GETTING SHAFTED AGAIN

GETTING SHAFTED AGAIN

By Sweet Pea

 

Well, it must be a presidential election year because once again Gays and Lesbians are getting the short end of the proverbial stick.  We all know that John McCain will do his very best to make certain that Gays and Lesbians will never achieve full equality under the law, meaning that he will in all probability try to deny us the benefits of civil unions, much less the rights to marry and to enjoy the financial benefits that come from a marital union.

 

So that means that we stand a much better chance with the Democratic candidates for president, doesn't it?  Well, to be succinct, NO.

 

The original Clinton Administrations did very little to help Gays and Lesbians.  And despite the half baked idea that Clinton was our first Black President, he did very little to help Blacks. In fact the Clintons are little more that moderate Republicans, corporate whores in Democratic clothing who employed corporatist economic policies which harmed the very people they were claiming to uplift, than they are legitimate liberals.   I suppose, in a warped sort of way, this meant that Gays and Lesbians were better off than racial minorities and poor people, because the Clintons never had the guts to be seen with GLBT leaders and politicians.  Instead, they chose to play it safe.  They avoided controversy by pretending that the GLBT community didn't even exist. 

 

Some things never change.  When was the last time you saw Hilary Clinton appear at a rally with a well known GLBT leader, clergyman, or politician?  Can you say "virtually never?"  Hilary would much rather play it safe, playing and running to the center and then governing--if elected--from just right of center.  Just like the 1990s when they ran a joint presidency out of the White House.  Let's face it.  The Clinton's aren't about do or be seen doing anything that the center or their corporatist masters might find controversial.  And that means they will ignore an entire constituency, human rights be damned.

 

So if the Clinton's can't be trusted, certainly we can trust Mister Obama. 

 

Yeah.  Right.  Tell me another one.

 

Obama is so obsessed with his idea of a big tent Democratic Party that he would much rather attract Independents and Moderate Republicans than listen to a Democratic constituency.  Obama is so determined to promote a big tent Democratic Party that one wonders if he isn't willing to sit down with right wing morons like Pat Robertson than with the people who have carried water for the Democratic Party.  Well, I have news for Mister Obama.  Asking the GLBT constituency of the Democratic Party to sit in the same tent as the ultrafundamentalists in this country is a lot like asking the Prime Minister of Israel to sit down at a table with members of the Aryan Nation.  Moreover, Obama seems indebted to homophobic, Black Evangelical Pastors who would treat the GLBT community as shabbily as any right wing ideology.  Clearly, Obama is not a friend of the GLBT community.

 

So what, exactly, are we supposed to do?  To whom are we supposed to turn during this election cycle?  To be honest I haven't the foggiest idea.   The only thing I know at the present time is that the GLBT Community, with a Log Cabin exceptions, has been very loyal to the Democratic Party and to date the Democratic Candidates have chosen to ignore us.   That's all fine a dandy but I am not the kind of person who serves a Political Party without some expectation of results.  I don't like betrayal and that's how feel this year.

 

Either the Democratic Party can show a little appreciation and do the right thing by supporting full and equal rights for everyone or I can vote for an alternative that isn't ashamed to be seen with GLBT leaders and politicians.