I'm not a single issue voter, and every political fight I've cared about

[struggle4progress]

took years to win -- if we've even won it yet

America always has been, is, and always will be a work in progress. There has been, is, and always will be lots of stuff to be unhappy about. We may all want to sigh or grit our teeth often, but the true mark of adulthood is the ability to look for ways that move us forward

We have major elections here every two years. What I want from an election is not a utopian dawn: I just want a playing field on which my side has a fighting chance. I long ago stopped expecting politicians to carry water for me. Elections merely put people in power. Between elections, I figure it's still up to me and my political friends to knock doors and make phone calls and show up at street fairs and hold fundraising events and do mailings to foster grassroots support and activism to further our issues. And you should see it that way too

On November 3, we can start figuring out how to pressure the next Congress. For the next two and a half weeks, we should all be working to get the people elected who might sometimes work with us -- instead of handing a victory to folk who will absolutely never work with us

[Radical Activist]

1. This is what the productive left does.

Get the best people elected we can, and don't expect too much from them. We have to keep pushing. Most progress in American history has come step by step through the work of many, many activists.

[Ohio Joe]

2. Yeah....

But fuckin-a, it's 2010, I think equal rights for all should be a no-brainer.

[FreeState]

3. I wouldn't call that a single issue either

In fact I don't think I know even one single issue voter.

[struggle4progress]

4. I agree. And after the election I'm sure you'll be out knocking doors and stuffing envelopes and

jingling phones and holding community educational events and talking to people on the street to produce pressure to further that goal. But today and for the next several weeks you should be asking yourself how to elect the folk who are overall more likely to listen to us, rather than the folk who won't listen to us at all

[Ohio Joe]

5. No

I will not shut up. I will not be quiet. I will not be a douchebag that says equal rights can wait. I will vote dem and I will probably get my post deleted. Fuck it.

[David Zephyr]

7. +1

:)

[David Zephyr]

6. Ah, but why is it that GLBT civil rights are always the "single issue" that is swept under the rug?

And why is it, election after election, our civil rights are dismissed by some nervous, straight Democrats as being a "single issue"? It's almost a ritual now.

"Single Issue" has become nothing more than a worn out code for straight Democrats who are uncomfortable with dealing with basic civil right for GLBT Americans and who see us as expendable.

When a Democrat begins talking about that old "single issue" at election time, it's clearly a signal for gay Americans to shut and temporarily disappear.

[struggle4progress]

8. No issue, that I've devoted much time to, has ever played any role in any campaign that

I've volunteered for. As I've already said, I long ago stopped expecting politicians to carry water for me. Get the people elected, who might listen, and then figure out how to pressure them effectively. There's just no other way that I can see

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. I think you feel that way because it's YOUR single issue.

There are many, many other single issue voters out there, and many other single issues. There are pro-union single issue voters. There are pro-choice single issue voters. There are pro-single payer single issue voters. There are pro-civil rights (race, to distinguish from LGBT) single issue voters. Pro-environment. Pro-animal rights. I could go on and on and on. If you weren't so self-absorbed, you could look all around you and find that.

[VMI Dem]

10. Me either. I'm just not going to vote for bigots again. Ever.

[Prism]

11. I'm sorry, the carrot sounds delicious, but your stick is now broken. Enough already.

"We can start figuring out how to pressure the next Congress."

It sounds good in theory, and it would work if we didn't have two years of very recent memory working against your premise.

LGBTers have been working to pressure the politicians. Guess what we got in return and continue to get from our own party? Single issue, pony, the President has a lot on his plate, after health care, two wars, you should be grateful for what you're getting, you never loved him in the first place, racists, alienating allies.

And on. And on. And on.

We're promised by the party that we'll get help pressuring Congress and the President, but when the time comes, where did everyone go?

And we're expected to keep quiet and go along to get along, and maybe someday we'll get something for it.

You're asking me to forget the past two years and exactly how my community has been treated by ostensible Democrats. You're asking me to buy into a lie, a big lie, a lie that is so obvious and big and impossible to ignore that it's almost an insult that you're asking anyone to buy into it in the first place.

Pressuring Congress? After the election?

Let me ask you this. What was keeping you and so many others here from helping the LGBT community pressure these people for the past two years? Because a nice chunk of the party did not. A nice chunk of the party spat in our faces. Look at the threads going around DU today. We're still getting insulted, denigrated, belittled, told to shut up.

You are not in a position to offer this promise or solution, because it is a lie. The past two years have unmasked this as empty hot air that will dissipate in the political atmosphere the very next day after the election.

No, thank you. But no. Enough promises, enough "after the election" enough "we promise, this time we'll help."

Do it now, or don't do it at all. But don't sit there and do nothing, and keep saying you'll get around to it eventually.

People are dying every single day while Democratic loyalists procrastinate because it's never convenient for their guy. LGBTers are not this party's sacrifice to give.

[struggle4progress]

13. I've explained, above, my view of how activists should regard elections. I suppose

you're free to dislike my view: I'd be more interested if you provided a criticism that suggested a thoroughly practical attitude based on real organizing experience

[Prism]

14. GetEqual is doing what every pro-equality Democrat should be.

They are the model.

Defenses of this administration's horror show on LGBT rights is the opposite of that.

[Scuba]

12. You've nailed it. The plan should be ....

... to elect the best we've got (even if lesser of two evils) running and work hard before and during the primaries to get better candidates.

[LWolf]

15. Neither am I, up to this point.

I have to say that the national war on teachers changes that. I'm a teacher.

There are many other issues important enough to me to affect my vote: health care, labor, environmental, election reform, energy policy...I could keep going.

It doesn't really matter. Those likely to support the corporate takeover of our public education system aren't likely to support the change I want to see on any of those issues, either.

[Number23]

16. K&R

[Scurrilous]

17. Kick

:kick: