Joshua Mitchell, Professor of Political Theory at Georgetown University has written a book, as a political philosopher, that is considered to be "a key to the times we are living in" - American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time. This book is about three separable but ultimately related ailments from which we suffer immensely in America today: identity politics, bipolarity, and addiction. Although identity politics is the more immediate threat, our republic cannot be healthy if we do not also understand and address bipolarity and addiction. CALL Sandy at 516-735-5468 or e-mail Sandy to schedule interviews with Joshua Mitchell. In American Awakening, you'll learn: Whether it's the search for "clean" energy, the attempt to tear down our national monuments, or the desperate attempt to find cover for moral guilt by declaring "Black Lives Matter," in America today we are in the midst of a religious quest for purity, not unlike the Great Awakenings from our past. Identity politics is less about respect and toleration of differences than it is about finding a scapegoat to purge. The words, fascist, Nazi, homophobe, misogynist, Islamophobe, hater, denier, are scapegoating words, not intended to solve real-life problems, but to purge people from the community. The current scapegoat is the white heterosexual male. Once he is purged, there will be a need for another scapegoat on whom "innocent victims" can blame their troubles. Black America is being betrayed by identity politics. Identity politics depends on the false idea that different "identity groups" are unified. So, "white" is one thing, "women" another, "black" another, and so on. Yet nothing is more obvious today than the divisions within these groups. America has always been committed to the idea that citizens can work together to build a common world. Today, three afflictions keep us from pursuing that noble ideal. The first and most obvious affliction is identity politics, which seeks to transform America by turning politics into a religious venue of sacrificial offering. For now, the sacrificial scapegoat is the white, heterosexual, man. After he is humiliated and purged, who will be the object of cathartic rage? White women? Black men? Identity politics is the anti-egalitarian spiritual eugenics of our age. It demands that pure and innocent groups ascend, and the stained transgressor groups be purged. The second affliction is that citizens oscillate back and