Analyses of why the Republican party lost both houses of Congress in the 2006 election are still coming in and doubtless will continue for some time.
One of the most interesting is by Republican pollster Frank Luntz in a post-election "Addendum" to his book "Words that Work" (Hyperion, 2007). Luntz argues that Republicans failed to communicate any principles or vision, that they seemed "rudderless ... disjointed, out-of-touch, and adrift." He could have added arrogant and corrupt.
Luntz argues that Republicans were not only inept but sometimes simply wrong. He cites the bungled war in Iraq, intervention in the Terry Schiavo case, fumbled Hurricane Katrina relief, the porkitude of that Alaska "Bridge to Nowhere," and the poorly explained Prescription Drug Benefit.
He could have cited others: The Mark Foley affair, the Jack Abramoff scandal, the threat of warrantless wiretaps, the endless delays in approving Plan B birth control, and the obvious lie that "we" were making progress in Iraq even as military and civilian deaths climbed precipitously.
As more than one centrist or GOP-leaning voter told me, "I'm just so disgusted I'm voting straight Democrat." Not that the Democrats offered any alternatives. All they had to do was say, "We aren't them." In 1946 the Republicans won the first post-Roosevelt election with the slogan, "Had enough? Vote Republican." This time it was the Democrats' turn.
But where in all this were gay issues? Yes, seven out of eight states approved gay marriage bans but those seemed to have little impact on other races just as analyses of 2004 Ohio results suggested that the anti-gay amendment had no impact on Pres. Bush's narrow victory there. In fact, some have speculated an amendment in Virginia helped 2006 Democratic senate candidate James Webb by drawing Democratic black voters to the polls to vote for the gay marriage ban.
However that may be, I want to offer a thought about how gay issues may have played an unobtrusive, almost subterranean role in the election.
For one thing, introducing the amendment banning gay marriage a second time when it had previously failed reinforced the idea that the GOP was controlled by the religious right. Thus it could be viewed as part of a cluster of moralist, religion-based policies such as opposition to Plan B and sex education, bans on abortion, and the Terry Schiavo intrusion that made Americans uneasy.
Second, although most Americans oppose gay marriage, most Americans also oppose amending the U.S. Constitution to ban it. Thus the GOP's repeated efforts suggested a zeal for a federal government solution where none was wanted and supported the perception that the GOP was becoming the party of big and intrusive government--as witness the warrantless wiretaps, suggestions for national ID cards, intrusive airport searches, and ballooning federal deficits--very much the sorts of things Barry Goldwater warned about in 1964.
Although issues such as gay adoption rights, permanent partner immigration, hate crimes laws, or a federal non-discrimination law probably had little impact, the gay military ban probably did play--again--a subterranean role. Most Americans now favor the integration of gays into the military so the current ban even on skilled gay personnel such as Arab translators made clear that the GOP's homophobic policies were getting in the way of its other avowed goal--an effective military. It is not that Americans are zealous to have gays in the military but the ban added to the general sense that there was something wrong with the conduct of the war.
So it seems that gay issues seldom if ever determine who voters will vote for, but they can play a kind of unobtrusive role as part of a cluster of issues that can be related to overall perceptions about the role or efficiency of government, the presence of sectarian influence and questions of honesty, clarity and transparency.
If this is true, gays need to explain gay issues in terms not only of justice, fairness, and non-discrimination, but relate them to clusters of issues that can touch Americans' basic concerns about the proper limits on government, the dangers of overreach, opposition to scientific knowledge, governmental prejudice against citizens, mutually inconsistent policies, hypocrisy (corruption while moralistic) and cynicism (tolerating Foley's behavior while being publicly anti-gay).
This all requires a number of things: that gay organizations find ways to raise their voices a little more, that they find new clusters of issues to relate our concerns to, and that they manage to persuade our congressional and gubernatorial supporters to speak out more often and more clearly about our issues in the context of these clusters of ideas.
8 Comments for “The Underground Issue”
posted by Eva Young on
Interesting article. I think while gay issues affect a minority of the population, the theocrats overreached with Terri Shiavo – and that is the type of issue that affects everyone.
posted by Jeff on
I received this link in my inbox today and thought you would enjoy the hypocrisy of it all. I am always interested in the current administration. I knew about the elder bush and his escapades but I had no idea this one was dabbling in something he would consider so horribly immoral.
http://mysite.verizon.net/myk15/bushhugsmanho.html
posted by addict on
>Second, although most Americans oppose gay marriage
Hm… Poll results?
