The interesting thing that I've noticed about conservatism is that it's often ahead of the curve in terms of social trends. People more geared toward being right-leaning seem to have a much easier time knowing how things will ultimately turn out or reach their ultimate endgame, so they're often the ones pumping the social breaks.
This can sometimes make us look like the scared ones in the room, but honestly, it would be better if more people paid attention to what it is we're pushing back on instead of dismissing it as some social sin and accusing us of feeling levels of bigotry we're not guilty of.
One of those things is the left's total adherence to identity as the ultimate defining characteristic of an individual. It's one of the longest-running issues the left has, and I'd venture to say it became something of an addiction for them, thanks to identity giving them a sort of moral currency. The left had weaponized victimhood to a point where it became an answer to any debate in and of itself.
But the law of undulation is absolute. At some point, that moral currency was going to run out, and the people were always going to start shrugging off the accusations of bigotry.
It was always bound to happen because "you're a racist," or "you're a homophobe," or any other accusation of a social sin isn't really an answer to any question.
Case in point, Bonchie released an article on Monday that demonstrates this very issue on the left. When former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about Biden's mental decline and any regrets she might have working for the Biden administration, she gave a lot of standard-issue answers that defended her obvious cover-up of Biden's mental health issues, but she ended with this:
I woke up every day, I woke up every day, very proud to be the White House press secretary. I woke up every day as a black woman who is queer, who had never, no one had ever seen someone like me at that podium, standing behind that lectern. It was an honor and a privilege to have that job, and I did it to the best of my abilities...
Host: "Do you have any regrets?"
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 26, 2025
Biden Press Secretary: "Look, I woke up as a black & queer woman every day… I tried my best." pic.twitter.com/e9n1E2TXfe
READ: Karine Jean-Pierre's Disastrous MSNBC Interview Begins on Robert Hur and Ends on 'Black' and 'Queer'
KJP said she was "proud" to wake up and do this as a black, queer woman, but why does it matter? She was the first black queer woman to do so, sure, but what did that matter in terms of her job?
It doesn't matter at all. Her identity had nothing to do with the nuts and bolts of her job. She threw it out there because, like many leftists, she threw out her identity because the interview she just had didn't go well, and she knew it, so throwing "I'm black and queer" at the end of her time was something of a shield against criticism.
It's a time-honored tradition of the left. If you need to win an argument, protect yourself from criticism, or immediately give your words more weight, point out how your identity falls under the protective umbrella of the left.
The issue is that KJP is going back to a well that's drying quickly at this point in Western society, and every dip into it only depletes it faster. The pendulum is swinging away from identity-based politics, especially after the left continuously forced DEI down the throats of Americans, many of whom lost out on opportunities for careers and education because they didn't match the right gender or race. Firing and hiring practices became identity-based under DEI programs, unfairly targeting people for their skin color instead of their talent or merit.
Today, people are sick of identity politics. The left took it too far. As reported in February by the American Economic Institute, polls show an increasingly negative view of DEI policies, especially among the young:
A new Economist/YouGov poll found 45 percent in favor of ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (DEI) in school and government with 40 percent opposed. There were deep gender, racial, and partisan differences. Among age groups, only the youngest one opposed ending the programs, by a narrow 39 percent to 37 percent. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found a similar 44 percent in favor of closing all federal government DEI offices and firing federal employees working on the issue, with 51 percent opposed.
As AEI further noted in its article, this is a downward trend:
In 2024, Pew found a slight dip in the percentage saying DEI was a good thing (from 56 percent to 52 percent) and a slight rise in the number saying it was a bad thing (16 percent to 21 percent). They also found that slightly more people than in their 2023 poll said their workplace was paying too much attention to the issue (19 percent in 2024, 14 percent in 2023).
To be sure, many corporations are seeing the pattern and are offloading their DEI programs.
Identity just doesn't carry the weight it used to, and based on the values we in America profess to carry, it never should have. Identity politics is racism when all is said and done, and at some point, our Western values weren't going to let it thrive.
Now, when people like KJP say "I'm black and queer," a great deal of the response is going to consist of "... so?"
And when you have so many people shrugging off proclamations of identity, one of the left's primary weapons is rendered ineffective. There's no "umph" to it anymore. It doesn't carry the same edge that made so many people afraid to speak out.
The left will continue to use it as often as they can, and it's only going to hurt them in the long run. As it should. Racism isn't exactly an intellectual practice.
