USA: the Rise of Identity Politics: As seen by Mike Gonzalez, Author of “The Plot to Change America”

Continuing this issue’s focus on the United States, in this article Michèle Tribalat outlines the argument of a book that was published in the USA this summer: The Plot to Change America by Mike Gonzalez. The author sounds the alarm about the risks that proliferating forms of identity politics pose for American society. While, historically, the pursuit of such politics was aimed at asserting the rights of communities which, by dint of their ethnic origins, did not have the same opportunities within society as whites, expanding the scope of such politics to multiple groups by way of the national census’s introduction of ever more ethnic categories is tending to become counterproductive. According to Gonzalez, the pressure by some American intellectuals to accredit a form of ‘generalized victimhood’ for minority groups, and the fact of resorting to that ‘minority’ notion for all kinds of demands on the public authorities, run counter to the freedom of citizens and the plurality of ideas. Fearing for the survival of liberal ideology in his country, he expects to see a reaction. This is a book that confirms the sensitivities and tensions within American society, examined from the Conservative standpoint.