, though that claim was then delivered on black-and-white televisions.
During the Obama years their message shifted from “We’re all for the working people” to “You people should learn how to code.”
Consider the private-sector middle class blithely abandoned by Democrat strategists in the 21st century: small business owners, tradespeople, mid-level corporate employees, self-reliant entrepreneurs, self-employed strugglers, people who don’t live on government paychecks, people whose economic security has been strangled while the left’s identity politics conversation consumed all the oxygen.
“Plutocracy,” is defined as” a country or society governed by the wealthy.” Democrats’ 21st century politics might be called Two-Tiered Plutocracy. Seems strange that a political party can thrive on two dramatically polar bases:
— one fueled by the fortunes and posturing of the doctrinally-educated wealthy, these worthies safe behind gated walls and lifetime security
— one scraping by in failing cities with street camps, depended on to produce large voting majorities and never-ending appetites for government support
But one party is sure trying.
Democrats’ dual focus on big-money interests and little-money interests actually makes cynical sense. They established a polarized power base that no longer needed the riff-raff declining in the middle.
When your “progressive” movement is tight with the likes of Bill Gates and George Soros, The New York Times and most every faculty except Hillsdale’s, plus everyone whose survival depends on government benefits or paychecks, you don’t need Linda the landscaper or some guy struggling to make a living on a small feed store in Iowa.
Criticism of identity politics needn’t deny that real discrimination has occurred or that addressing its remnant is valid. It does raise the question of whether identity politics has become a substitute for economic justice rather than an advancement of it.
So, if you’re in the shrinking private-sector middle class, how worthy is your identity? As judged by the left’s legacy media, faculty lounges everywhere, Hollywood and TV elites, and the party being overtaken by the faction that wants to “seize the means of production,” you’re not just unworthy, you’re unseen.
You might have voted for the presidential candidate recently described by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (soon retiring after running Congress and a magical investment portfolio for what seemed like forever) as “. . . just a vile creature. The worst thing on the face of the Earth.” Your vote and 77 million others made that vile creature victorious, even though only defeating a candidate who spoke in giggling baby talk.
Trump populism seems to have slightly turned back the tide of middle-class marginalization. But the forces behind Two-Tiered Plutocracy, perpetually contemptuous about everything outside government control, will never give up. Their war against capitalism has angry armies of seizure on both coasts, Chicago, even the “Minnesota Nice” Twin Cities.
Decent armies need to fight back with ballots and common sense. At least as much as the entitled rich and the patronized poor, America’s once-healthy middle class is worth saving. The alternative is the United States of California.
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Correctly foreseeing that Chicago would in the future elect mayors far dumber than Bilandic, Bittinger moved from Chicago to a cheese-based land just north. It felt familiar because its Democrats were also enthusiastic about tax gouging and election conniving. He misses proximity to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the occasional victorious White Sox game, but enjoys writing for JKN’s savvy subscribers and still lives for the day when he can tell the Packers fans who surround him, “Hey there, Cheesy, who sucks now?”
Comments 34
Thanks. Very, very well said. Am in my late 70s, and one can lay ALL of this on academia. Beginning with the likes of Bill Ayers and his terror group in the late sixties, to the elitist show of Mr. and Mr. Obama, they managed to give us what we have now.
Not sure how this is done, but somehow, all the vitriol has to at least slow down a bit. From the destruction of the Chicago Tribune, to Governor give away all of the store, to President
Run His Mouth, one would hope the next go around gives better choices.
Both parties have stables, so we’ll see if the Dems continue on their horrid way, or choose the likes of Shapiro, Moore, or Beshear.
Mr Kurtz is partly correct I believe—laying ALL the blame at the foot of Academia and the “Elites” is only partially correct — as Mr. Bittinger, in this great piece of writing, rightly admonishes ALL of us in the real Middle Class: “Decent armies need to fight back with ballots and common sense.” What this really means is that ‘Everyone (every average Joe & Jolene in the ignored middle class) needs to vote in ALL local and state elections as well as the big national elections’…absent this commitment to “vote”, we are doing nothing short of slowly handing over the keys to the Kingdom.
