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Let’s Talk About Sectarian Privilege
Of all the “-isms,” political affiliation tends to fall through the cracks
Privilege has become a dirty word in today’s climate. The most common attributes we associate with the concept of unearned advantages tend to be race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, class (socioeconomics), and skin tone. Increased awareness of other characteristics — such as religion, age, disability, citizenship status, and geographic residence — has also been slowly finding its way into the mix.
But within this highly-polarized society, there is one variable noticeably absent from the popular debates over privilege. This variable deserves its own reckoning: political affiliation. As practically everyone across the ideological spectrum wrestles with fears of worst-case scenarios, we have to grapple with the skeletons of our two-party system.
It’s a toxic epidemic that I christen as “sectarian privilege”…and, as with most iterations of privilege, the people who’d be likeliest to deny its existence are the ones who’ve benefitted the most from it. In the U.S., that would be entrenched, powerful, self-indulgent members of the Democratic and Republican Parties. This could include elected officials and party leaders, but also many loyal members of these parties’ rank-and-file.
