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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZEA6x8Az2c&w=560&h=315]
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D., Mich.) said Wednesday on MSNBC that she is “very concerned” that identity politics have hijacked the Democratic Party.
“We’ve become this identity politics. The Women’s Caucus, the Black Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus,” Dingell said.
“We’ve lost the sense of  ‘we,’ that our strength comes in community,” Dingell continued.
Dingell said she is not a traditional Democrat, and felt that Trump won the election by talking about the issues Democrats “were afraid to talk about.”
“Nobody listened to me in the last election when I told them they weren’t talking about the issues that really mattered in the Midwest,” Dingell said.
“I don’t know where I belong,” she said. “I’ve said that. I sometimes feel like I have no home even in the Democratic Caucus here.”
When pressed on her party affiliation, Dingell called herself a “proud Democrat,” but noted she was a Republican earlier in her life.
Dingell highlighted the importance of shifting from identity politics.
“If we don’t figure out how we become ‘we’ again, we’re going to keep losing,” she said.
“We need to understand each of these groups have issues. I’m a woman, I’ve been discriminated against,” Dingell said.
“But I know my power and strength is being part of a broader community where we all pull together and fight for an issue,” Dingell added.
