LGBT to Dems at Midterm: Fuggedaboutit

Fed Up With Being Taken for Granted

Savannah, GA. Do you hear us, Democrats? Your feckless, spineless approach to employment security, DADT--even marriage--has earned you the apathy you so justly deserve from gay and lesbian voters at these midterm elections. Our 'enthusiasm deficit' is the fruit of your lack of progress on the issues near and dear to us. You have no one to blame but yourselves. The timidity from most, and indifference from the rest, is the driving force behind our collective dispassion towards all things Democrat. Your dilly-dally/shilly-shally with your elected majorities in Congress has been a waste of time and has squandered the goodwill and Hope of 2008. Your palpable lack of courage has let all of the air out of the room.

And don't fool yourselves; make no mistake: we'll vote--just not for you.

Real Change

Savannah, GA. No, it wasn't sexism and misogyny that ended Senator Clinton's attempt at securing the Democratic Presidential nomination--she made choices establishing that on her own--but if people wish to be brutally honest about the discussion, then gender bias, chauvinism, and the hatred of women played a very, very, large role in her defeat. Racism remains America's open wound, but gender prejudice is the raging sepsis beneath our skin. As a society we are so quick to hold contemptuousness toward the feminine. One of the most damning accusations that can be made to a boy is to accuse him of being a girl. When some male sports coaches want to completely shame their teams, they denounce them as female. If they need fortitude on the field, they don't need 'guts' or a 'spine'--they need to 'grow a pair.' They must be men. (Homophobia is the ugly sibling to this execration and enmity.) When women do wrong or make mistakes they are witches, bitches, whores; skanks, twats, cunts, sluts. The comments sections of most political blogs are rife with such sneering descriptions of the junior Senator from N.Y.

I celebrate the fact that 43 years after the signing of the Voting Rights Act we now have a national presidential candidate who is Black. I also celebrate the fact that 88 years after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution we came very close to having a Woman do the same. 

Our Story Thus Far...

Savannah, GA.  Senator Obama has the support of this voter in the General - should he be the Dem's nominee. For someone who wrote in Mo Udall on my November '76 ballot, when everyone else was all moist, heated and crossing their legs over a peanut farmer from my newly adopted State, that is saying a lot. I have never viewed my vote as a bet on a horse race.  My candidate on this visit of the Circus will soon be bowing out - the one candidate who really strikes fear in the hearts of GOP planners when they close the door at night and tuck their pointed heads into bed: John Edwards. His blue-collar, populist roots are genuine; his rise to wealthy trial attorney built on the strength of courtroom skills which struck deimos and phobos into the heart of every prosecuting attorney who ever faced him. These are the strengths we need after the Ragnarok of W and the decadal dominance of the repugs in the national legislature. We're still dealing with excrement Unca Ronnie set up and left for us all; Bill Clinton only succeeded - despite the destructive nature of his personal angels - by emulating Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower, in terms of governance and approach. (Speaking of and to the Former President in this Presidential Primary Season:  Mr. Clinton - the time has come for you to respectfully shut the fuck up.)  For all of you good people tired of the partisan battles of D.C., wishing for hope to replace cynicism - I say 'saddle up;' the ride is just beginning.  H.L. Mencken said it best: "Cynicism is merely an ugly way of telling the truth."  In 2008, the Dem's need a Spartan warrior, not an Athenian philosopher.  This Republic needs an active colonic, not the soaring rhetoric of a black Adlai Stevenson. (A favorite quote - after a rousing speech in '52 a supporter called out, "Governor Stevenson, all thinking people are for you!" Stevenson replied, "That's not enough; I need a majority.")

In my fifties, I'm very pleased and proud we've matured as Americans to point where we're seriously considering a Senator Who Happens to be a White Woman, and a Senator Who Happens to be a Black Man as Chief Executive material.  So I'm not surprised the good Sen. from Illinois won the S. Carolina Primary. Over 50% of registered Dem voters are Black. Neither am I surprised that most Southern White males couldn't stomach a vote for the good carpetbagging Sen. from New York. If McCain - gods help us - is the GOP nominee, I'm afraid he'll blow Obama out of the water over security and military issues alone, if nothing else. Especially so if he really thinks about it and chooses for his running mate an evangelical female. The old fart is a cagey survivor, if nothing else. I also predict that the instant Obama gets the nomination, the press and pundits will turn on him. The same national media already hates Hillary; you can only accuse her of fucking and killing Vince Foster while rafting with lesbian friends down Whitewater thinking about socialized medicine a limited number of times before bloviator/pundit fatigue sets in... In a Clinton/McCain fight, I"m counting on a gender war.