Tipsheet

Poetic Justice?

In a WaPo column from Saturday, Michael Kinsley cleverly parodies the hyper-sensitivity that has attached to the discussion of race and gender in the Democratic primary race.

He concludes, "Basically, in the modern political campaign, there is no room for remarks of any sort on any subject which could be interpreted as giving offense to anyone, and that covers just about every subject there is."

Well, fair enough.  But there's some poetic justice in this problem descending on the Democrats.  For years, they've used racial and gender identity politics -- and overbearing political correctness -- as a cudgel with which to beat Republicans (often, to great success).  Now, they're living in the house they built, and it's hard to quell a certain sense of satisfaction in watching them try to navigate the minefield of resentments they've cultivated for their own political ends.

Now that the Democrats are themselves experiencing the damage wreaked by identity politics, maybe we can hope that they'll agree to let the use of them lapse -- a little like they did with the Independent Counsel law, once it had become clear that it was as destructive to a Democrat administration as it had been to Republican ones.