Republican super PAC attacks combat veteran for having tattoos

A Republican super PAC is attacking a Maine Democrat for an … interesting reason. Jared Golden, running against Republican incumbent Bruce Poliquin, has tattoos, and the Congressional Leadership Fund thinks that simple fact will turn voters off to Golden’s opposition to Republican tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations:

As it attacks his record, the commercial includes a closeup of a tattoo on his right arm and ends with a shot of a man’s back emblazoned with a large tattoo-like image headlined “Liberal Jared Golden” and accompanied by ink swirls all around.

Here’s the thing. If you’re looking to paint someone as an exotic other, there are tattoos and there are tattoos. Prison tattoos and biker tattoos could be a problem for candidates in many districts, it’s true. Certain kinds of ethnic tattoos could bring out the racists. That’s not what Golden has:

Golden’s ad shows one large tattoo on his right arm. Among the images inked on his skin are a sun, a moon, a tree, a Celtic cross and a “devil dog” that represents his unit in the Marines, where he served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So they’re attacking him for having a Marines tattoo, among others. Does that seem like an odd—as well as pointless and stupid—choice to anyone else? But of course doing anything possible to make someone seem personally other and different is the first rule of the Republican Party playbook.

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