Mr Kurtz is partly correct I believe—laying ALL the blame at the foot of Academia and the “Elites” is only partially correct — as Mr. Bittinger, in this great piece of writing, rightly admonishes ALL of us in the real Middle Class: “Decent armies need to fight back with ballots and common sense.” What this really means is that ‘Everyone (every average Joe & Jolene in the ignored middle class) needs to vote in ALL local and state elections as well as the big national elections’…absent this commitment to “vote”, we are doing nothing short of slowly handing over the keys to the Kingdom.
John…..excellent advice! I’m stunned by how few people vote, especially in office year elections and local elections (school boards, county boards, etc.)
Just look at DuPage Cty…. It has been lost to the woke because people didn’t vote, then people didn’t run.
Think back on Chicagos election that took a racist moron democrat over another Democrat with a history of high achievement…..more people voted in a Favorite Pizza contest than voted in the damn election!
Your comment is well said, Larry. The Ayers were friends of my family in Glen Ellyn, so I learned that even nice suburbs can criminally bomb. And you’re right that both parties have stables. But the Republicans’ stable has too many Uniparty creatures, and the Dems’ only breeds four-legged creatures who just produce something requiring shovels.
“Decent armies need to fight back with ballots and common sense. ” My compliments, Sir!
However, devotees of Franz Fanon and Noam Chomsky may opine that ‘decent’ is a neocolonialist trigger.
Aw, hell! Pull the damn thing!
Great essay, Mr. Bittinger.
Pat, it seems that the Infidel descendants of Fanon’s “wretched of the earth” are currently reeking havoc in France and Europe.
Pat and James — The comments of you two in JKN are always shrewd. These made me reflect on how Fanon and Chomsky-types always pose as lofty smart, yet aren’t even able to see what ordinary people do: jihad rapidly consuming western democracies.
Well done Dave. Educational and entertaining.
I cannot get the image of Barry Soetero walking around his Chicago legacy monstrosity in Jackson Park with his white hard hat on, oh so one with the people. I was offended that he picked a “white” hard hat for the occasion when there are a plentitude pf colors available in the LGBTQIA+ rainbow.
Intriguing reading Sir. I agree with all of your logic.
It baffles me that good, decent people I know are Democrats. They’ve always voted D and continue to vote D. Their favorite color or their preferred Chicago baseball team doesn’t change nor does their vote. They’ve always voted D. It’s part of their DNA. They’re the frog in the pot and the water is starting to boil; they have no idea.
I too am baffled by those who would vote for their own destruction. My family members in particular.
It seems the common thread with most people I know in that group is a college degree.
Mark — Your college-degree family and mine should get together and sing. Between them, they’d know every verse of “If I Had a Hammer.”
Wait….I’m part of the alphabet people (who thinks the alphabet should stop at LGB). You mean to tell me that all this time I could’ve been trading on my orientation and not merit!? Since I’m retired now, are there any retroactive cash payments for which I’m eligible?
Seriously, as a center-right Christian gay white man, things can get lonely when it comes to politics. Most of my own “community” exhibit Amish-level shunning skills when they find out I voted for Trump (3x). There seems to be a growing gay conservative movement, and I’m pleasantly surprised that I’ve been welcomed into the tent, even though a lot of conservatives would rather see people like me swinging from a tree rather than have a conversation with me. (Strange Fruit, indeed. Pun intended)
I do hope that common sense prevails as we move through this very intense stress testing of the American experiment.
The middle class is far more diverse then people think.
Charles — Thanks for your wise and clever reflection here. I have a special admiration for people who are technically in groups pandered to by calculating leftists, especially people who adopt principled conservatism while rejecting pretenses of comradeship in racial or gender preference.
BTW, for any JKN reader who doesn’t know the “Strange Fruit” that Mr. MacDonald deftly refers to, it’s a legendary song performed by Billie Holiday, first in 1939, eulogizing black Americans lynched by racists. A heartbreakingly intense live 1959 TV performance with subtitles is available on YouTube.
Only two disparaging comments Re: your Bio.
Until the McCaskey Clan sell the Bears, now that the Matriarch has “passed on”
to a winning team, the bears will never be a Dynasty.
