Matt Yglesias Calls Biden Picking Harris ‘Identity Politics’

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

progressive commentator Matt Yglesias quoted president Joe Biden’s the decision to reach Kamala Harris as a running mate as an example of the corrosive effect of Wednesday’s Democratic Party commitment to identity politics.

Yglesias’ argument came in response to an implicit question posed by Vox’s Zack Beauchampwho mused of X that “Once, just once, I wish the people who say these things would be specific about what exactly it would mean to abandon ‘identity politics.’

This is how Yglesias responded to his former colleague’s request:

A prominent example of “identity politics” that has hurt Democrats recently was the 2020 decision to make Kamala Harris their VP nominee despite her poor electoral record and unimpressive campaign performance because Biden “needed” to choose a black woman.

But it also worked in the opposite direction, as when Democrats became so sure in 2024 that Harris’ vulnerabilities were based on identity rather than issues that they elected the Dopey White Guy. Tim Walz rather than someone more impressive or who could help her in key states.

Feeling like it was sexist to ask Ruth Bader Ginsburg making a strategically planned retirement was quite damaging. The jury is still out on the long-term consequences of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s exhortations (Sonia) Sotomayor not to retire, but I have concerns.

These kinds of identity obsessions keep opening both ways.

Joe Biden was believed to have White Boy Electability Magic in 2020 when Amy Klobuchar he had a stronger record.

On the other hand, Biden clearly lacks confidence in his own press secretary (Karine Jean-Pierre) but I won’t fire her.

During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Biden pledged to choose a woman to be his running mate later praised to MSNBC’s Joy Reid that he was considering “four black women” for the position.

Biden also said during the campaign that his first Supreme Court nominee would be a black woman. He nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace retirement Stephen Breyer in 2022.

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