The Chickens are Voting For Colonel Sanders

I thought the Log Cabin Republicans would withhold their endorsement of John McCain. Maybe I just hoped they would. After all, they withheld their endorsement of President Bush in 2004. So I thought it was possible.

In making its endorsement today, the group pointed to the Arizona senator's opposition to a federal constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as being a man and a woman. The group also indicated that it had honest disagreements with Senator McCain on the subject of same sex marriage. The Log Cabin gang has traveled to St. Paul to carry the message that Republicans are on the "wrong side of history" when it comes to the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Where to start?

First off, I understand the idea of working from the inside. I've seen heroic strides made by gay employees groups, gay teachers groups. From the inside. Lobbying to effect change. But I would argue that an endorsement ties your hands.

Secondly, I am not a single issue voter and most LGBT people I know are not either. We are smarter than that. However, call me crazy but my rights as a citizen (or lack thereof) are pretty damned important. And we all know that an endorsement means that an organization will mobilize its membership base to actively support a candidate. In this case, one who works against our fight for equality.

OK, so in the spirit of full disclosure, I am the Co-Chair of the National LGBT Finance Committee for Senator Obama. You could argue that I am not objective. And I suppose you could be right.

But there are facts that are impossible to ignore:

• "I don't believe in gay adoption," says John McCain.
• "I believe that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is working in the military," says John McCain.
• In 2000, 2002 and 2004, he voted against adding sexual orientation to federal hate crimes legistlation.
• McCain voted against extending the Civil Rights Act to prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

And as someone who is not a single issue voter, I could continue on in describing ways in which Senator McCain represents more of the same at a time when we need a fresh perspective, a new pair of eyes. And a man who takes the selection of his running mate with the seriousness it demands.

In the 2000 election, exit polls indicated that roughly 1,000,000 gay voters cast their vote for George Bush. Numbers like that make a difference in a close election. In that particular election, maybe all the difference.

The whole thing is a "shanda" (says the Irish Catholic girl). Shame on the Log Cabin Republicans. There is just way too much at stake.

Under other circumstances, I might link to the Log Cabin website so that you can read the endorsement for yourself.

But I'm mad. I refuse to drive traffic to their site.

Comments

[RobertHenryEller]

And then, John McCain picked Sarah Palin for Vice President.

Gay Americans, along with most straight Americans, will now have fewer rights than a downs syndrome baby.

Under Sarah Palin, you will be more entitled to your Constitutional rights if you simply get a lobotomy.

[concerned4OurFuture]

I'm not gay, but I live near a predominantly gay community here in south Florida. I guess that makes me as much of an expert on gay matters as Sarah Palin is an expert on foreign policy because Alaska is close to Russia.

I can't understand how any gay folks can support the Republicans, who have made and will continue to make every effort to marginalize them in the armed forces as well as civilian life. The party's cynical efforts are designed to rouse and unite the "values voters", who demonstrate their homophobia with their ballots. Wise up friends, and vote against the haters.

[xkp]

Absolutely love the headline! It is exactly how I feel about anyone voting republican since after Ike! Kudos!

[NoPCZone]

The Kool-Aid served up by the NeoCon Rethugnicans is powerful stuff and is addictive. The operative part of the title is not Log Cabin- it's Rethugnicans. Until they realize that the evangelicals will NEVER accept them, they will continue being used by the party of oligarchy, monopoly, repression, suppression, torture, favoritism, cronyism, fear-mongering, imperialism and graft. Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. The flat-earth party will not change.

[marignymitch]

Colonel Sanders has plenty of chickens on his farm, and they aren't just gay Republicans. I'm talking here about working class white Americans, who for at least 30 years have made their pact with the devil. Jobs disappear, wages fall and the rich get richer, still they vote for the plutocrats, who really own the party. They lose health insurance and can't afford to purchase it, but they support candidates who oppose proposed remedies as 'socialist'. They are full fledged partners in the GOP's government of, by and for the rich.

It is a wiley scam that Republicans have unleased on the nation. They have tricked these loyal followers (through racism and homophobia) into voting against their own interests. Working class whites seemed to have had a better sense of their true friends in the 1930s, when they backed populist candidates who fought exploitation by the rich. It leaves me wondering--as the middle class shrinks and the ranks of those living in poverty increase--when or if these voters will finally snap out of it.

[teacheng]

I see this happening with others, too. My father disagrees with the Repubs on every point - except that he thinks he will save money because they will "lower taxes." So, he'll vote for them every time, even though he hates their social agenda. The Log Cabins are in a similar situation I think.

