Like Ted Kennedy, only less white

Once again Joan Vennochi finds GOP subterfuge where there is none:

Added [Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval] Patrick, who is African-American: ''In some ways, the Southern Strategy of yesterday is the suburban strategy of today, to follow that old temptation, what divides us, instead of what unites us."

In other words, racial division may no longer be key to electoral success. But that is not the end of the GOP's divide and conquer strategy. In last year's presidential campaign, the party used issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, and patriotism to divide voters.

"Divide and conquer” indeed, but purest politics! This “divide and conquer” strategy is nothing more than expanding the Republican party to include some who though more comfortable with the Republican platform, are accustomed to voting Democratic. As the poet said about dividing:

Nature within her inmost self divides
To trouble men with having to take sides.

We measure our division periodically by a civic ritual we call an election.