Blue America’s Litmus Test: It’s About Policy, Not Identity
Yesterday I was looking into how the Republican Steering Committee was choosing the House committee chairs. All 16 are white males, no women, no people of color… unless you count the new chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, xenophobic bigot Brian Mast (R-FL), who claims his mother’s parents immigrated from Mexico. It doesn’t really matter that much they’re all 16 chairs are white men. What matters is that all 16 are lockstep right-wing MAGAts who will back the MAGA agenda (Project 2025) to the hilt.
Blue America was a big proponent of congressional candidate Maebe A Girl to replace Adam Schiff in Congress. It was an important decision for me personally because it’s my own district and because I had helped Schiff when he first ran for Congress in 2000 and after he won he promptly joined the Blue Dogs and started voting really badly. He improved over time, quit the Blue Dogs and even applied for membership in the Progressive Caucus. But… the district has a PVI of D+23 and Trump got barely a quarter of the vote there. It was absolutely a district that would make a good home for a cutting edge leader. And that is certainly how you would describe Maebe. She is basically to the left of Bernie— or on the same page as he is— on every issue.
Maebe is also transgender and because we backed her so strongly, several other transgender candidates— and LGBTQ+ candidates—have approached us for endorsements and contributions. I’ve had to explain to them that we supported Maebe because of her platform and for her record on the Silverlake Council (where she was elected at-large and serves as treasurer) nd not because of her gender.
Our interest is figuring out how a candidate is going to perform if they win, not to advance the interests of any particular group. There was a time we counted ethnicity, gender, sexual preference and identity politics categories strongly when we weighed potential endorsements. But it doesn’t take a lot of effort to realize that some of the identity politics members of Congress are absolutely awful. Look at Kyrsten Sinema— a woman and an aggressively proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. Also, as it turned out, the single worst Democratic member of the House and then one of the two worst Dems in the Senate. And grotesquely corrupt— character matters. She was extremely damaging to the progressive agenda the entire time she was in Congress. And it isn’t just Sinema.
Ritchie Torres represents the poorest district in America. He’s black; he’s Hispanic; he’s openly gay. You would think he’d be progressive. But he isn’t. In fact, he’s aggressively anti-progressive. He’s also a major AIPAC shill and a major crypto-cartel shill.
Among the dozen Democrats with the worst voting records in Congress, you have 2 Latinos (Henry Cuellar, the worst and one of Congress’ most corrupt members, likely headed for prison before he finishes this term, and Jim Costa), 2 women (Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Mary Peltola), an Indian-American (Ami Bera), and 3 Black men (Sanford Bishop, Don Davis and David Scott). Yep, more than half are identity politics politicians. Octogenerian Nancy Pelosi turned the House Democratic Caucus into an identity politics pigsty with countless worthless members and, in the process, completely wrecked the Democratic Party brand. Time for her to get out of Dodge.
To be fair, these are the Members with the best voting records in the House (in order):
Summer Lee (D-PA)- woman, Black
Becca Balint (D-VT)- woman, LGBTQ
Greg Casar (D-TX)- Latino
Delia Ramirez (D-IL)- woman, Latino
Nikema Williams (D-GA)- woman, Black
Maxwell Frost (D-FL)- Black, Latino, Gen X
Jill Tokuda (D-HI)- woman, Asian
Jamie Raskin (D-MD)-
Mark Pocan (D-WI)- LGBTQ
Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA)-
Ilhan Omar (D-MN)- woman, Black, Muslim, immigrant
AOC (D-NY)- woman, Latino
Look, there is no doubt that identity politics has undeniably played a crucial role in bringing historically marginalized voices into the halls of power. Representation matters— especially for communities that have long been excluded from decision-making processes. When someone sees their identity reflected in a position of authority, it is very often deeply validating and inspiring, fostering a sense of belonging and hope for change. This symbolic power cannot be dismissed, as it helps challenge systemic barriers and encourages greater participation in democracy. Hard stop!
However, representation alone does not guarantee progress. The policies a candidate supports, their track record and their commitment to systemic change are what ultimately impact the lives of their constituents. Identity without ideology risks becoming mere tokenism, where a candidate’s background is leveraged to deflect criticism of harmful or regressive policies. Kyrsten Sinema’s tenure as a proudly bisexual senator certainly did not translate into any advocacy for progressive reforms (or even for meaningful LGBTQ rights or women’s most crucial issues). Similarly, Ritchie Torres, despite embodying multiple marginalized identities, has completely aligned himself with corporate interests and groups like AIPAC, betraying the very communities he ostensibly represents. True progress demands leaders who pair lived experience with a bold vision for change.