Supporting the status quo on gays in the military, that is, after the repeal of the misguided Clinton-era Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell (DADT), may not help a candidate win Republican votes in states like Iowa with a large concentration of social conservatives. That said, saying, as Rick Perry does in his new ad, that “there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military, but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school” is more the mark of desperation than of sound political strategy.
Now, I’m all for kids openly celebrating Christmas and praying in schools (if they so choose — and provided they do so on their own, that is, not in prayer organized by a teacher or school official). As should all people. Heck, the “free exercise” clause of the First Amendment guarantees it. (And the “establishment” clause does not trump it.)
It’s a nice rhetorical trick to contrast the open service of gay people in the military and the open celebration of Christmas, but the juxtaposition just doesn’t work, save perhaps to remind voters of the candidate’s social conservative bona fides. In doing so, Perry is really jumping the shark. His campaign is sinking and he is making a desperate ploy to gain traction.
I doubt this tack will work. Even among socially conservative Iowa Republicans (as among Republicans nationwide), jobs and the economy are the key issues:
Almost half of Iowa caucus goers believe jobs and the economy is the most important topic in deciding who to support in the GOP presidential race. 46% of respondents in a poll commissioned by TheIowaRepubican.com ranked that their number one issue. Cutting spending finished second at 31%.
The poll provides evidence that, despite the Iowa Caucus’ reputation of being dominated by evangelicals, most likely caucus goers believe fiscal issues are far more important than social ones in choosing the GOP nominee for President. Abortion and gay marriage finished as the 7th and 8th most important topics.
Not just that, as Alexander Nicholson of Servicemembers United reminds us polling had shown that majorities of Republicans favored repeal of DADT. (Read the whole thing.)
I’m wondering who advised Perry to cut this ad. Few if any floundering politicians have succeeded at rescuing their candidacies by invoking gays. Perhaps, if the Texas Governor instead put forward a serious reform plan while hitting the incumbent on his failure to hold the line on spending and for lacking a plan to reform costly entitlements, he might find some traction among an electorate looking for a leader to fill the void left by a failed president.
FROM THE COMMENTS: SoCalRobert offers:
I don’t know who in the Perry camp thought this was a good idea but I’ve read that there were those who thought it a bad idea.
I want a candidate that grasps the position that we’re in… One that can point out that unless we stop the fiscal boat plunging over the falls, most other issues are academic.
None of the GOP front runners appear to get it. I’m starting to see writers speculating about a dark horse candidate. I hope there’s something to that.
Emphasis added. Ditto that emphasized part.
I don’t know who in the Perry camp thought this was a good idea but I’ve read that there were those who thought it a bad idea.
I want a candidate that grasps the position that we’re in… One that can point out that unless we stop the fiscal boat plunging over the falls, most other issues are academic.
None of the GOP front runners appear to get it. I’m starting to see writers speculating about a dark horse candidate. I hope there’s something to that.
This is beyond imagination. He is appealing to base instincts in the true Obama fashion. Kids praying in school and gays serving openly in the military is a comparison without equivalency. It is, frankly, a stupid comparison.
I will have to be instructed by others, but if Iowans are hungering for that type of red meat bigotry, then I am appalled.
If Perry can not see the stupidity in this ad, then he is running to be President of all the people, except the ones he considers marginalized.
“Few if any floundering politicians have succeeded at rescuing their candidacies by invoking gays.”
Except Democrat Barack Obama-President Against Gay Marriage- who got Democrats to overturn DADT when his presidential poll numbers started to slip.
And for DADT Barack Obama-President Against Gay Marriage- is plied with hundreds of millions of GLBT campaign dollars.
Now Barack Obama-President Against Gay Marriage- is working on Gay Foreign Policy to Protect Gay-Only Worldwide while hundreds of thousands of Christians are slaughtered years after year, decade after decade.
Gay is Hollywood Hypocrite in Democrat Clothing.
And the Biggest Gaga Bullies of All.
I think there is some truth to it and the most important part of the message is that we have some screwed up priorities. Maybe it doesn’t work for the more hifalutin more-educated, but I think the target audience are the more common folk.
Not too sure who jumped the shark after reading many responses to GOProud LaSalvia tweets. Let’s just say as Log Cabin Republicans/GOProud, no one can see the “nuances” between the two groups except for you.
http://www.redstate.com/snarkandboobs/2011/12/09/goprouds-outing-of-rick-perry-pollster-tony-fabrizio-backfires-outs-them-instead/
Remember, Redstate.com is not 100% social conservative. Moe Lane can in no way be misconstrued as a social conservative.
rj, you will note that I did not reference GOProud. While I very much liked the part of their release where they called Perry’s tactics “desperate,” I did not wish to drag this blog into the controversy.
Maybe because I am a therapist I tend to listen twice and more closely to things that provoke people to instant reactivity. So I am of the opinion that while it may not help his candidacy, his provocative juxtaposition does point out a truth about the wider implications of the culture wars.
It is indeed strange when the government mandates the open service in the military of people whose sexuality, until ten minutes ago, historically speaking, was almost universally condemned while at the very same time continues to marginalize or erase some of the most traditional symbols of American culture, especially when it comes to the Christian religion, the religion of the vast majority of Americans.
And it is generally the same groups of people who are behind both moves.
One of the moments in my conversion to conservatism was when I realized that liberalism is not about widening opportunity and freedom (as it advertises itself to be) but simply about replacing successful and therefore dominant majorities with dominance by grievance-based minorities.
That’s no way to run…anything,
Paul Ryan?
Perry is a disaster.
