Twice in my adult life, I considered abandoning the GOP and voting for a Third Party candidate for president.  And each time, after considering the alternatives, understanding that my vote for a non-Republican would be one less vote for the candidate mostly likely to defeat an untrustworthy Democrat, I returned to the Republican fold.

In 1992, upset with then-President George H.W. Bush for not holding the line on domestic spending and hiking taxes after promising not to, I briefly flirted with voting for Ross Perot.  But, the more we saw of that Texan, the more unhinged he appeared.  Still, even as late as Election Day, I considered pulling the lever for him.  In the voting booth, when I saw Bill Clinton’s name, I opted for the man who had once so loyally served the Gipper as Vice President.

Almost twelve years later, when that Bush’s son endorse the Federal Marriage Amendment, I considered voting Libertarian even penning, er, pixeling a number of e-mails to a libertarian listserv, weighing the advantages of voting for a candidate who had no chance of winning.  I wrote in Rudy Giuliani for President in the California primary.  But, then I started listening to John Kerry.  I returned to George W. Bush’s camp.

A comment to my recent post on the Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele’s unfortunate statement on same-sex civil unions caused me to revisit the choices I made to vote for Republicans named Bush with whom I disagreed on important issues.  While praising me for criticizing Steele, Tom in Lazybrook asked if there would be “any loss of support for the GOP by the Gay Patrioters?”

Despite the tone on his comments (and of my hasty response), I grant there is some merit in his question.

Why should we support a party when we don’t agree with its leadership on every issue?

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In my post yesterday, The Prejudiced Minds of Those Who Call Us, “Self-Hating,” I mentioned the appearance of Janeane Garofalo on Keith Olbermann’s show where the one-time comedienne used the “self-loathing” slur most to describe Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. She told Olbermann that there had to be “something wrong” with people who follow the GOP.

Well, the folk at FoxNews Channel’s Red Eye with Greg Gutfield had fun with that as they wondered why people on the left just have to use the Hitler reference. With great humor, they took on the humorless duo, noting how easy it is to marginalize a group when you don’t know anyone who belongs to it. (We’re talking about liberal attitudes towards conservatives here, not social conservative attitudes toward gays.)

Via Olbermann Watch via RedState.

Yikers. 

An overwhelming majority of North Carolina voters support amending the state constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman, according to poll results released this week by the Civitas Institute.

The poll of 600 registered voters from Feb. 16-19 found that 76 percent support a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage, while 21 percent are opposed to such an amendment.

State law in North Carolina defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, but a measure being pushed in the state legislature calls for a constitutional amendment on the issue.

It is too bad they didn’t poll on the question of civil unions, too.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

As I noted in my previous post, I just finished Roger Simon’s book, Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror, which I quite enjoyed, particularly the last three-quarters.

Now, I gotta admit, I’m not sure I could write an entirely unbiased review of the book.  First, I have met Roger and really quite like him.  He has this avuncular personality, indeed, he could pass as my Dad’s precocious younger brother.  The second reason is that, particularly in the last quarter of the book (the very best part in my view), Roger writes about something which has fascinated me throughout my adult life, the bloody crossroads where, to paraphrase Lionel Trilling, politics and literature and/or cinema meet.

Unlike Roger who came to embrace conservative ideas after achieving success in Hollywood (he was nominated for an Academy Award for his script Enemies:  A Love Story), I came to Hollywood seeking success after having long embraced conservative ideas.  (Yet, up until the 2004 election, the first where Roger voted Republican for president, I remained pretty closeted about my politics with my friends in (and aspiring to be in) the entertainment industry.)

While I liked this book and found it difficult to put it down at the end (even taking it to the gym so I could read it on various cardio machines), I did have some problems with it.  The first chapter seemed forced, as if he felt he needed to paste it on as a kind of prologue.  And the book really didn’t start going until Roger describes his meeting with the late comedian Richard Pryor (Roger wrote the script for Pryor’s 1981 hit Bustin’ Loose).  At that point, the book takes off and doesn’t let up.

In this, the meat of his memoir, Roger describes the clash of egos which defines Hollywood politics, his fascination with the emerging media of online communication, his various romances and travels and, most importantly, his political odyssey.

For those of who have wanted to break into Hollywood, his story cautions us.  Maybe it’s not worth the effort, given the games we’d have to play once we succeeded and those which would continually be played around us.

As he describes his evolution as an “accidental online apostate CEO,” he shares stories familiar to many right-of-center bloggers:

I was attacked on a daily basis on websites across the world, reviled by people who once had adored–or at least admired–me, and received more hate mail than I could ever have imagined.  I also felt ostracized by the Hollywood community in which I’d made my life.

Without his realizing it, his blog “had begun to take up most of [his] writing time.” Hmmm . . . .

His political transformation, like that of Endora-winning blogress Tammy Bruce, began in earnest with the OJ trial.

Perhaps because of his gay son, Roger has shown a special sensitivity to gay issues. He recognizes the “rapidity” with which societal attitudes towards gay people have changed and that Islamism, as he puts it, “is the world’s greatest enemy of gay and women’s rights.”

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I just finished Roger Simon’s book, Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror, and quite enjoyed it, particularly the last three-quarters (short review to follow). Toward the end, Roger said something which reminded me of a joke I heard Friday at the LA Tea Party for Freedom.

Roger described himself as “the same old Groucho Marxist who would never join a club that had him as a member.” Al Sonja Schmidt (seen below), author of Deb & Seby’s Real Deal on Global Warming, offered this on Friday, “The leading comedians in America were once the Marx Brothers; the leading American is now a Marxist brother.”