If Liz Warren had a sister, this would be her. Meet Democratic Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
Flanagan just won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, and her campaign wasted approximately zero seconds getting the identity politics machinery cranked up. Following her primary victory Tuesday, her fundraising operation sent an email celebrating the possibility that she could become the first Native American woman ever elected to the United States Senate.
“Friend, in almost 250 years, there’s never been a Native woman serving in the US Senate. It’s time to change that,” the campaign crowed.
Then came the credentials:
“I’m Peggy Flanagan, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Minnesota.”
“I am Ojibwe and a proud member of the White Earth Nation.”
Holy Mother of Graham Platner, did she say “White” Earth Nation?
I digress.
The important distinction here is that, unlike Elizabeth Warren’s infamous ancestry controversy, Flanagan is in fact a citizen of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe. That is not some internet rumor or genealogical parlor game. Minnesota’s own legislative records identify her as a citizen of the White Earth Nation, and Flanagan has publicly identified herself as a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe for years. (Minnesota Legislative Reference Library)
So let’s dispense with the obvious comparison before somebody accuses me of failing Political Correctness 101.
This isn’t necessarily about whether Peggy Flanagan is Native American.
It is about why the Democratic Party thinks that fact is supposed to qualify her for the United States Senate.
And that’s where the Liz Warren Gambit enters the room.
Elizabeth Warren famously claimed Cherokee ancestry for years, including identifying herself as a Native American while at Harvard Law School. Her claims became a political punchline after a DNA test failed to substantiate the ancestry she had presented as part of her identity, and the Cherokee Nation rejected the way she had characterized the results. Warren eventually apologized to the Cherokee Nation. (New York Post)
Flanagan doesn’t have Warren’s ancestry problem.
She has something else.
She has the modern Democratic Party’s obsession with turning identity into accomplishment.
For Democrats, the biography increasingly becomes the résumé.
Black? Historic.
Woman? Historic.
Gay? Historic.
Transgender? Historic.
Native American? Historic.
Woman who is Native American? Somebody get the bunting.
And if you can stack enough demographic adjectives together, apparently you’re halfway to the Senate.
For the record, Flanagan has already made history. She was the first Native American woman lieutenant governor in the United States and became the highest-ranking Native woman elected to executive office in the country.
Fine. Filed under “Who Give a Flunk”
But here’s the question Democrats never seem to want to answer:
What does any of that have to do with whether she will be a good senator?
The United States Senate is not supposed to be a diversity pageant with voting privileges.
It is supposed to be a place where people represent the interests of their states, understand the Constitution, evaluate legislation, weigh competing interests, and make decisions that affect 340 million Americans.
The job description does not say:
Must belong to an historically underrepresented demographic.
It says, essentially:
Don’t screw up the republic.
That seems increasingly difficult for Democrats to comprehend.
And Flanagan isn’t exactly running as some political moderate who accidentally wandered into the identity-politics aisle while looking for the restroom.
She is a progressive Democrat whose campaign has embraced positions including dismantling ICE, Medicare for All and other elements of the modern progressive agenda. She has also been endorsed by Elizabeth Warren, which is either an endorsement or the Democratic Party’s version of foreshadowing. (Axios)
So perhaps the more interesting question isn’t whether Peggy Flanagan is Native American.
It is whether being Native American is going to be the most interesting thing about her Senate candidacy.
Because when your campaign’s first sales pitch is “I could be the first”, rather than “Here’s what I intend to accomplish,” voters should become suspicious.
Imagine a Republican candidate announcing:
“I could be the first white, heterosexual, right-handed man from my congressional district to serve in the Senate.”
Nobody would care.
And rightly so.
We would want to know what the guy believes.
What will he do about taxes?
What will he do about crime?
What will he do about immigration?
What will he do about national debt?
What will he do about America’s military?
What will he do about the exploding cost of everything?
What will he do about the border?
What will he do about the fact that Washington has become a gigantic money-eating machine with a Capitol dome?
Those are Senate questions.
Instead, Democrats increasingly seem to believe the candidate is the answer because the candidate belongs to the correct demographic category.
It is political DEI dressed up as representation.
And representation has its place. I have no problem celebrating people who break barriers. But there is a vast difference between saying, “This is an important milestone,” and saying, “Therefore this person deserves your vote.”
The first is history.
The second is identity politics.
And here’s where this gets particularly delicious.
Flanagan’s campaign is effectively selling her potential Senate seat as a historical correction: nearly 250 years have passed without a Native woman serving in the Senate, and therefore it is “time to change that.”
That’s an interesting argument.
But if we’re going to start selecting senators based on historical firsts, we’re going to need a much larger Senate.
Because there are a lot of people who haven’t been first yet.
The first left-handed Native woman.
The first Native woman who owns a dachshund.
The first Native woman from a particular Minnesota suburb.
The first Native woman who once ate lutefisk on Christmas Eve.
Where does it end?
At some point, somebody has to ask the question Democrats have become almost allergic to asking:
Is she good at the job?
Not Is she historic?
Not Is she representative?
Not Does she check a demographic box?
Not Will her election make somebody’s diversity spreadsheet look terrific?
Is she competent?
That is the standard I want for every politician, regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, religion or ancestry.
Give me the first competent Democrat.
Now that would be historic.
Because after watching Washington for the last several years, I would happily trade another historic first for a competent adult who understands that the United States Senate exists to serve Americans, not provide Democrats with another trophy for the intersectionality cabinet.
And Peggy Flanagan may very well be a perfectly legitimate member of the White Earth Nation.
But being Native American doesn’t make you qualified to be a senator any more than being Irish, Italian, Black, Asian, female or male does.
Your ideas qualify you. Your judgment qualifies you. Your record qualifies you. Your competence qualifies you.
Everything else is packaging.
And America has enough politicians selling the packaging.
I’d like to know what’s inside the box.
