It’s never the Democrats’ fault, those repeated losses. Nope, it’s the unfair media or shrill, shrieking women or uppity blacks or troublemaking gays who are to blame. This time, it’s a bunch of old guys sitting on a bench, wearing dresses robes who are going to be to blame for all the losses this time:
These widely-broadcast canards from the religious conservatives, the incautious equation of Foley’s stupid predatory cruising with pedophilia in too much of the media, coupled with the New Jersey ruling, may well create an ugly anti-gay backlash among the electorate. It could be just like the one following the U.S. Supreme Court’s striking down of the so-called “sodomy” laws and the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts, which laid the groundwork for the success of the 2004 anti-gay marriage referendums in hyping conservative voter turnout.
No one has specifically polled attitudes toward homosexuality since the Foley scandal broke. But if there is a new backlash, the New Jersey court decision, coming just 13 days before the midterm elections, may well unintentionally have helped deliver November victories to the most vigorous opponents of gay rights—without even having given gays a second state free of second-class citizenship for their loving couples. One step forward, two steps back?
There are variations on this theme spouted over and over again. Some group of people, sick of their second-class status, getting NO relief for the discrimination they face every day of their lives, finally get their day in court. The Republicans scream “the liberals and their judges want to defoul your wife/child/husband” followed closely by the Democrats running away from the charge, like a gay-baited coward abandoning his recently-outed best friend.
The problem, you see, is the HUMAN BEINGS who have the temerity to ask that they be treated equally under the law. HOW DARE THEY? How could that EVER be as important as getting more Dempublicans elected? It’s a pattern repeated over and over again. Instead of confronting the real problem, a political party that panders to prejudice and fear, the Democrats turn on the Republicans’ targets themselves. Harold Ford Jr. can’t get to a microphone fast enough to repeat that he too, based on his faith, looks down upon gays as second-class citizens.
This never works, this aping of Republican talking points, homophobia and hatred. Marisacat points out the pathetic nature of their continued spinelessness as they slide to the right as they try to fend off Republican gay-baiting, hate-mongering and jingoism:
There is NOTHING across three congresses that the Republicans cannot point to and say, “it was a bi-partisan vote”.
Those Republicans!, they can ferret out a stray drop of soft liberal sheep’s blood hiding under the conservative wolf’s still bloody dripping skin.
Do a search for “gay marriage” and “Harold Ford Jr.” and you’ll find right-wing sites that will STILL insist that he secretly wants big-city queers to punk your teenage son (and Republican Congressmen don’t appreciate the competition). Even if he does everything he can to help the right make their fascist, homophobic dreams come true, Ford will STILL be gay-baited (when they aren’t race-baiting him).
Yet the Democrats keep recruiting their very own rightwingers:
An influx of new blood from the party’s right wing could test party leaders’ ability to maintain the remarkable unity they have forged during their years in the minority. Among the party’s House challengers, 33 are conservative enough to be endorsed by either the Blue Dogs or the political arm of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. Nearly all are on the Cook Political Report’s latest list of Democrats most likely to win seats now held by Republicans. The party needs to pick up 15 seats to win a majority in the House.
With more conservative Democrats in the House, President Bush could have a new opening to reach across the aisle. But so far, he shows no signs of preparing to do so. One of the few issues he cites as a priority for next year is his plan to overhaul Social Security — a nonstarter among Democrats of all political stripes.
When are they going to learn? The right has turned the Republican Party into an oppressive machine by doing two things: pandering very hard to their hardcore base while they GO AFTER THE DEMOCRAT’S STRENGTHS. That is the pattern, over and over again. “The Democrat’s strengths”, you ask? The Democrat’s strength, if they ever shook themselves lose of the idea that only white, middle-class suburban voters matter, could be found in the great, diverse, wonderful variety of Americans who ask only to be treated fairly, to be given justice, to find a place in the public square where they aren’t treated as second-class citizens. They’ve failed to recognize this strength themselves, except for VERY brief periods, and many of the leaders who tried to build this coalition, to realize this potential, have fallen to assassin’s bullets or resistance from within the party itself.
The ONLY way to turn things around is to go after the Republican’s strengths. Their strength is the ability to appeal to people’s fears, hatreds, prejudices and resentments. They ONLY way to beat them at it is to confront them with it. Hold a mirror up to them. Broadcast for all the world to see how ugly and hateful the Republican worldview is, regardless of their constant repetition of one or two lines from the Bible. Stand up strong for inclusiveness and justice. The right wouldn’t attack those qualities so hard if they weren’t so afraid of them. The Democrats only hope to become a strong party is to embrace gays, embrace the poor, embrace women … embrace the multitudinous wonderful variety of Americans just waiting for a voice in the policies of this nation. The Dems need to embrace the until now empty words in their platform, the ones like “freedom” and “justice”. They need to turn their back on Clintonian pandering and triangulating to prejudice and fear, religious bigotry and corporate exploitation.
Or, the Dems could continue their usual pattern, prancing in lockstep like stereotypical nancy boys, marching to the Republican’s hate-filled beat. Judging by their recent behavior, it’s pretty clear that they will continue to sashay along, empty charicatures of leaders, punked out by the relentless Republican gay-baiting.
