Reclaim the Blue blog

I just got an email from a Republican senatorial campaign asking me to become a member of the “Veterans for XX” coalition.  I saw that in the Bush and McCain campaigns as well as the Kerry and Obama campaigns.  (Yes, there actually was a “Veterans for Kerry” attempt.)

Frankly, I’m fed up with the GOP playing Democrat Lite by asking me to support a candidate as a veteran.  Other categories  (aka “coalitions”) I’ve seen include women, hunters, Hispanics and others I’ve forgotten.   What they all have in common is “identity politics:” the idea that I can support a candidate because I’m a member of a group and perhaps because that candidate shares something in common with that group, or has provided benefits to that group.

Yes, I’m a veteran but I don’t vote for a candidate because he or she is a veteran or that candidate has done good things for veterans.  To me, that’s absurd.  That’s just another aspect of pork barrel politics at best and, at worst, an example of the kind of identity politics that leads to class, race and gender division.  That’s the province of the left.

Notice to the GOP:  This year is not “business as usual.”  It’s about the very survival of our Constitutional form of government.  Don’t try to appeal to me as anything other than a Patriotic American for Liberty.