John McCain & Improving Situation for Gays in GOP
In making his case for John McCain, Dale Carpenter notes some of the Republican’s flaws, but gets at the essence of his appeal to gay conservatives, offering that “As the practical differences on gay issues get smaller, non-gay issues grow in salience:”
You wouldn’t know it by listening to gay pundits and organizations, but McCain is the most gay-friendly Republican presidential nominee ever. That’s not just faint praise. Despite election-season pandering to the religious right, he’s not one of them and they know it. He has openly gay staffers and campaign officials. He has defended his gay colleagues in public office against attacks by religious conservatives. The convention that nominated him was free of anti-gay rhetoric. Even marriage, long a crowd-pleaser, was rarely mentioned. In fact, 49 percent of the delegates to the GOP convention supported civil unions or gay marriage. And unlike Bush in 2004, McCain’s campaign has not exploited homophobia.
The most gay-friendly Republican presidential nominee ever? And yet still we gay McCain supporters experience the worst vitriol we have seen in fifteen years.
It doesn’t seem some of these gay pundits and organizations are much interested in a Republican’s record on gay issues, they’re just focused on that annoying (R) after his name. It somehow causes them to writhe in agony and fall into paroxysms of anger.
Dale makes a great case for John McCain and shows how frequently the gay media got this good man wrong. In short, he’s good for gay Americans because he’s good for all Americans.
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Bingo, therein lies the problem, he treats everybody equally - no room for vicitimology or special treatment because of minority status - that won’t sit well with the progessives.
Comment by Leah — November 3, 2008 @ 8:02 pm - November 3, 2008
No surprise there.
They didn’t coin the phrase knee-jerk liberal for nothing!
Comment by Dave — November 3, 2008 @ 8:56 pm - November 3, 2008
I think the Gay-McCain-Supporter-bashing may be due to the same reason the Left tried so hard to destroy Clarence Thomas. The Left thinks that they own the African American and the gay vote, so nothing can be allowed to erode that impression. Once they can’t count on these voting blocks, Democrats can’t win any election.
What angers me about this is that the reason I’m a conservative is not because I want my own interests catered to. I’m a conservative because I believe that its underlying tenets result in the greatest good for all, and therefore is inherently unifying. It allows all people to benefit. It’s harder to sell, because you have to paint the big picture, then show how the big picture results in good details for individuals. Liberalism inevitably looks at the trees, sees the knobby branches and frets about them, criticizes the leaves which are underdeveloped, then loses the image of the forest. Result: micromanagement.
Comment by Vivian — November 3, 2008 @ 9:46 pm - November 3, 2008
Who is John McCain?
Comment by jimmy — November 4, 2008 @ 5:10 am - November 4, 2008
Vivian, I’m not sure if your comparison between the left’s lack of support for Clarence Thomas and Gay-McCain Supporter bashing is the proper one, but I think I get what you’re saying.
I was only in middle school during Thomas’ appointment, but the perception I was left with in later years is that his approach, when it comes to constitutional matters that would impact minorities adversely, was based more on personal experience, views, and accomplishments rather than fully examining the experiences of the people whom laws might impact.
It is easy to bash gay McCain supporters because a) it may be difficult to forget Bush’s support of the FMA in Feb. of 2004, b) it may be difficult to forget the GOP platform contains language that is anti-gay and c) McCain, himself, is a propoent of “traditional marriage.” Personally, when it comes to LGBT issues, and even though I came to my liberal beliefs on my own, I have no problem with the idea of McCain being president. I do, however, get the feeling that he is more tolerant of the community rather than accepting, but is accepting of LGBT persons he may personally know. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.
What gay liberals need to accept is that in our country, there will be LGBT persons who identify more strongly with a conservative approach to government, and they’ll never make sure the community is accepted if they don’t provide a voice from within.
On the same hand, gay conservatives should not completely dismiss the trees in pursuit of the forest. It is, after all, the trees that make up that forest. Using that analogy as an example speaks to both sides, but the approach might seem Darwinian to some; I’m not convinced government is meant to work that way.
Comment by J — November 4, 2008 @ 7:51 am - November 4, 2008
J—I don’t know if I’m right either. I’m not actually gay, so I don’t have personal experience. However, I know that black conservatives can count on being reviled or ignored by the media as a whole. Democrats literally cannot win national elections unless they can control the African-American vote. That’s why they cannot allow any black conservatives to achieve prominence. Furthermore, since most of them feed on the ongoing racism myth (I don’t mean there is none–I mean the idea that no progress has been made since 1942), successful and prominent black conservatives are a huge threat to that whole scam.
Comment by Vivian — November 4, 2008 @ 8:26 pm - November 4, 2008