Wingers Freak Out Over Obama's "Identity Politics" -- What About Saint Reagan's?

Posted by Steve M., No More Mister Nice Blog at 7:22 AM on April 8, 2008.

Sadly, No! and Atrios direct us to "Obama vs. McCain Bumper Stickers," a post by "Dr. Helen" Smith, wife of Instapundit. She's taken aback after seeing a minivan with "Latinos for Obama" and "Women for Obama" bumper stickers. Oh, these Democrats and their identity politics -- especially that Negro candidate! Thank goodness our guys don't do anything like that!

... Except, as she later acknowledges, McCain does exactly the same thing.

Excuse me -- this woman is roughly my age. Has she lived here all this time completely oblivious to how Americans conduct political campaigns?

You want identity politics? I got identity politics. Ladies and gentlemen, here's identity politics till you could plotz -- from that great postmodern multiculturalist, Ronald Wilson Reagan:

All of these buttons, and buttons for many more hyphenated-American Gipper fans, are on sale here.

It wasn't just Reagan -- wanna buy a "Poles for Ford" button? (I actually have one of these, despite not being Polish or a Ford supporter.) In fact, this is an American political tradition that goes back a long, long time. How is it possible that Dr. Mrs. Instapundit doesn't know that?

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Oh, and did I forget to mention the more recent "Viva Bush" buttons, or the "W Stands for Women" campaign in 2000 and 2004?

Tagged as: obama, reagan, hypocrisy, identity politics

Steve M. is the proprietor of No More Mister Nice Blog.