The incestuous coalition of Liberal Madison and poor Milwaukeeans, must be
severed for Cheesehead Liberation.
Nice article.
Gaining power obviously trumps anything the Marxist Left pretends to accomplish for their identity constituents. They seek the ballot to get them what only bullets can undo.
Middle class flyover voters, 77 million of them, won’t give them that, they know well.
Every workaround to that has been deployed:
-Bulk-mailed, unsolicited ballots.
-Unattended ballot drop boxes.
-Prohibit voter ID requirements.
-Election season, not day.
-Issuing DLs to illegal aliens.
-Failing to maintain clean voter lists.
-Admitting 20 million illegals, thereby flooding Congressional and Electoral College districts.
Finally, the catastrophic failure of government schools to properly prepare our future voters. An entire population of future government-dependent is assured by its very failures. It truly is diabolical.
Very good essay David.
Outstanding column and analysis. Have a friend of many years who is Jewish by birth. Son and SIL both ranking LEO’s. Whines about how her living standard has decreased, but keeps voting for the left. A great example of TDS too. If you keep doing things the same way how can you expect a different result? You have to break some eggs to make a omelette. Chicago’s demise and lack of leadership to reverse the trend follows the abandonment of the middle class especially the BLACK middle class. I was in Chicago earlier in the month and Was driving in the 90’s (South Side area that defined having become middle class to the Black population). It was looking much more worn out than I recalled. Certainly not like Lawndale but not as neat and clean. The black reverends are protesting the massive property tax increases on the south and west side rightly. Hopefully they will wake up the many hard working blacks. The problem is a lack of competent or properly funded politicians on the right. Glad I moved 500 miles away.
Dave, you nailed it right on the head. Brilliantly, I might add. Democrats know they are losing their “gimme” votes, aka ” Blacks and Browns” ( the official victim reinforcement term used by them ) . They knew they were losing a once loyal voting bloc so they imported 18 million more into the country. As more hispanics and blacks have entered the middle class successfully, mostly through education, ” blacks and browns” have rejected the usual herding techniques used by that political party at the polls. The Democrats are in it for the long haul though. There are no immediate payoffs so this is gonna take some time. These New Democrats are gifted with free housing, food and inferior public schools intentionally to make them easily indoctrinated. It is intended that they will give birth leading to another generation of “DACA” babies who cannot be deported.
The teachers unions will do their part to see that these children are given inferior educations so they can be indoctrinated and easily led. Remember, critical thinking is not acceptable to Marxists. The rioting and violence are being perpetrated in Democrat cities and states by design. Their governments fight to keep the illegals while they raise the property taxes of residents. People on the South Side of Chicago seem to be baffled as to why their property taxes have tripled on the last year. Someone has to feed the New Democrats. It may as well be you.
Very good column Dave, thank you.
The one demographic you didn’t touch on was middle aged white liberal women.
What caused this phenomenon?
Even in my own family I see this and wonder why and how this happened.
Crazy times indeed.
John — Touchy subject, that one. If you’ve ever heard the Mahler 8th Symphony setting of Goethe’s “das ewig-weibliche” (the eternal feminine), that subject might have struck you as profoundly wonderful. What’s up now with these mobs of bug-eyed, college-educated women who seem to awaken each morning desperate to shriek at Trump? Seems that a modern pillar of humankind somehow toppled down from Marie Curie and Flannery O’Connor to Hillary Clinton and Whoopi Goldberg.
While entertaining, he is 100% correct. The Middle Class is on life support. And it is all on us: We have been silent observers, passive to the dilution of democracy, and we have been passive and/or careless whom we sent to Washington. Net, net, our non-involvement has granted the devolution of democratic governance which we are now witnessing. It’s not only “them”, it’s us….the “do-nothings”.
God help us.
John Higgins Glenview
Loved your column Dave.