It's a mercenary world.

[Rule Of Law]

As full as the Republican Closet is, the Log Cabin boys should feel right at home.

[NickfromCali]

I'm trying to make "chickens for Col Sanders" THE catch phrase for those that vote against their economic self-interest e.g. PUMAs for McCain. Or incredibly filthy rich war profiteers for Obama

[maestra1985]

Nor am I a one-issue voter, but when it comes down to it, almost all other issues (health care, the economy, taxes) all fall under the umbrella of gay marriage. If I can't marry my partner, then all of those issues are affected.

[dapperd72]

I suppose the Log Cabin Republicans' endorsement of McCain brings new meaning to the credo, "If ya can't beat `em, join `em." McCain sold out in 2000 when he endorsed Bush after Rove slandered him in South Carolina. Apparently the Log Cabiners have followed suit by selling their souls to the proverbial Devil. One of my uncles (namely my father's twin brother) told me several years ago, as a prototypical Republican, that homosexuals who adopt children are "criminals­." This reflects the dominant paradigm of the Republican mindset, which is why I become more convinced every waking day that the GOP is irreconcilably antithetical to the founding principles of this nation. I can't imagine Abe Lincoln would recognize the party that contemporarily holds him on a pedestal, as if they embody any of his ethics. He would find them as alien as Ben Franklin would find the Internet. Homophobia prima facie spits in the face of the 14 Amendment's equal protection clause, regardless of any rhetoric from the likes of Scalia or Alito. Shame on the Log Cabiners for utterly selling themselves out. Kudos to Joan Garry for Co-Chairing Obama's LGBT National Finance Committee.

[NEANDERTHALL]

Astonishing stupidity from these self-loathing morons.

[jhamm1]

Military intelligence, degraded nudity, jumbo shrimp, responsible journalism, and gay republican.

The world seems to be full of contradictions these days.

[lastjournaliststanding]

uh. check out what obama said at saddleback about gay marriage.
gay people are held hostage to the democratic party.
the dems actual voting records are the SAME as mccain's.

[jmpurser]

You're right. Gays have a choice between voting for the party actively hostile to them or the one that's pretty indifferent to their issues.

Which is pretty much the same deal any liberal/progressive deals with.

[roald]

Well said.

[WorkingClass]

Hear Hear.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I'm trying to imagine a straight person voting for someone who espoused the following position:

"I want you to lose your job due to your sexuality without complaint, and stop whining when you get stomped for being straight..­. but I expect your full support on all other matters."

[clevelandchick]

Obama said that he was for full spousal rights for gay couples: the right to will your property without, hospital visitation, insurance benefits etc. All Obama said was that he was not for the government forcing churches or religion to perform the ceremony or to change their ideology.

And he's right, the government cannot force religious institutions to perform ceremonies and religious institutions should not be able to force their will on government institutions. In other words he's for equality for all but believes in the separation of church and state.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Pish-tosh.

City halls throughout the land do not perform religious rites -- they perform m-a-r-r-i-a-g-e-s.

No one is trying to force anything on any church, temple, mosque, or what-not.

[herhonor]

Here is the legal "deal"; right now, just because you can get a "marriage" license at "city hall"; NOBODY HAS to perform the ceremony. Gay or straight , a couple should be able to get a license. Who they get to perform the ceremony ; secular or religious. is up to them ; as it is now. The Government doesn't MAKE any religious insitution perform "hetero" marriages now; so they won't make them perform them (gay or straight) in the future. The government. state or federal should have no prohibitions on what "kind" of couple can get a license.

[FogCityJohn]

Um, what you need to check out are the facts. The Democratic Party is in favor of equal employment opportunity for gay people at the federal level. Democrats support the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA); Republicans don't. ENDA will add sexual orientation to the categories protected by federal antidiscrimination law.

Marriage is a state issue, although the Republicans managed to get the so-called Defense of Marriage Act passed to deny federal recognition to same-sex marriages. DOMA wouldn't have passed a Democratic Congress.

To say that the Democrats' voting records on gay issues are the same as McCain's is just an outright lie. I notice that you don't specify any of the Democrats you claim to be talking about.

[MadOzbo]

If it is that important to you, make sure you VOTE on Election Day.
Make sure you ask your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors to VOTE, also.

As the old bumper stickers used to say, "If you don't vote, don't bitch..."

[BachelorJohnnyCool]

I think it's quite possible that the Log Cabins endorsed him in order to hurt his campaign by undermining his already shaky standing with cultural conservatives.