During an interview that aired Monday on Mobile, AL radio’s FM Talk 106.5, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) explained why it was important for conservatives and Republicans to look beyond identity politics, especially when it comes to wooing younger voters to support the cause.
The Florida GOP lawmaker argued against falling into the identity politics trap.
“We’re conservatives,” she said. “We don’t do identity politics. That is a tactic of the left. This whole mentality that you need to check a box in order to make sure something gets done or can be done is ridiculous. It is so infuriating to me when people come and talk to me and say, ‘Oh, as a woman, you’re going to fight for this. You’re going to fight for that.’ No, as a representative, I’m going to fight for 710,000 constituents that I have in my district that sent me to Washington. I don’t care if they’re black or white, young or old, Republican or Democrat. A representative is an advocate, a voice in Washington, D.C.”
“And I think when we are starting getting into the game of what Democrats do — of this checking a box, that we have to have a woman, that we have to have a person of color, that we have to check all of these boxes, we’re doing a disservice not just to ourselves but to our country and to our community because we should strive above all else for the best person for the job,” Cammack added.
According to Cammack, the best way to attract millennials was to explain why. She said if the right message were conveyed, those younger voters would find themselves supporting conservative causes in the name of “equal opportunity, not equal outcome.”
“When you talk about millennials, and, ‘Oh, we’ve got to get young people involved’ — you’ve got to get the right people involved,” Cammack explained. “And talking to millennials — we are a very strange generation. We grew up with both analog and digital, but we also have a very healthy amount of skepticism that is just ingrained in our DNA. When you talk to millennials, they just want to know why. Millennials typically reject this notion that we do things the way they’ve always been done just because. And that’s why I’m so passionate about focusing on the messaging and the storytelling behind why we are pro-life, why we are for free trade, why we are for empowering the individual. When you tell it in a story, and you share your why, millennials get it. And they want that economy. They want that individual right to make those decisions for themselves.”
“They don’t want big bureaucratic government,” she continued. “This notion that young people are attracted to socialism and Democrats is because they have sent a messenger who has really communicated that. So, if we fall into this trap of what Democrats do of this check-the-box mentality, the identity politics — we’re no better than them. We have got to be better than that, and we have got to step up and retake the narrative that we are the ones that are really empowering individuals that are really for small business, that we are there for everyone, and that we support equal opportunity, not equal outcome.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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