I feel some type of way about certain kinds of electioneering. First off, they are using my first name, which I rarely use and never among friends. So I know they obtained the name from government documents or a list based on government documents. They ain’t my friend. But that’s cool if they don’t try to tell me what I’m thinking or tell me to sign up with a particular political party. However, this is exactly what they are doing. They tell me on a postcard, “If you believe that America comes first, our 2nd Amendment Rights should be protected, and that strong nations have borders, you are a conservative.”
They can’t own the language like that, and we don’t have to spend much time on this, especially if they provide no definition, which they don’t, of what “America comes first” means. How is it to come first in practical terms? If I go around saying “America comes first,” what would I be espousing precisely? I suppose, though, that the point isn’t to be precise. The phrase is meant to index a range of notions to attach to “conservative” construed as a positive quality. (By the way, the determination “conservative” for me hinges on way more on some vague notion of “first”---or on a statement about protecting 2nd Amendment Rights. Now some have called for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment, but it’s not a single political type that is in opposition to that proposal. It’s not hard to find liberals who support the 2nd Amendment, so the amendment is not the dividing line between conservatives and liberals. Similarly, how many are arguing that a nation should not have borders?
Any old how, to continue the aggravation, I am advised, no, actually it’s an imperative, a command: “Change your party affiliation to Republican today.” And they provide a URL. This makes me wonder again what data bases I am in given that I have never in my life registered for any political party and have voted for candidates of several. Independent always. Of course, this isn’t the worst of it. I don’t respond well to people jumping up out of the blue telling me what to do.
Believe it or not, I received a second postcard the same day. My home state of Pennsylvania is crucial. The second postcard made points one and three indicated above, phrased almost exactly the same way, but instead of the issue regarding the 2nd Amendment substituted, instead, “that no veteran should ever be homeless.” I know communists who believe that no veteran should ever be homeless. Yet my “recruiter” thinks that point would help define me as conservative and help build the case for the switching of party affiliation when I have no party.
As I say, they can’t own the language like that.
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