I think Rick Perry has a point. While the mention of gays in the military seemed out of place, there is something wrong when you call it “Christmas” because it is “insensitive” to Jews, Muslims, atheists, wiccans, etc (it’s not insensitive; and it seems like most non-Christians agree that it isn’t insensitive), but you can’t criticize Islam without being Islamophobic. It does seem like there is a war on Christianity. Still, there would have been a better comparison to make than one between children not being able to pray in school or celebrate Christmas and gays serving in the military.
I would have hoped that GOProud would have been above this sort of leftist tactic.
And by my previous comment I meant that Paul Ryan fits those criteria. It is unfortunate that he is not running.
That should be “there is something wrong when you can’t call it Christmas.”
There are tons of parodies of this already.
Stick a fork in this campaign…. It’s done.
I think EssEm makes an excellent point. When I first read about and later saw the ad, I shared the opinion expressed here that he had “jumped the shark” by coming across as so anti-gay in the ad, and only later on did I recognize that a closer reading of the ad suggested a subtler statement about the “culture wars” which wasn’t necessarily anti-gay, as much as it was against the kind of silencing of certain voices so commonly practiced by those on the left.
Whatever the subtleties of the argument, though, it won’t matter because the left and the mainstream media have already branded Perry a bigot because of the ad, and that label won’t be easy to shake off. So while I think he chose to make an interesting point about the meaning of “openness” in our society, making it in this manner was not a tactically wise move because he should have known that it would be used against him as it has been.
One of the moments in my conversion to conservatism was when I realized that liberalism is not about widening opportunity and freedom (as it advertises itself to be) but simply about replacing successful and therefore dominant majorities with dominance by grievance-based minorities.
Bingo.
Watch Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, John Aravosis, Joe Solmonese, Dan Savage, and their lackeys – Rob Tisinai and Box Turtle Bulletin being excellent examples — and you will notice two immediate trends:
1) They scream constantly about “equality” and “tolerance”
2) They practice outright discrimination against anyone who doesn’t match their minority and demand special privileges based on the traits which they claim are “inborn”.
In short, they have no interest in actually tolerating or treating people equally. They simply want power, and are trying to shame and guilt you into giving it to them.
They are the spiritual descendants of the Committee of Public Safety — or in other words, those who overthrew monarchs for the sole purpose of establishing themselves as despots.
Apples and oranges, folks.
Here again, RS jumps at the chance to smear GOProud over trivial bullshit. A “leftist tactic” would be liberals manufacturing a kerfuffle to smear people on the right. As far as I can see, RedState has participated in a smear.
I’m disappointed and expect better from them.
Pam Spaulding also notes:
“I have no idea if Fabrizio’s a homo, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he’s another one of those Beltway creatures that’s socially out, perhaps even professionally out to many, but wants to play coy in order to maximize the cash flow from homophobes like Perry.”
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/12/gay-conservatives-out-rick-perrys-top-pollster-tony-fabrizio-infuriated-over-anti-gay-ad.html#ixzz1gF0BB0Rz
I think Perry made a big mistake, does he know TParty is his audience? If he doesn’t then he’s really out of touch and he needs to go rest and catch up. I think what he said will do the opposite, we are not racist, we are not homophobic and we don’t just want power. We want the truth and the laws followed, they are not above the law and that will will change. I believe if gays want to *marry* or make that commitment(legal) they should be able to and be protected under the law. When you bash Christians and want the *promise* we make to God and you tell us over and over you hate us and there is no God, what are we supposed to think. The same goes with what you’ve been told about us. If what you have to reference to is the *tv Christian*, no wonder you’re calling us idiots and no way. Well, that’s not who most Christians are, it’s *theater* and used against all of us. There’s so many people who don’t even watch tv, we’re out living our lives and frankly the crap that’s on….look, life is short, we don’t want to waist a precious moment. We haven’t been paying attention and I’m sorry for that, we are now and will have to until the day we die. We can solve problems, by using a conservative framework, without becoming victims and controlling peoples lives, we can solve all these problems. We want dignity and honesty to prevail, we want you to be who you truly are and be protected under the laws. We can solve any problem that we have, can we just be honest about them before we start?
A war on Christianity? When is the last time you had an opportunity to vote for a non-Christian in any election? It’s more likely than not that you’ve never even had a chance to vote for a non-Christian. In any ballot you’ve ever filled out, you could have gone through randomly picking candidates and the odds are still heavily in the Christians’ favor. Barrack Obama is the 44th Christian President in 44 tries, so who is waging this war on Christmas, exactly?
#19
Just because someone calls him- or herself a Christian doesn’t necessarily make that person a Christian. And elected officials have little to do with anything. If I understand what Perry is saying, it is Obama’s ideology that engenders antipathy towards Christians (i.e. social liberalism). And based on what evidence I’ve seen, I would agree with that.
This is the sort of thing that makes it seem like there is a war on Christianity. And then there are references to Christmas trees as “holiday trees.” Given that the USA is a Christian-majority country, it doesn’t make sense to offend the majority in an attempt to appease the minority. And most religious minorities don’t seem to care that most people celebrate Christmas, because they have the freedom to practice their own religion.
Perhaps “war on Christianity” is a bit hyperbolic. But I really don’t know.
People attacking Perry are being inconsistent and illogical. Most obviously, attacking him for “attacking” is circular.
GOProud’s star friend, Ann Coulter, is also against look-at-me gays in the military. She agrees with Perry on many issues – so again, where’s the consistency here?
Incidentally, many gays on the Right and Left oppose gays playing their identity cards in the military. Perhaps Perry’s critics are just reinforcing gay stereotypes.