British philosopher John Locke (1632 - 1704) and his writings can serve as an icon for this perspective.
Given that all people seek the same things - life, liberty, and a chance to explore their opportunities in terms of personal creativity and diligence. People want security for themselves, for their friends and family, and for their possessions. People want opportunities to see what their creativity and diligence can accomplish.
In addition to Locke, versions of this view were advanced by Edmund Burke (1727 - 1797), an Anglo-Irish thinker, and by Americans Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809), Samuel Adams (1722 - 1803), James Otis (1725 - 1783), and Patrick Henry (1736 - 1799).
Historians sometimes use the phrase “The Age of Enlightenment” to label the era in which these individuals lived.
Enlightenment politics is based, then, on those things which are common to all human beings. All people have a baseline capability for rational thought, and all people share certain basic desires.
In a republic governed by freely-elected representatives, the majority will express itself in voting, and in so doing, will manifest a common human attitude, rather than the attitude of some select small group.
This ‘Enlightened’ political thinking stands in opposition to ‘identity’ politics.
According to the ‘politics of identity,’ voters should vote based on some distinguishing feature which marks them as part of a distinct subgroup. Motivated by “identity politics,” voters should vote, not based on common human traits, like the desire for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but rather voters should vote on what separates them from others, e.g., race, gender, religion, etc.
So there is a clear tension between “enlightenment politics” and the “politics of identity.”
The twenty-first century voter, then, is confronted with two alternatives: either one can vote as a rational human being, valuing those things which all humans value - life, liberty, and economic opportunity - or one can vote based on one’s membership in a demographic category - race, gender, ethnicity, etc.
