SOUNDBITES — “So we have basically elected professional politicians whose first priority is getting re-elected from the first day they take office. I’m not sure if the business of America is even second on their list. I miss Ted Kennedy. He knew old school politics and how to stand tough for his ideals while still partnering with the opposition. There are not many Ted Kennedys left in Washington; certainly Obama is not one of them. This is evidenced by a sixty filibuster proof majority for the past year and very little to show for it, particularly on Gay civil rights. The Democrats still have a fifty-nine vote majority in the Senate but as President Obama mentioned, are inclined to run for the hills due to the election of Scott Brown from Massachusetts. We in America have a very broken political system and many angry citizens. I think the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered civil rights movement can exploit this situation. All it takes is some guts and a willingness to unite as a strong voting block. A voting block that will send a clear message that we will not support you until you deliver. Of course we need to back up those words with actions, even if it is briefly painful to us.” —Boston blogger Michael, of Michael’s Gay Thought, responding to Obama’s SOTU speech (via)
Michael's Gay Thought
“I miss Ted Kennedy. He knew old school politics and how to stand tough for his ideals while still partnering with the opposition. There are not many Ted Kennedys left in Washington; certainly Obama is not one of them”
Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...
We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?
Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated
Chitown Kev
I agree with this statement with one caveat.
“He knew old school politics and how to stand tough for his ideals while still partnering with the opposition.”
It is easy to do this when you are a shoo-in for reelection.
Then again, many (if not most) Congresscritters are shoo-ins for reelection so…
Josh_Texas
There is NO political solution to LGBT Equality. It is a complete waste of time and money.
We need to get over the false hope offered by politicians and HRC. Lobby all you want. Harass elected officials. Do whatever you want in the political arena – it won’t work.
Think of something else. We’re wasting our time.
hyhybt
@Josh_Texas: Complete and total nonsense.
Josh_Texas
@hyhybt: Well, political junkie – give us an example of how politics has helped us. We’ve spent billions on Democrats and Gay Inc. – where is the evidence that it is working or will work?
It’s a game. Bill Clinton did the same thing in the 90s and we didn’t get anything. So, if you think Obama and the Democrats are any different, THAT is complete and total NONSENSE.
reason
Yeah the political system is screwed up, but the people are to blame. We have a representative democracy those politicians are who we made them to be. Kennedy came in an era when the tone was not so corrosive and friendships across the isles were commonplace. Newt Gingrich, though he impresses me sometimes, helped destroy all that with his Contract for America and the declaration that politics was total war. The public should have silenced that crap then and there, but the people who urn for blood now and again cooed with glee. Now Washington is a toxic waste dump, most of the senators and congressmen put their head down when they pass another from a different party in the hallway. John Boehner hasn’t spoken with the presidents staff in months. Kennedy was able to cash in on past decorum and goodwill, by keeping some of his cross isle friendships burning. Now walking in to that place, it is difficult to make a friend across the isle. Obama befriended Tom Coburn and Dick Lugar, but granted that they are staunch conservatives that didn’t help much with most policy, although Coburn has come out to defend the president several times saying that the national debt is not his doing. If you talk to a lot of progressives or gays they get incensed when they think of Obama dining with someone like Rick Warren, well in the congress that goes both ways with constituents getting violently angry at the thought of their representative getting chummy with a pro-lifer, pro-gay, anti-green or whatever is being served up on the menu. So maybe I am wrong to blame Newt, maybe he was just tapping into oil field of pre-existing resentment in the public; it would certainly fit into my world view and that of our founders that the people shape Washington. It is sad, and sort of the reason that I getting pushed closer to the democratic party. I was young when Newt was at the height of his power and even younger during the George H.W. administration, but I was enamored when reading later, in the mid 90’s, about his foreign policy apparatus and H.W.’s intellect and worldliness. Gone are the days when individual Republicans would push good ideas, now the ideas die as they are feed up the leadership chain, and then the leadership corrals legislators like cattle into voting as a body collective. Maybe that oil field of resentment is a limited resource and will dry up leading to more civility, but I am skeptical.
Michaels Gay Thought
Wow used my writing without telling me. Seems wrong. My site is http://michaelsgaythought.blogspot.com/