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posted by Paul Longhurst on
What is happening to the world, in the 70s 80s and 90s the general opinion became tollerent then it became trendy and in the late 90s it even became a bit normal and boring. in holland we have been the most tollerant country with reguards to homo rights and marriage and now the christians want to turn back the clock it is becoming a bigger and deeper debate in parliment and the opposition are answering this naieve opinion.
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posted by The Gay Species on
Perspicacious as usual, Paul, especially the penultimate paragraph. Let’s not forget the FDA resignations over the withholding of a HPV vaccine, or the anti-Darwinian, pro-Biblical account of our origins, Ten Commandments in secular courts, deficit-spending to excess, taxpayer subsidies of oil, pharmaceutical, and insurance industries, elimination of habeas corpus, warrantless searches, faith-based initiatives, taxpayer funding of religious indoctrination, false intelligence information, Walter Reed and other Veterans malpractice, and the $250 BILLION public works porkbarrel omnibus bill by “conservative” governance! Burkean, reactionary conservatism; not Goldwater proto-libertarian conservatism.
Alas, the American Taliban may be its own undoing. But until this country recognizes, esteems, and returns to its liberal ideals of the Enlightenment, upon which this country was founded and our Constitution constructed, GLBT’s interests will rarely muster interest, other than as a force for energizing the “conservative” Base. As long as “ideals” of the Enlightenment’s liberalism are espoused, extoled, and hallowed, our “equal rights,” our right to justice and equitable treatment, our freedoms from religious tyranny, our exemption from state persecution, our lack of self-determination, our place as co-citizens of a free and open society, etc., will seem like a “special interest” agenda, rather than a universal human agenda.
“Liberalism” has become a pejorative, aided by the Atwater-type conservatives, who repudiate our Founder’s liberalism as immoral, permissive, licentious, free-thinking, etc. But those were the very ideals the Founders enshrined in the first-ever experiment in an Enlightened “open” (rather ancient “closed”) society. They called it America, not Amerika.
Until everyone’s rights, liberties, freedoms, etc. are invoked as a universal inheritance, not a “special interest” agenda for GLBT, we’ll never capture what is at stake for ALL of us. Until these relgionist marginalizations are derided as “anti-American,” because they fail the “universal test,” we’ll always appear the exception, the “special interest,” rather than an integral part of our universal humanity. Anyone wrongly enslaved should evoked terror in everyone’s possibility of being wrongly enslaved. One person’s loss of equal citizenship should evoke a risk to everyone’s citizenship.
These “liberal” principles must regain the universal appeal they had to our Founders, or else were doomed as “misfits” wanting special rights, rather than being recognized as fellow citizens of the first free, open, and equal society in human history. And, we’re still yearning to “form a more perfect union.” But only if we’re together as one people, not as a series of “special interest.” GLBT interest should be everyone’s interests, because they are.
posted by Michigan-Matt on
Hey GaySpecies, did you cut and paste that nonsense from the DailyKos or did you actually think it up all on your own?
Talk about the perfect example of the GayLeftBorgType spinning wildly in outer space, boy you are it.
posted by The Gay Species on
Michigan-Matt,
I recognize you from Gay Patriot, that reactionary, self-loathing, quasi-gay, irrational blog, where you used ad hominems there just like you do here. I see you spew just like Coulter, Malkin, and all your other favorites.
No. I’ve never read DailyKos. Yes. This country was founded on the Englightenment’s liberal principles of self-governance, equality, freedom, autonomy, justice, anti-tyrany, and all the other things you conservatives despise. You herald militaristic jingoism, tradition, history, and institutions like patriarchy, slavery, inequality, racism, authortarianism, and all the other Bushie values that have come to fruition by your conservative “values.”
I’m only too glad to be associated with the liberalism of Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Paine, and not your Burkean, Straussian, or Religious fanaticcal conservatism. And the Voice of the People have finally arisen from their slumbers. We may even succeed in impeaching the Grand Duarchy, the worst governance in American history (except for 29% of you conservatives, waiting from the Prophet George to invoke the Second Coming).
Hope you enjoy your Jesus Camp. Praise Jesus for me!