Blacks, Gays, Hispanics...OH MY! (Or - who put that lock on my closet door?)

[The Straight Story]

Jesus on Jupiter with a jump rope......

I am seeing this whole thing boil down to two basic positions:

1. Yeah I support rights for X, but doing so openly too much could lead to dems losing, which means we will be that many more years behind in achieving the goal so let's play the game by the majority's rules and sneak across the finish line, then advance the agenda

2. Screw the game, we stand on principle and either the American people stand with us or we lose and keep up the fight on all fronts and hope for a win next time around when the public becomes more educated.

I am sure there is a 3 and a 4 people will mention. But allow me to move on.

The reason the right wins (outside of fraud and cheating mind you) is that their base keeps a focus on a few core messages. And they don't waiver to make you or I happy. Abortion is murder, gays need to stay quiet about being gay, strong defense, kill all the terrarists, lower taxes, and a huge f'ing load of fear (ie, vote for us or your rights go away, gays take over, etc).


Their people have a base that rarely moves to attract people to it. You don't move the goal lines, you keep em where they are and if you lose you pound harder until you finally do win. It's not about one election, it's about all of them over time and keeping the base focused on the goals.

And what are our goals? Choice, freedom, health care, taking care of all our citizens, equal rights, protecting the environment (and hence us all), and several others which we should NEVER compromise on to placate others.

I am as guilty as others at times of trying to rationalize why we should speak less about our beliefs and pander more to others'. Shame on me for that.

You win this election on slick tricks and the people you won over will turn on you in a second when the RW machine goes into over drive to show how people were misled by the liberal agenda.

We don't just need to register voters and win elections, we need to educate people about the truth. This is not about this one election coming up, though we really need to win it, it is about all the elections from here on out and building our base based on honesty and integrity and fighting damn hard to prove to people we damn well mean what we say.

We must frame it in a way that people take us serious and don't see us as pandering for their votes. Tell em straight up we will not rest until we have equal rights, health care for all your kids, etc and so on. We are not for sale. We believe what we say, and we back it 100%. You don't want to be on this boat then get off and head on over to the waffle house.

We will win, and continue to win, when we stay the course and quit trying to please everyone. Ain't gonna happen. And those up in the air votes - well, they are the problem and we need to talk to them one on one and preach the message.

Make fun of christians (like myself) and their door to door tactics, their crazy tv preachers, and all the other stuff they do - they are effective because they won't back down. And people, in the end, respect that.

I ain't about to back down on our beliefs and issues. It is because we didn't back down that companies now have gay pride days, diversity training, and so on. It is because we stood for something that the lives of millions of black americans was made better, and millions of gays can now go to work and not have as much worry about being discriminated against. It is because we worked our asses off that women are better off now then they were years ago and can actually freaking vote.

Progress does not start at the ballot box, it ends there when we elect people who can make changes. It starts with us defining our beliefs, standing firm in them, and each educating someone else so that they become with us and not against us.

I am a straight white male, and I know I got it better than those I call my brothers and sisters who aren't the same as I am. We have to bring down the old boy network, not in a way that fellow white males will get shafted - but in a way that we elevate the rights of others to where I am able to be now.

I am with you friends. And even if we don't win, I ain't stopping my support for you, hell it would be a call to me to redouble my efforts to preach to others the right way in life. We don't accept defeat, we don't compromise, we push on ever towards the goals that so many have fought and died for. MLK didn't piss around trying to appease people. Jesus died because he wouldn't back down - and when it looked like he lost, he had really won. Because the people behind the ideas were more powerful than the people in power.

We WILL WIN - as long as we don't shelve the very things we are fighting for in the name of appeasing those we fight against.

Rock on my friends, and godspeed to those who are out there working hard to be elected to make the needed changes. And a big thank you to all of you on the daily lines in this war. Never give up, and remember those who have come before you who gave so much so that you can be where you are today.

[VC2]

1. i dont like the sound of this

:(

[The Straight Story]

2. Why? I felt it a positive message myself. Was I off base?

I am more than open to criticism of my postings :)

My overall feeling is that we cannot abandon our principles and our base to appease some voters (who, BTW, are mainly white males). Is that bad?

[VC2]

3. nothing wrong with the message

but it points out indirectly that repub or dem minorities are not in the loop. were just spectators with a vote.

[WindRavenX]

4. bingo

"just spectators with a vote" :(

[The Straight Story]

5. Spectators my ass

We can work day to day to get the message out to people and get them around to our way of thinking (though I do get what you are saying my friend).

The power is not fully in the hands of the people sitting in DC right now. It is here with us.

We don't always make changes in the halls of congress, MLK and Jesus both made HUGE changes by standing up to power and not appeasing it. We can, and must, achieve this and not leave the fates of others in the hands of the few - we must stand with our fellow Americans and be heard.

[VC2]

8. Dr. King was ONE guy

there are tens of thousands of black men in prison.

i get the feeling that white democrats believe that if it werent for blacks, gays and "hispanics" (whatever that means) they would win more elections

[cboy4]

7. Exactly. Just call me by my last name: "Spectator."

It's a very nice message though.

[ecstatic]

6. People are dying in wars, and starving right here in this country

You do realize that with Bush and the Republicans in power, the gap between the rich and the poor has increased dramatically?

I agree with your points wholeheartedly, but I just want you to understand where some posters who seem to advocate putting gay marriage on the backburner are coming from. To some people, this election is a matter of life or death. When you're upper middle class ++ it's easy to casually speak about winning elections 15 years from now when everyone comes around. I will admit, I am living comfortably right now but I also have to think about the worst off among us.

[The Straight Story]

11. Oh I get it really well

And I don't think we should be portrayed as a one or two issue party (gay marriage and abortion being the big two). The core of those two points though is freedom and choice - which is what so many have died for us to have.

They are defining what it is we are about at times. I have to certainly agree that if WE focus on only two main issues (noted already) that it can be detrimental to winning - but one must also note that we damned well are not only about those issues. I advocate we stand strong on them all, and preach it loud and clear, and not run from those two big issues but run on them with the others. Because they are all part of the bigger picture we want to communicate.

The media and voters tend to pick their hot button issues and boil em down for simplicities sake, well when they do that I still say stand up hard on em. Our candidates must speak about all these things, but in the end we all know that the media might well focus on only the top few. So we must be out there insuring people know we are about so much more - while never giving ground on the issues the media focuses on.

just once I hope to see a candidate hammer home the whole thing, even if it is about one issue. Gay marriage is brought up by the media to candidate? Fine - hammer home how it is a huge issue for ALL americans to be able to have freedoms and rights.

I do get why some people are saying to back off - but to me it is not the candidates that need to, it is the media who needs to back off one or two issues and see the whole deal. And if they don't - it falls to you and me to do so door to door if needed.

[ThomCat]

13. Why does a committment to civil rights

mean you can't also oppose war and poverty? I just don't get that.

If you can get people passionate about civil rights they are going to also be passionate about war and poverty, because war and poverty are violations of civil rights.

But if you go around saying that GLBTs don't matter, than it's okay for us to suffer, then you're saying suffering is okay, ignoring that suffering is okay.

[cboy4]

9. Well said. It's just a shame some people feel there's wiggle room

when it comes to human rights.

That's appalling.

Puting politics above someone's rights?

We're supposed to stick together as a party....united we stand, divided we fall.

Thanks for your post.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

10. Excellent post.

Well-written and well-thought out. Thank you. I gave this a recommend.

:thumbsup:

[Catfight]

12. The reason the right wins is because they cheat to win. nt