Oct 13 2008
Is it safe to vote Republican?
With the US presidential elections just weeks away, has anything changed in the political landscape that allows, lesbian, gay or bisexual people to feel comfortable voting Republican? With the economy and foreign policy dominating the issues in this year’s campaign, social issues such as abortion and gay-marriage have slid down the agenda.
The fact that these rather emotive issues are not headline news, probably benefits the Democrats as there are no sound-bites about Obama being a ‘child-killer’ or wanting to ‘destroy the institution of marriage’. Equally though whilst social issues haven’t dominating the headlines its easy for a casual voter to forget who they are voting for.
The GOP (Republican Party) is inherently anti-gay rights, it always has been. Whilst its main funding comes from Oil and Big Business, its main voter block comes from conservative evangelical Christian groups.
Whilst Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain I think is inherently more moderate than many of his GOP colleages, he is forced to appease the Christian Right to carry his campaign. Hence the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate.
We’ll come ot Sarah Palin shortly. Let’s focus for a second on McCain’s record on Gay Rights.
- He admirably opposed a proposed federal constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, that was promoted by George W. Bush in 2004.
- On California’s attempt to ban gay-marriage he said: “I support the efforts of the people of California to recognize marriage as a unique institution between a man and a woman, just as we did in my home state of Arizona.”
My interpretation of this is that Senator McCain is a Federalist, believing that the legalisation or baning of gay-marriage (and all the rights that come with it) is something that each state should decide for itself. His own position seems largely governed by appeasing his voter base. This gives gay, lesbian and bisexual people two reasons not to vote for McCain.
The first obvious, his position on same-sex marriage is going to be swayed by the people that make up a large chunk of his voting block, the Christian right.
The second is that he is determined to let the majority decide on its legality. On the face of it, this seems democratic, but it leaves the gates wide open for gay, lesbian and bisexual people to fall victim to the tyranny of the majority. This is why the US has federal and state constitutions. To protect the rights of minority groups from a majority keen to oppress them.
As a minority group to secure equal rights, the LGBT community, must either gain support from the masses or where it is unable to do this, requires protection from the courts as happened in California. Too many people use their ‘democratic rights’ to oppress minorities, this is neither fair nor right. America does not need a president who will allow this to happen. And McCain will allow this to happen because he doesn’t like “activist judges” which is his code for judges who uphold the constitution in the face of popular biggotry.
On to the vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. OK how did she get the job again? She was mayor of a small town (9,000 residents) and then became governor of Alaska, which with all due respect is the most remote state in the Union after Hawaii. So not exactly a fertile political proving ground. And get this, before her selection to the VP ticket she even said that “Obama’s message resonates well” and that Senator Obama was “dynamic and charismatic”. Don’t believe me? Watch here.
Truth be told she got the job because she’s a social conservative and has influential friends in upper echelons of the Christian right. She believes the world is 6,000 years old for Pete’s sake! What kind of deluded moron thinks that? Well Palin believes in the bible above all else and that’s what got her the job. This should be a major cause for concern amongst lesbian, gay and bisexual people, even before we look at her one great foray into legislating against gay-rights.
From Wikipedia:
Palin supported a non-binding referendum for an Alaskan constitutional amendment to deny state health benefits to same-sex couples; however, as governor she was forced to veto such a bill, as it is currently unconstitutional.
That’s laughable. It’s effectively saying: “It’ll be nice deny health benefits to same-sex couples, I’d really like to do it, but you know… the constitution says I can’t.” I bet there was a tear in her eye when she signed the veto on that bill. I bet she pretended her pen wasn’t working a few times before her closet gay aid finally passed her his ballpoint.
The truth is whilst Sarah Palin first dazzeled us all with her pefect complexion and sexy-boss look, she is quickly becoming the joke of the Presidential Campaign. Its one gaff or sleazy revelation after another. The VP candidate has to be the attack dog of any campaign, the one to deal the vicious blows at the rival camp. For the democrats Biden can do this, just as Cheny could for Bush. But when a woman does it, (especially one who hardly looks whiter than white herself,) she just comes across as a bitch.
So in conclusion is it safe for lesbian, gay or bisexual people to vote republican? I think the answer is a resounding “NO!” Though to behonest, with Palin on the Republican ticket, I’m not sure its safe for anyone to vote Republican.
If you enjoyed this post. Please share it with others by adding it to the following social bookmarking sites. This is greatly appreciated and doesn't go unnoticed. Just click the graphics below.
3 Responses to “Is it safe to vote Republican?”
Leave a Reply
Please write in good English, using correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. Please also capitalise your sentences correctly.
The SHIFT key is your friend.
It will never be safe to vote republican. Sarah Palin makes me happier than ever to be Canadian.
I can see russia from my house
I’m Irish, my interest in the american politics is just that anything you do over there comes into play about four years after it happens to you.
Pailin scares me. She plans to open up the Alaskin parks to oil mining and hunting down animals with helicopters. Just not safe.
Not to mention shes a gun toting bible nut. Religion should be kept out of politics.
As a US citizen, my opinion reflects your bithway: NO WAY NO HOW am I voting Republican at this point in time. And I’m someone who is significantly ticked off by the Democrats as well.
The Republican party at the moment is being directed by a group of lame brain criminals that started out in a ‘think tank’ (HAHAHA!) called the Project of the New American Century. Dimwit William Kristol was one of its organizers. They invented the Iraq War in 1997 and published their manifesto in 1998. Then once they got President Idiot and member Dickhead Cheny into the executive office, they manifested the Iraq War for real via outright lies and deception. These murderous clowns call themselves the ‘Neo-Cons’. I call them the Neo-Con-Jobs in order to be more descriptive. With scum like that running your party, no wonder the Republicans come off as being out of their minds. Hope for sexuality rights for madmen? I think not.
Politics is all a bag of scum divers in any case. It is very rare to find any of them are more than relational personality anti-leaders. They can schmooze great. But they’re clueless leaders. The can’t be representatives of anything more than what their schoozy clique of pals and legal/illegal contributors expect of them. Good luck getting sane government out of that mess.
Oddly, there is a group that gets shuffled in with the Republicraps (as opposed to Democraps) called Libertarians. Theoretically they insist that the government protect everyone and stay out of our private lives entirely. I at least can shake their hand, but they’re full of bizarro hypocrites as well. At least they dare run on their own party line on occasion.
My party: I’m a Positive Anarchist. (No, not ‘positively’ anarchist!) I believe in maximum choice. However, choice requires responsibility for the consequences. This separates me entirely from Negative Anarchists who take no responsibility, trashing everything the touch. Sadly, I’d say there’s a big streak of NA in most people, thus our exciting adventure in human self-extinction. My hope for PA probably means I’m an idealist / optimist. I can dream.