To brighten your evening: Far-Right GOP bigot Outed, Resigns — Page 2

RobbieJ's outrage is clear,and I concur. So many Rudy/Arnie GOPers -- and their followers -- who segregate "domestic issues" from those pertaining to national security consistently look the other way when this administration blatently and strategically uses "domestic issues" to shore up a radical right wing base.

How can gay Republicans not be deeply offended to the very marrow of their bones when their president -- in initiating a constitutional amendment to shut them out of fundamental rights -- carefully made sure to NOT make his party "a big tent." Have you ever -- EVER heard someone from the Bush regime say a single kind or compassionate thing about gay people? If Bush holds a personal belief about marriage being hetero-inclusive and yet theoretically also believes that gay people shouldn't be persecuted or denied human rights -- why not simply use the phrase "GAY PEOPLE" in a SINGLE speech? An inclusive one--that might argue that true compassion REQUIRES tolerance? Good God, these people worship JESUS -- the person who theoretically set the highest mark for tolerance in the history of the world!

No,I could almost forgive them for their "private" intolerance if they had the "public" grace, the humanity -- the so-called CHRISTIAN compassion -- to give a damn about, say, the gay teen bruised and bullied for the umpteenth time, thinking suicide is the only answer... or the lesbian girl sent into the streets, penniless by her traditional values-espousing parents because she came out. Our children -- our gay children, some of whom could grow up to write WEST SIDE STORY or THE GLASS MENAGERIE, both adored and performed regularly by Republicans--or merely be the kind neighbor down the street!-- need a safe, tolerant world to grow up and thrive in. And this president, no matter what his lip service suggests, is hell bent on NOT providing them with that safe world. I'll never forgive him for that.

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Updated On: 8/31/04 at 08:23 PM

DG: I agree with nearly everything you say. But don't forget the Reopublicans weren't "stunned" enough to lose the majority in the House or Senate (except briefly thanks to Senator Jeffords) and they weren't in disarray enough to slow the construction of horrendous policy decisions, the foundation of which was laid by President Reagan. Minimal social programs, undoing the Great Society, giving up on the war on poverty, gag rules on scientific research, massive budget-crippling tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and wasteful out of control military spending.

Ckeaton: You believe in the system a bit too much to think that wacko constitutional amendments can't prevail, I'm afraid. Let me point you toward something called Prohibition. And, leaving the interpretation of what is constitutional to 9 political appointees on the Supreme Court is sobering. Take a quick scan of some of the more egregious decisions they've handed down over the decades -- especially when it comes to civil rights. Thankfully, the system rights itself over time. But how long is appropriate for the disenfranchised to wait to enjoy equality and civil rights? Sorry, I don't think it's right that we have 13 million children living in poverty in this country; 9 million children without health insurance; growing racial disparities in health; large segments of our society being denied full civil rights and liberty.

It doesn't need to be this way, and I won't accept one more minute of complacency from our elected officials.

I'm with Auggie, as always.

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Zola, et. al.

I look forward to discussing all of the wonders that the Kerry/Edwards administration will have brought to us (should it happen). I look forward to the day when Mr. Heinz-Kerry solves poverty, discrimination, and disease. He is certainly a silver bullet for the U.S., a dull one at that... But any bullet is dangerous with enough force thrown behind it.

The truth of the matter is that no one president will make any difference in it all. Scientists and economists are working every day. It comes back to the people in the long run. We are evolving. Too slowly for some, but that's the nature of progress.

(Unless we are advocating communism? That way the government could see to it that everyone is equal in their bread lines.)

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"Scientists and economists are working every day."

Subverted, as least the scientists anyway, by the Bush administration. Don't tell me one president doesn't make a difference. Just look at what has happened at the CDC on Bush's watch. That is if he can tell time.

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When Kerry "alleviates poverty" I will buy you a bottle of your favorite moderatley priced spirits.

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