Politics of Grievance
The “politics of grievance” means telling a political group that they’ve been wronged (this can be real or can play to prejudices) and that electing a particular politician will result in grievance compensation. The term “politics of grievance” often describes racial politics and was used to describe the presidential campaigns of Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama.
The term “politics of grievance” was used as early as 1962 by poltical writer Max Lerner, who used it to describe world politics. “Politics of grievance” has been popularly used in American politics since at least 1990, when political author Garry Wills used the term as the title of a book review.
Google Books
The Age of Overkill;
A preface to world politics
By Max Lerner
New York, NY: Simon and Schuster
1962
Pg. 147:
The ideology of resentment leads to the diplomacy of hostility and to the politics of grievance and hurt memories. This is the characteristic heritage of the era of colonialism.
Google Books
The Liberation War
By Mohammed Ayoob and K. Subrahmanyam
New Delhi: Chand
1972
Pg. 31:
The autonomy demand of the Bengali leadership was the result of what can be aptly termed “the politics of grievance” in East Bengal.
Google Books
A History of Modern Ireland
By Edward R. Norman
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books
1973, ©1971
Pg. 17:
The latter condition, exemplified in Ireland, produces the politics of grievance.
Google Books
Thunder on the Right:
The “New Right” and the politics of resentment
By Alan Crawford
New York, NY: Pantheon Books
1979
Pg. 265:
The Politics of Grievance
Google News Archive
9 July 1981, Tri-City Herald (Pasco, Kennewick, Richland, WA), “Voice of the People: Thimmesch writes irresponsible column,” pg. 6, cols. 3-4:
Mr. Thimmesch, it seems, is upset that Norman Lear employs the very same tactics that the Moral Majority and other right wing radical groups use in bringing to public attention various controversial social issues, in this case, the issue of responsible television programming. This strategy has been described as the politics of grievance and employs the use of direct mass mailing letter campaigns and other forms of media saturation as a means of inciting anger and fear. Why then attack Lear for the very same strategy long since adopted by fundamentalist right wing groups?
The New York Review of Books
The Politics of Grievance
Garry Wills
July 19, 1990
The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath
by Kevin Phillips
Random House, 262 pp., $19.95
“Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, had always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” Pascal goes on in the same fragment to describe zeal for the common good as a pretense.
15 August 1991, Marietta (GA) Journal, “Harkin’s next McGovern?” by Cal Thomas, pg. 6A, cols. 3-4:
While Broder and the Times think Sen. Harkin brings something new to ‘92, what we in fact see is more of the same liberal Democratic tactic employed so ineffectively by Jesse Jackson. It is the politics of grievance and resentment. This type of politics—negative campaigning at its worst—smears not just a candidate of an opposing party, but the entire country and its working people. It takes the “be all that you can be” slogan of the U.S. Army and turns it into “grab all you can get from the taxpayers and the courts” so that you don’t have to worry about initiative and study and hard work.
Google Books
7 December 1992, New York magazine, pg. 18, col. 1:
The City Politic/John Taylor
The Politics of Grievance
DINKINS, THE BLACKS, AND THE JEWS
(...)
It was a particularly flaccid conclusion to what seemed a turning point in the Dinkins administration: the month in which the mayor became inextricably entangled in the politics of grievance.
OCLC WorldCat record
The politics of grievance : society and political controversies in New South Wales, 1819-1827
Author: Michael Charles Connor
Publisher: 2002.
Dissertation: Thesis (Ph.D.)—University of Tasmania, 2003.
Series: University of Tasmania Dept. of History and Classics thesis.; University of Tasmania. Theses.; University of Tasmania.; Dept. of History and Classics. Theses.
Edition/Format: Thesis/dissertation : English
National Review Online—The Corner
The Politics of Grievance
By Charlotte Hays
March 18, 2008 11:42 A.M.
Obama is no longer a post-racial candidate. In his speech (it’s still going on, but I’ve heard enough) today, he has embraced the politics of grievance. He says that the Rev. Wright has “elevated what is wrong” with America — elevated?
OCLC WorldCat record
Beneath the Hope: Obama and the politics of grievance
Author: V D Hanson
Edition/Format: Article : English
Publication: NATIONAL REVIEW -BRISTOL CONNECTICUT THEN NEW YORK- 60, no. 10, (June 2, 2008): 32-38
Database: British Library Serials
Other Databases: ArticleFirst
I Politico
October 14, 2008
The Politics of Grievance and Resentment
In words, Obama is a uniter instead of a divider. In deeds, he has spent years promoting polarization. That is what a “community organizer” does, creating a sense of grievance, envy and resentment, in order to mobilize political action to get more of the taxpayers’ money or to force banks to lend to people they don’t consider good risks, as the community organizing group ACORN did.
(...)
—Thomas Sowell