“I’m not Barack Obama. I disagree with him on guns, coal and the EPA.”
No. That sentence was not uttered by a right-wing, tea-party, Republican. It was uttered by a Democrat in Kentucky. Barack Obama is, apparently, so politically toxic that moderate Democrats are not content with merely distancing themselves from him; they are now actively campaigning against the Democrat who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
In fact, the ad is downright convincing… Frank Underwood would be proud:
Alright. So, Democrat Alison Grimes is no fan of team Obama. Got it. Of course, this kinda raises a few questions, doesn’t it? For example: If you don’t like Obama’s policies, why are you a Democrat?I mean, you don’t like the Democrat Party’s stance on guns, coal, or the EPA… So, why the leftist voter affiliation? (Was it just peer pressure? Liberalism is kinda like a drug: It is addictive, destructive, and most people discover it in their teenage years.)
Maybe she’s just a closet Republican who enjoys the company of Republican-bashing statists and left-leaning former hippies. Of course, there is also a slight possibility that she’s a typical politician; and would rather say what is necessary to get elected than actually articulate her convictions and values… But, I guess we’ll let the voters of Kentucky vote on that soon enough.
Oh sure, she’s wielding a semi-auto shotgun; but what about her visits with anti-coal billionaire Tom Steyer, and Democracy Alliance? Am I supposed to believe she was just venting to these deep-pocketed Democrat advocates about how out-of-touch the environmentalist movement is with middle-America?
Of course even if we assume that every word of Grime’s anti-Obama commercial was as true as the Gospel, it should be pointed out that the “D” in front of her name still means something. After all, party affiliation has a very real consequence in elections. At the end of election season, the Ds and Rs are tallied in an effort to determine which party will have control over each chamber of Congress… A vote for any Democrat is, in essence, a vote for Harry Reid’s continued reign of Senatorial inaction.
A vote (even for a pro-gun Democrat) is not merely a vote for the individual, but also a vote for the party. At the end of the day, the candidate is not the only one benefiting from a win. A win for Grimes (no matter how moderate she is) is still a vote for the anti-gun, anti-coal, pro-EPA Democrat Party.
Party politics aside, the Grimes anti-Obama commercial still has an Obamacare sized asterisk hanging at the end of it. Even if we’re gullible trusting enough to assume that Grimes has legitimate (and deep rooted) opposition to the Democrat Party’s standard-bearer, we’re still not too sure why she has decided to belong to a party that is so terribly disconnected from Kentucky residents. I mean, what exactly does Grimes find attractive about the Democrat Party? Is it their rousing success on growing the economy (sarcasm font imagined here)? Or maybe their obsessive dedication to socializing our healthcare system?
In the end, the Grimes-style of “conservative-Democrat” campaigning reeks of disingenuous politicking. After all, if she was serious about steering the DNC to a more pro-gun, pro-coal position, she would be working as a chairwoman, volunteer, or NRA canvasser. Instead, she’s willing to give the Dems one more seat in their gun/coal hating (EPA loving) coalition in the US Senate.
There are two lessons to be learned here: One is that party affiliation is almost as important as the candidate. The second lesson is that Democrats will say anything to keep their party in control. If we suspend disbelief for a minute, and assume that Saint Grimes is sincere in her comments, then there is no reason for her to put a “D” in front of her name… Unless, of course, she just loves Obamacare, federal regulation, Common Core, tax-and-spend Keynesian economics, crony capitalism, and Joe Biden too much to actively leave the political party that has dedicated itself to restricting gun rights, killing traditional energy, and expanding federal regulatory control.
Although, to be fair, she does shoot pretty well… I just hope she’s okay registering her semi-auto shotgun with local authorities if her party gets its way.