Fukuyama opines on Klein's book

Klein opens his book by dismissing individuals and leadership as explanations for polarization, in favor of structural or institutional factors. That may be a proper analytical stance, but often structural change can come about only as a result of external crises combined with the proper visionary leadership. Democrats will not win back swing voters by writing off their opponents as simple racists and xenophobes; they need to show empathy for the legitimate concerns of a working class that is in serious trouble. Identity is an inherently flexible concept that can be deliberately shaped in broader or narrower ways. Liberals around the world have lost ground to populists by ignoring the broad moral appeal of national identity, which in a diverse contemporary society needs to be built around liberal and democratic values. Klein dismisses complaints about political correctness and identity politics on the left, but a politics built on the grievances of ever narrower identity groups breeds similar thinking on the right, and it cannot be the basis for a broader democratic, civic identity that is the ultimate answer to polarization.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/01/24/why-red-blue-america-cant-hear-each-other-anymore/?arc404=true

Fukuyama continues to see Liberal "identity politics" as the reason Conservatives became "more" rigid. He seems oblivious to the fact that Conservative pushback never left us. Blacks and so-called Carpetbaggers were terrorized by groups like the Klan. Martin Luther King Jr. was said to be a Communist. Obama was not an American citizen. McConnell said that Obama should be a one term President. We have a president who tells WOC to go back to where they came from. Old Conservative fears, the same as current Conservative fears.

Watching Republicans in Congress today, there is very little hope that they can be trusted to be fair partners in any agreements. People who seek society change that disagree with the Republican platform are going to be labeled practitioners of identity politics. The question that is never asked is what do Conservatives have to do to be seen as less of a threat to those who practice so-called "identity politics"?

Conservatives are going to have to be less rigid. The problem with Conservatives is that they adhere to Buckley's statement that a Conservative stands athwart history yelling, "Stop". 
 

Buckley on the reason for the "National Review"

It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.

https://www.nationalreview.com/1955/11/our-mission-statement-william-f-buckley-jr/

Identity politics did not create our current political situation, that deed was done by Conservatives. As Fukuyama himself notes, Conservatives are willing to vote against their own interests.