Identity politics are dead.

There must have been a time and a place for identity politics; in fact, I know that in the sixties and seventies it was a mobilizing force. By uniting people around their shared biological (and usually marginalized) imperatives, it was an easy way to draw a crowd. And it's very simple. I found identity politics to be incredibly seductive when I was early in my college career: I loved the idea that the personal is political, and that I was a political cog in the wheel by virtue of my being gay. Plus it's an easy way to speak on behalf of a group of people, and it's an easy way to believe yourself to be politically active: all you have to do is be Different. It didn't take long to feel a little spiteful and think it to be incredibly reductive.

Several months ago (and my friends must tire of hearing this story, no doubt the four of you who might read this), when Hillary and Barack were going neck to neck, I said that I was certain that McCain would choose Condeleeza Rice as his running mate and it would invert the whole issue of the Democrats and this "historic" election year. That's not exactly what happened, but I think that Sarah Palin comes close enough. If there is one person who personifies the fact that "feminism" as an organizing principle has fully expired, it is the human presence of Sarah Palin and this baffling concept of the "pro-life feminist." I never thought I would be the one to say this: Feminism as a political tool has run its course. It's up to a new generation of people to re-define and rename feminism and advocate on its behalf. When identity politics has been co-opted by its former detractors, that means that we're now using the master's tools and living in the master's house and have suddenly been disenfranchised in our efforts to dismantle it.

I'm not saying that feminist efforts aren't valid. Rather, I'm saying that you can't take for granted anymore that a "feminist effort" will have a preconceived "feminist" agenda. Maybe everyone knows this already. But I think that if I were going to try to affect change, in a way that I or someone I admire would deem progressive for women, I wouldn't use the word feminist. I don't think it helps.

I remember saying, in my ardent Hillary phase, that I want to see a woman president--and I've even admitted to friends that I think women are better than men--and maybe this is universally understood and in my shortcomings as any kind of analyst I'll just have to go with it--but: does anyone actually believe that X identity will bequeath X politics? I think all along it's just been dusted off when it comes in handy, like with Hillary ("How can you not vote for Hillary? What kind of feminist are you?") or with Sarah Palin ("How can you not vote for Sarah Palin? What kind of feminist are you?") or with Coors Light ("We love gay people who drink our beer!"). People vote with their hearts all the time, irrational as those hearts may be, but methinks that the next mass movement should be about voting with your head.