Thursday, September 23, 2010

Einstein on Insanity - Did He Have a Foreboding of Gay, Inc.?

Across the LGBT blogosphere one can find all kinds of Monday morning quarterbacking going on in the wake of the DADT repeal disaster on Tuesday. In addition to those who are outraged with the Democrats there are the usual apologists for Obama, the Democrats, and Gay,Inc. itself. These folks are working in overdrive trying to throw cold water on those of us who have said "enough is enough" in terms of mindlessly giving the Democrats our votes and money election cycle after election cycle no matter how badly we in the LGBT community are mistreated or how many times we are thrown under the bus. Albert Einstein is reported to have defined insanity as follows:
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“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
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Obviously, this concept is lost on HRC and other members of Gay, Inc. It's also lost on far too many in the LGBT community who are poised to continuing to give money to Democrats and go out and vote for Democrats on November 2, 2010. Pam Spaulding has a timely post that quotes from Andrew Sullivan in part. Andrew has described the problem as follows: "Gays, The Battered Wife Of The Democratic Party." It's a great slogan, and as Pam goes on to document, it's all too true. Why can't more see this reality? Are "access" and the hope of being invited to some nice cocktail parties so powerful that they induce lobotomies? Here are highlights from Pam's post:
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Non-performance, a lack of transparency, and broken promises cause depressed turnout. The Get Equal video stings because it tells the truth. We are in this predicament because of spinelessness, a disease we thought would be eradicated with "hope," "change," and "leadership." What a concept.
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Andrew Sullivan, who was also an Obama booster at one time, says it all with "Gays, The Battered Wife Of The Democratic Party: Dissents" as he takes on mail disagreeing with his position that we just keep coming back for more letdowns, begging for cash, and the legislative beatdowns and lying cover stories for abandoning promises.
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Pam then goes on to offer this analysis of just what Obama and the current Democrat controlled Congress have done for LGBT Americans:
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Blender QueerInSoCal broke down the list of 35 items that DNC treasurer Andrew Tobias considers accomplishments by this administration:
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It's not 35 items, particularly if you discount the one blatant lie:
Dispatched the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to call on the Senate to repeal Don't Ask / Don't Tell, in the meantime dialing back on discharges
Actively agitated against successful repeal of DADT, substituting a compromise bill with no definitive end, and no provision for interim reduction/elimination of discharges under DADT.

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Categorizing the balance of the "items"...
Substantial impact, easily reversed:
Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds to allow LGBT visitation rights. *
Adopted transgender recommendations on the issuance of gender-appropriate passports
Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover employees taking unpaid leave to care for the children of same-sex partners

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Broad but minimal impact, easily reversed:
Committed to ensuring that HUD's core housing programs are open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity
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Narrowly targeted and minimal impact:
Conceived a National Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Elders funded by a three-year HHS grant to SAGE
Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees in 2009 and, further, in 2010
Lifted the HIV Entry Ban effective January 2010
Issued diplomatic passports, and provided other benefits, to the partners of same-sex foreign service employees

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Substantial impact on a tiny portion of LGBTs (sometimes as little as one person):
Appointed the first ever transgender DNC member
Sworn in Ambassador David Huebner
Named open transgender appointees
Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government
Extended domestic violence protections to LGBT victims

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Nothing more than lifting a pen - Congress did the actual work:
Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act
Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act

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How is this related to LGBT?
Appointed Sonia Sotomayor and nominated Elena Kagan
Appointed long-time equality champion Chai Feldblum one of the four Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Appointed Retired Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, an early public champion of open service in the military, to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services**
Required all grant applicants seeking HUD funding to comply with state and local anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT individuals.

Finally we get to the biggest category...

Window dressing with no measurable impact:
Reversed an inexcusable US position by signing the UN Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Endorsed the Baldwin-Lieberman bill, The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, to provide FULL partnership benefits to federal employees
Released the first Presidential PRIDE proclamations since 2000
Hosted the first LGBT Pride Month Celebration in White House history
Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King
Testified in favor of ENDA, the first time any official of any administration has testified in the Senate on ENDA
Changed the culture of government everywhere from - among others - HUD and HHS to the Export-Import Bank, the State Department, and the Department of Education ("changed the culture? Really? How about that DOJ filing on DOMA?)
Emphasized LGBT inclusion in everything from [yada, yada, yada]
Recommitted, in a televised address, to passing ENDA . . . repealing Don't Ask/Don't Tell . . . repealing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act
Spoken out against discrimination at the National Prayer Breakfast
Launched a website to gather public comment on first-ever federal LGBT housing discrimination study
Eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept our relationships from being counted
Produced U.S. Census Bureau PSAs featuring gay, lesbian, and transgender spokespersons.
Publicly invited shunned MIssissippi high school prom student to the White House

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- I expect to see a flurry of lawsuits after hospitals deny visitation anyway.
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** - Wouldn't it have made more sense - not to mention been more productive - to have named her to the commission studying the end of DADT? Since, you know, that's what she's known for.
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This administration has been big on empty promises, and short on action.
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Given this track record, please remind me as to why I should run out and vote for Democrats on November 2, 2010. And please, do not merely tell me that the Democrats are as bad as the other guys.

1 comment:

John said...

I agree with you. The Dems and this administration have done little for their core constituencies. This is why the next elections pose disastrous consequences for them.

The Dems and Obama just don't get it. Who, after being thrown under the bus, will vote for them. Members of the Tea Party?

This blog entry speaks to the LGBT community's betrayal by the Democratic party in a more general way:

http://www.bluevirginia.us/diary/1654/pander-to-your-base-obama

Why vote for a party, which when push comes to shove, does nothing of substance for you?