On another subject regarding the Bears idle threat to move to Indiana, recall Mayor Richie Daley tore up Meigs Field at 2am and inked a deal with Gary Airport which kept the right wing of the Illinois Uniparty/Combine (Gov Jim Edgar) from seizing control of Midway & O’Hare. At that time, there was talk of a third airport in Peotone which had the potential to take jobs & tax revenues from Daley/Chicago. The Bears and Ford Heights should do a joint venture with Indiana and plop the Bears in Dyer, IN. (BTW, the South Shore Railroad just expanded to Dyer). Anything is possible in the Peoples Republic of Crook County. Heck, Robbins and the closed garbage incinerator might want to get involved.
Thanks Dave! Hillary told us we’re the Deplorables, Joe called us garbage! What differentiates the identity crowd is the way they think about people! They try to put us in their identity boxes, and if we don’t fit, then we’re unworthy. Who does Pritzker, Preckwinkle and the Illinois Progressive leadership care about, certainly not the disappearing “middle class”. Their actions make it clear they care first about themselves, then about all the illegal immigrants and the teachers unions. They could care less about the small business people and farmers across Illinois, the factory workers that still survive in Illinois.
Same in all the Progressive cities across the country! They are driving businesses and people out of Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle etc., because they don’t care. Those that continue to vote for them that don’t fit nicely in their identity categorizations don’t matter and never will. even if they talk about “affordability” a lot! So the real question is why so many continue to vote for Progressives despite their track record of hurtingbthose people? It really is a type of manipulative emotional control that keeps people from rational thinking about the issues. If you’re not voting to keep the public money trough coming your way, then it is emotionally based belief in the Progressive lies!
Good article and I agree with what you said. You did it without cussing that I tend to resort to after endless encounters with Illinois political dysfunction.
“The boring traditional option is now called cisgender or cis, potentially confusing, especially if you have a sister called “Sis.” Identity politics keeps getting more challenging.” – THIS IS GOLD! 😂😂😂
There are two very important dates coming up in 2026. The first is April 15, the day Uncle Sam’s bank account is filled. But this year, thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill, Uncle will be getting less and almost all the citizens of this country will pay less.
The second day is November 3rd, election day. The GOP only needs one advertising campaign. Illinois Citizens. you paid less tax and EVERY DEMOCRAT VOTED NO FOR THE TAX CUT. You must vote all these far left congressman and whomever wins the democrat primaries, OUT OF OFFICE. If the Brooklyn Barack (Jeffries) and the Senate democrat leader (AOC?) win, your tax cuts will be gone.
There is one democrat running ads for the US Senate right now. He is Raj, with the alphabet last name. He claims he is fighting for you. He opposes everything President Trump has done. So, Raj, why did you vote NO on the tax cut? He was fighting for all the illegals in Illinois and could care less about you. He is the spear of the democrats right now. Pritzker and his ban of sheep in the statehouse voted to impose all the taxes the federal government put in the Big Beautiful Bill. Your federal taxes will go down. Your State taxes will allow NO relief. REMEMBER THAT WHEN YOU VOTE.
I can’t stand those “cutesy” ads
“Raj” is running. He has no platform other than he opposes Trump. No legislation or plans on how he will to make life better for Illinois citizens. Nothing to offer. One ad states that he blocked a business merger where he is endorsed by a highly paid union officer. I don’t know the guys actual salary but he’s welcome to list his union salary if he wants to refute my statement. He can also mention how much his union has donated to ” Raj” in order to purchase ” Raj”. I’m sure this pro union action makes life better for the voters of Illinois. “Raj “, another useless grinning idiot to replace the useless grinning idiot holding office now. A true shame the other choices on the ballot are as equally odious. A true confederacy of dunces…
Another fine artistic reference by a JKNer, this one by esteemed Enrique. John Kennedy Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces,” a work of great comedy and oddball truths, could be the second greatest American novel, after only “Huckleberry Finn.” Do yourself a favor and read it.
Nicely done.
23.5 million government jobs! National machine politics. That alone give the Dems 1/3 of all the votes they need to win a presidential election! We already have socialism!
Thank you for this,sir.
The only Identity that is unworthy is mine. Which means we are absolutely doing something right.
Mine being Southern, Patriot, Planting, Slave Holding and Confederate. Virginia. Remember, Geo. Washington was from Virginia, not Massachusetts. Its a great study, all of it.
We got your backs, while you flail away trying to figure things out. We got you