The naming of U.S. Navy ships used to be based on very non-political lines, for example in WW2, carriers were named after famous battles, battleships after states, cruisers after cities, subs after fishes, etc.
That changed more and more after ww2 and not necessarily for partisan reasons. When adm. Rickover was trying to convince Congress to fund the L.A. class subs, he named them after the cities of congressmen who supported the project. When someone in the Navy pointed out that subs were traditionally named after fish, he supposedly answered that "Fish don't vote".
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