Remember last month, when Iowa was identified as a place where you could actually applaud Democrats for furthering the rights of homosexuals? Time to take it all back!
With Democrats controlling both houses of Iowa’s legislature, an attempt by Republicans to force a vote on amending the state constitution to ban gay marriage (and overturn the Supreme Court’s approval) was seen by most as a futile lawmaking effort, but an important election-timed event. And thanks to some procedural muck that even we don’t fully understand, the Dems were able to shut down the GOP push to force a vote on their bill.
But now comes word that four Senate Democrats dared cross party lines and join a Republican petition to have a full vote. It left 28 Democrats saying no, but putting Republicans just three votes away from successfully forcing a vote. Except even if they had the votes, the Dems’ move comes too late; the deadline passed for the effort to be binding.
Last week, Republicans attempted to use a procedural move, called a discharge petition, to pull Senate Joint Resolution 2001 out of committee and put it before the full Senate for debate and a vote. The bill would begin the process of amending the state’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage. All 18 Senate Republicans were joined by Democratic state Sen. Tom Hancock of Epworth in signing the petition.
A similar attempt was made in the state House that also failed to find enough votes to bring a gay marriage ban up for a vote.
In the next few days, Black, Kreiman, Olive and Seng signed on, bringing the total to 23, just three votes short of the majority needed to force a vote on a constitutional ban on gay marriage in the Senate. Twenty-eight Democratic Senators refused to sign on.
Which makes the decision by the four Democrats — Dennis Black of Grinnell, Keith Kreiman of Bloomfield, Rich Olive of Story City and Joe Seng of Davenport — to jump teams and support letting lawmakers vote on approving discrimination all the more curious. And as yet unexplained.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Paschal
Why is it that whenever a few Democrats do something against gay rights it’s a big deal but it’s not a big deal when ALL Republicans do something against gay rights? You’ll be loving the Democrats if Republicans get control of more state legislatures and Congress.
Ken
This is just a political strategy. The Republicans know that if it comes before the Senate for a debate and a vote, it will fail. They also know that if they even try to bring it to a vote, they will fail. So they make the political gesture of trying to bring it to a debate and a vote for the purpose of failing. Then they can go back to their constituents and say that they tried but the mean old Democrats thwarted a democratic process.
The four Democrats were probably trying to rob them of their political martyrdom. If the Democrats helped them bring it before the Senate and then voted against it, the Republicans wouldn’t be able to pose as champions of democracy who were defeated by the Democrats.
Voting on human rights is not a democratic process. It is mob rule. Republicans can’t tell the difference.
Wade macMorrighan
So, why isn’t anyone attempting to sell to Iowans and the legislators that “majority rule” is *not* Democracy, but a perversion of it in an effort to subjugate a historically unpopular minority? Why isn’t the local TV news media defending us in this regard?
PADude
@Paschal: Because the Republicans tend to be rabid dogs, and you expect a rabid dog to bite. It’s no big surprise when they do. It’s a surprise when the rabies test comes back negative and they DON’T bite.
In the past, we’ve perceived the Democrats as sheepdogs. It’s a surprise when the sheepdog bites. You just don’t expect it.
Lately we’re discovering there’s more rabies in the Democratic party than we previously thought.
@Wade macMorrighan: Technically, majority rule IS democracy…which is why the United States is NOT a democracy. We’re a Constitutional Republic. The Founding Fathers knew better than to make this place purely democratic, hence the tri-part government and all that.
Bill Perdue
@Paschal: Your question is a lie. And silly. You Democrats voted for candidates like Clinton and his Congressional supporters who were primarily responsible for DOMA and DADT.
Wise up, Paschal. The reality is that you and your fellow Demorats inflicted DOMA and DADT on us, and other goodies like Clintons NAFTA and deregulation which created the current recession wannabe depression. In Congress it was not just a ‘few’ Demorats as you insinuate, who voted for DADT, DOMA and the other garbage that constitutes Clintons legacy of bigotry and union busting, but the vast majority of both parties. (DADT was a bit of an exception. Some Republicans voted against it because it didn’t openly call for firing squads when faggots were denounced by McCarthyite scum.)
Obama looks to be at least as bad as Clinton and Bush.
The only real difference between Demorats and their Rethug cousins s is that, while both parties are dominated by bigots or bigot panderers, the right centrist Democrat Party is camouflaged and the candidly right centrist Republican Party just doesn’t give a rats ass if we vote for them or not.
They both push us under the bus. Quietly sniggering if they’re ‘liberal’ and loudly chortling if they’re Republican, but in both cases smiling all the way to the bank. They’ll do it for influence, power or money because that what Republicans openly do and Democrats pretend not to do.
It’s lose, lose for us as long as a significant part of our movement kowtows to Democrats. All that bowing and scraping is a total misuse of time and effort and worse, ultimately demoralizing as we get betrayed over and over.
After each betrayal Barney “Quisling’ Frank chimes in and whines that we’re not active enough and undeserving of all his efforts on our behalf. It seems that The LGBT communities have had enough. But we need more than just anger, we need to be free of the two bigot parties. TInstead of licking the boot that kicks us under the bus we should get into unions and demand that RL Trumka, newly elected AFL-CIO President unleash their Labor Party on their enemies and ours, the Democrats and Republicans.
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