You're reading too much in "members of your persuasion." It's the same to me as a reference to one group preferring Foxes to Parkers. Jim and Dave prefer conservatives to liberals. There's no tactic to it. Plain talk. I distinguish differences in my conservative and liberal friends as preferences for how they want to be governed; all have common frailties. Doug, Jim and Dave have also been around long enough to know one size doesn't fit all.