Did Reagan just not have “that type of cojones”, then?

Witty repartee is one thing (Snow vs. Thomas), but actually hating the opposition is completely different.

My how times have changed. Churchill himself was “hated” by the opposition (notably Lady Astor), and he gave it back to them in spades.

Right now I’d like to see an American conservative, elected or otherwise, with that type of cojones. The last one to do it well was Tony Snow vs Helen Thomas.

Regards,
Peter H.

TGC: If he were a liberal who said that, the gay victims would be falling all over themselves to give him cash.

————————————————————————————————-

BobN: I preferred conservatives when they were level-headed. They were a bit dull, perhaps, but that was certainly better than today’s rah-rah tribalism that so obviously clouds perception and inhibits reasoning.

TGC: You mean they won’t grab their ankles for liberals.

Case in point.

What happened to Republicans like Barry Goldwater who were actually committed to ideas? The ones nowadays seem to be committed to getting themselves reelected. (Same for Democrats.)

I am sick of this “rah-rah tribalism”, too. Instead of us all being Americans who respectfully disagree with each other, you, TGC and so many like you on the polar right and left, want to draw a stark line between “us” and “them”, allowing for no grey and little individualism, especially in those you disagree with most.

That, perhaps is the biggest lesson we could take from the tories. They can stand up and hoot during Prime Ministers Questions (and other times, I’m sure), but they don’t seem to hate the opposition.

They were a bit dull, perhaps, but that was certainly better than today’s rah-rah tribalism that so obviously clouds perception and inhibits reasoning.

You mean they won’t grab their ankles for liberals.

That he happens to oppose marriage, as opposed to unions doesn’t prove otherwise.

Here in the U.S. at least, gay marriage is the measure which determines whether a politician is homophobic or not. If a Republican opposes gay marriage, but supports civil unions, they’re a racist, sexist, bigot homophobe. They also want to ship us off to Super-Duper, double secret gay death camps in Wyoming or Colorado or wherever the hell it is today.

On the flip-side, a liberal politician can do no wrong. If they oppose gay marriage, why they’re the best thing to happen to gays since the orgasm. Liberal gay victims spooge themselves throwing them cash and votes and loudly proclaim that they’re the ones who care more about gays. Nevermind that liberals in office have passed the most anti-gay legislation.

The simple fact that liberal candidates pander to gays erases their obvious lies, bigotry, hate and homophobia. That, and the repeating the same lies that Republicans are the real homophobes.

I can guarandamn-tee you that Dr. Paul J. Goebbles would be proud of todays “democrat” party.

Gee, Thom, I was saying the same thing when Red Ken was in office. But somehow I doubt that Boris would be as much as a firebrand panderer as his predecessor.

Regards,
Peter H.

[Thanks for catching that. Just checked you're right. I misread Tory as Tony. Fixed. --Dan]

As David says, the jury is still very much out on Boris - on LGBT issues and otherwise. He so often contradicts himself and backpedals in such vague terms that it’s impossible to know what he really believes in, other than throwing the word “liberty” around a lot. Let’s just hope London is still standing when he’s done with it.

If someone can show proof of Red Ken’s committment to gays and lesbians, I’d love to see it.

Regards,
Peter H.

Unlike the congenitally homophobic Republican Party, being gay, or being gay and being appointed to a political post is no big deal in the UK. There always have been plenty of openly gay Conservative and other Assembly Members on London’s Assembly. Indeed, the Liberal Democrats have now run two different gay Mayoral candidates; the Greens have run one; one of the four Tory Mayoral primary candidates was openly gay (now an Assembly member).

In the Westminster parliament just down the river from City Hall, two openly gay Tories serve in the party’s Shadow Cabinet. Labour and the Liberal Democrats also have openly gay Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet members and many openly gay Members of Parliament.

Despite these progressive attitudes, Johnson has consistently been behind the times compared to his party and city. Prior to his election, he wrote:

“if gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog.’”

“Labour’s appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of
homosexuality in schools, and all the rest of it.’”

“the essence of that Tory case is unchanged… it
is more sensitive to spare parents’ anxieties, than to allow Leftwing local authorities to waste taxpayers’ money on idiotic and irrelevant homosexual instruction.’”

His bigoted and ignorant comments about lesbians and gays and civil unions (legal since 2004 in the UK, a decision encouraged by Mayor Livingstone’s decision to set up a civil partnership register in London in 2001) as well as Boris Johnson’s support in print for the notorious Section 28, by which the UK government decided in 1986 to forbid teachers from, in the language of the legislation “promoting homosexuality,” (the Blair government repealed this in 2003) are a disgrace to his party and fall far short of the highly-publicised opposition to this measure by the Conservative Party’s previous Mayoral candidate, Steve Norris (it was Conservative Party policy to support Section 28 from 1986 until the Labour government repealed the measure in 2003).

You can see the new Mayor discuss his position on this in front of Stonewall, the UK’s principal organisation for gay and lesbian equality, a few days before the end of May 1st’s mayoral election on this YouTube clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3PJm1n90og&feature=related

heck… i oppose marriage altogether… governments should be in the business of conferring or denying marital rights…

Bullshit, TP! If he were a liberal who said that, the gay victims would be falling all over themselves to give him cash.