I found this article to be most interesting. I've often wondered why gays are, as a group, so loyal to the Democrat Party (this article refers to them as the 3rd most loyal constituency, after blacks and Jews) when the Democrats don't seem to give gays more than lip service (no pun intended). So here's a scorecard for gays to evaluate how much their new friends in power do for them prior to the 2008 election.
I'd be surprised if they get 10 points or more.
10 comments:
Why did I come here again?
I am also mystified at the Jewish loyalty to the Democrat party, seeing as how
1) It is the libs (who are mostly Democrat) who take the side of the Arab grievances over the Jewish state of Israel.
2) It is the libs who are in favor of gun control. What did Hitler do when he took power? He disarmed the Jews! You all can finish the rest of that story.
I think you forget that gays are not a cross section of people in the United States. Gays are more affluent, more urban, more upper middle class, and more educated that middle America. I assume that they are liberal for the same reasons that Jews are liberal/Democratic voters.
If more gays were blue collar or middle class or lived in places like Omaha instead of being affluent, living in NYC or SF, and working in very specific white collar fiedls, they would probably vote more Republican/conservative.
I don't know, anonymous--why do you come here? Apparently it's not for the education or politics mentioned at the top of the blog.
And Chanman, I, too, have often wondered about why Jews are so overwhelmingly liberal, given the Left's stance towards Israel. It might be for the same reasons Superdestroyer mentioned about gays.
Superdestroyer - My parents' friend is gay, from Georgia, and very liberal, so I'm not so sure it would change all that much. But there are exceptions to every rule, I suppose.
I think the single strongest reason for gay loyalty to the Democrats is Republican hostility to gays. Every gay person I've ever discussed politics with finds it incomprehensible that anyone can be a gay Republican. If you don't want to throw away your vote on third-party candidates, the Democrats are simply what you're left with after you write off the Republicans.
Denever, your comment makes sense. But what have the Democrats done for gays? The Defense of Marriage Act and Don't Ask, Don't Tell were both signed by a Democrat president. California, a "blue" state, voted almost 2-1 against gay marriage just a couple years ago. Oregon, another blue state, did as well.
I just don't see how the Dems help.
The most likely one is some change to "don't ask, don't tell". Dems have been against it forever, and Reps are only marginally in favor of keeping it. The military itself is lots less anti-gay than it once was, and - contrary to what one may think - big social changes in the military are typically easier to get done in wartime than peacetime.
My guess is that eventually, gays will serve openly in the US military. There will probably be some well-publicized incidents initially, but I anticipate that the transition will go much more smoothly than most people think. Most problems currently envisioned probably won't even occur because "flamers" would be unlikely to enlist in large numbers even if allowed to do so.
"I, too, have often wondered about why Jews are so overwhelmingly liberal, given the Left's stance towards Israel."
I read an excellent article on that just yesterday. If I can find it (I don't remember where I saw it), I'll pass the URL on.
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