Being Neal Sample
Sort of like "Being John Malkovich," but for my own head.
Entry for November 15, 2004
photo
The “left” has recently been engaged in myth creation, weaving an apologia for Kerry’s loss with stories about the “rise of the redneck” and a backlash against gay marriage. A good friend of mine in the Log Cabin Republicans (http://www.logcabin.org/) pointed me to an interesting Krauthammer editorial in the Washington Post which seems to argue that exactly the opposite occurred. Anti-gay marriage initiatives actually hurt the Bush campaign, rather than helped it.

According to Krauthammer:

. .“Ah, yes. But the fallback is then to attribute Bush's victory to
. .the gay marriage referendums that pushed Bush over the top,
. .particularly in Ohio.

. .This is more nonsense. George Bush increased his vote in 2004
. .over 2000 by an average of 3.1 percent nationwide. In Ohio the
. .increase was 1 percent -- less than a third of the national average.
. .In the 11 states in which the gay marriage referendums were
. .held, Bush increased his vote by less than he did in the 39 states
. .that did not have the referendum. The great anti-gay surge was
. .pure fiction.”

What really happened is that George Bush lost significant support in states with ballot measures that opposed gay marriage! Perhaps this will be a clue to the Democrats? Maybe next time they will choose better than Kerry, a Catholic strongly opposed to gay marriage. In 2004, the Democrats ran on a platform of “lesser evils,” presenting tepid, middle-of-the-road responses to the politics of the “right.”

This is one of the reasons that the Log Cabin Republicans exists as a vibrant group: there has never been a tradition of Democratic support for same-sex marriage. What did the Democrats offer the gay community before Kerry? Clinton? Clinton was the man who signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law! Carter? Carter was (and is) against same-sex marriage. And therein is the problem: Democratic support for gay rights is just an advertising campaign. They have never put their money where their mouth is and offered a candidate that fully supports gay rights.

During the election, 365Gay.com reported that the Bush campaign advocated for state’s rights on the issue of civil unions. Even the Human Rights Coalition (hrc.org) grudgingly acknowledged official Bush press secretary statements supporting each state’s right to enact civil union legislation. Where does that leave the Democrats? With nothing more than a retreat into spin! There's no difference on SSM.
2004-11-15 20:12:27 GMT
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1