When cartoonist Johannes Leak set out to expose the brazen hypocrisy and shamelessly cynical identity politics being played by Joe Biden, he could not have known how it would expose the very same sickening tendencies in our own public square.
The vile, dishonest and viciously sanctimonious abuse being thrown Leak’s way is just the latest episode in identity politics that would make Martin Luther King Jnr turn in his grave.
The progressive political inheritance that once exhorted us, simply and nobly, to judge people by the content of their character rather than the colour of their skin has been so deformed by partisan political imperatives that it sees identity as the most relevant aspect of any persona.
This is why, more than 50 years after King’s passing, and even after the US elected an African-American president, it was possible for Biden to openly and proudly impose criteria that his vice-presidential running mate would be a woman of colour.
Whatever else Kamala Harris has done, and whatever else she achieves (recognising she is perfectly placed to become the first female president), this Californian Senator was chosen as Biden’s running mate from within the confines of a cohort specifically designated to deliver politically expedient identity qualities.
The man who did the picking was a contender who Harris herself exposed in primary debates earlier this year for a hypocritical record on race-related issues.
Biden has said “poor” kids are just as bright as “white” kids, told African-Americans who didn’t support him “you ain’t black”, and suggested that African-American communities lack diversity of views and interests compared to Latin-Americans. He is deliberately using race as an election issue.
Last week, he invoked the third anniversary of the Charlottesville protests to link Donald Trump to white supremacists. Like a pyromaniac firefighter, he inflames racial tensions and then offers Harris as the balm.
Yet with all this, Biden had the temerity, when presenting Harris as his running mate, to claim it meant that “little girls woke up across this nation — especially Black and Brown girls” now seeing their potential as presidents or vice-presidents.
This morning, little girls woke up across this nation — especially Black and Brown girls who so often may feel overlooked and undervalued in our society — potentially seeing themselves in a new way: As the stuff of Presidents and Vice Presidents.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 12, 2020
This is the audacity of woke.
He chose his running mate based on gender and race criteria, and effectively suggested that others, defined on the same identity factors, could now aspire to be chosen on similar grounds, presumably by a benevolent and politically savvy old white man.
This is the epitome of the patronising, dehumanising, anti-individualism of identity politics. Apart from demeaning every US voter and citizen, the person it insulted most was Harris herself.
There are only three ways to see Leak’s cartoon. One is the way it obviously was intended — a wry, confronting and brave effort to call out this ugly and opportunistic employment of racism and sexism for political gain.
Another is to miss the point through ignorance. Out of the context of this newspaper, the cartoon might be seen by people who either consume very little news, or take it from jaundiced vehicles such as the ABC and The Guardian, in which case they might not be aware Harris was chosen according to publicly stated race and gender criteria, or that Biden has spoken in such tortured ways on race issues, or that he condescendingly suggested his identity-focused benevolence should be inspirational for little “black and brown” girls.
Without this knowledge, the cartoon would be seen as a one-dimensional portrayal of Biden as racist and sexist and leave you wondering whether the words belonged to Biden, and whether the cartoon was fair to him.
The third interpretation is a vile and dishonest mischaracterisation perpetrated by those whose hypocrisy is targeted: the identity-obsessed, liberal Left pontificators who have overlooked Biden’s missteps, forgiven his cynicism and silently accepted that a vice-presidential choice should be made primarily on race and gender grounds. Their response has been to pretend the cartoon shows Leak as racist, that he was denigrating Harris based on her ethnicity and gender, and that this newspaper, too, would shame someone for such inane and repugnant reasons.
These phonies overlook the inescapable fact that the target of the cartoon is Biden and his duplicity. They pretend it is Leak who has devalued Harris, rather than Biden.
I will not name any of these people here. You know who they are. They fill the sewers of Twitter and other online cesspits, they clog the airwaves of the publicly funded broadcasters and pontificate from privileged cloisters of academia. They know all too well how Leak has skewered them; how they have corrupted the essence of King’s great message.
They eschew self-reflection and, instead, seek to cancel Leak. There can be no redemption for him; the critics can’t accept their own misreading or ignorance; and there can be only merciless condemnation. It is a bleak and formulaic public debate.
I could tell you something about Johannes Leak, his generosity and gentleness, his talent and tolerance, but these people care not. When I talked to him on Friday about how to endure the pile-on, he quipped that I had probably had similar conversations with his father. I did, of course, and Bill is gone, and the bruises and battles endure.
The critics have the option of self-examination and accepting that the Democrats (and others) are using identity issues for partisan points; they could speak out against it and accept the role of cartoonists in exposing such abominations. But perhaps they fear this will lose them some Twitter followers. So instead they deliberately misconstrue Leak, unfairly besmirch his character, hurl abuse, seek to cancel him and others, and use their viciousness as proof of their own “tolerance”.
They come in all genders, skin tones, religions and sexual orientations, these outrage merchants, but I will do them no favours; I will judge them ruthlessly and only by the putrid and cowardly content of their characters.
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