Democrats, an echo not a choice

A word for gay voters. The Democrats think they have you locked up nice and tight. They don’t have to give you anything! And they will give you as little as possible. Now we all know about the asinine remarks of General Peter Pace that homosexuals are immoral. So what did the Democratic front runners do when asked about this issue?

They do what front runners always do -- run -- as fast as they could away from the issue. Hillary Clinton, used to ducking issues after being married to Bill, ducked as quickly as she could. When she was asked if she thought homosexuals were immoral she gave a political, non-answer: “Well, I’m going to leave that to others to conclude. I’m very proud of the gays and lesbians I know who perform work that is essential to our country, who want to serve their country and I want to make sure they can.”

Okay, but the question was: Do you think gays are immoral? A typical politician, when asked a question they don’t like ignores that question and instead answers the one they wished you had asked instead. All politicians are inherently dishonest in this way. It’s the nature of the beast.

The thing is that a lot of people noticed she avoided answering the question so she issued a statement “clarifying” the issue. And once again she actually never addressed the topic. Typical double speak from this woman. Her clarification never said whether she thinks gays are immoral. It merely said, regarding Pace, “I disagree with what he said and do not share his view, plain and simple. It is inappropriate to inject such personal views into this public policy matter, especially at a time in which there are young men and women in such grave circumstances in Iraq, in Afghanistan and in other dangerous places around the world.”

Okay, so are gays immoral? See, Hillary said she disagrees with Pace’s “view” but which view. He actually expressed several views in his comment. One was that gays are immoral. One is that he supports “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (the policy Hillary hubby implemented). She disagrees with a view but which view? Had she said she disagrees with his “views” then we would know.

And notice what she carefully avoided in that statement. The words “gay” or “lesbian” are totally missing. Why? Because she doesn’t want to alienate Black Christians, who are a substantial support base for the Democrats. She also wants to pander to conservatives and win them over as much as possible. But she doesn’t want to lose gay support either. So she says things that she hopes will placate gay voters but doesn’t say anything specific enough to irritate religious bigots.

She was never going to say: “Gay are not immoral.” That is too blunt. So she wanted to give the impression she said it without actually saying it. Republican Senator John Warner did clearly state his position with equivocating in order to maximize votes: “I respectfully, but strongly disagree with the chairman’s view that homosexuality is immoral.” Clinton couldn’t mention the word moral or immoral and couldn’t refer to the group in question. Coward.

Barack Obama pulled the same double talk. His answers were equally evasive changing the subject. And Newsday reported exactly what I suspected: “Clinton and Obama supporters, speaking on condition of anonymity, said both might have been trying to avoid offending socially conservative Democrats, particularly church-going African-americans, who share Pace’s views.”

One gay Democrat, Steve Sanders, tried to play down the betrayals saying that: “Hillary and Barack have made very public overtures to religious Americans. They are trying to figure out how progressive Democrats can also make appeals to Americans of faith. It’s a work in progress.” In other words, they will say anything to maximize votes and are trying to figure out how to have their cake and eat it too. And if the cake on the Right is bigger then gays are shunted to the back of the bus.

A spokesman for Obama later said he disagreed with Pace but Obama didn’t say it for himself. That way there is no film footage that the Religious Right can use to upset Black religious bigots. If Democrats think gays are expendable you can bet they will drop us like a hot potato.

Hillary had zero chance of any support from me. Obama, I was watching but when he decided that the federal government should take over health care he lost me. Anyone so stupid as to think that people who can't deliver mail on time, at a reasonable cost, should run the health system shouldn't be in office. And neither has yet to declare that we ought to get out of Iraq now.