Via the Washington Post, Paul Ryan is in another fight he doesn’t want, this time over LGBT rights:
Republican leaders have tried to steer lawmakers away from wading into the hot-button debate. But with LGBT issues already boiling in the states, social conservatives seem eager to take up the cause by seeking to attach an array of religious-exemption measures to must-pass spending bills, a move that could seriously gum up the budget process.
Earlier this week, House leaders cautioned Republicans at a closed-door session that Democrats were likely to keep trying to force them into uncomfortable votes on LGBT discrimination, according to aides and members who were present.
9 Comments for “Politics as Usual”
posted by Tom Scharbach on
I don’t mean to sound blase, but gays and lesbians have been used for political cannon fodder for so many election cycles in the last three decades that I’m unimpressed by the fact that it is happening again this election cycle.
The fodder machine is operating at full throttle this cycle, and Speaker Ryan is a fool if he thinks that he can keep the fracas out of the House.
As an aside, I loved the phrase “a move that could seriously gum up the budget process”. Gum up what budget process?
The deadline for the federal budget elapsed on April 15. Speaker Ryan and House GOP leadership refused to allow the budget to be debated by the full House. Citing that as an excuse, the Senate has refused to comply even think about a budget.
As a writer at Forbes noted: “Actually, you really can’t call this a “failure” to perform on the budget because that implies Congress has made an effort. It hasn’t.”
We aren’t in the budget process any more. That’s dead. As of May 15, we are in the appropriations process, which can proceed without a budget.
posted by Jorge on
“Republican leaders have tried to steer lawmakers away from wading into the hot-button debate.”
Hard to do that when the tide’s come in. A better analogy would be to just steer the ship.
Poor Paul Ryan. All he wants is to be is a glorified bureaucrat leading a bunch of social justice warriors who can’t agree which way is up. The weak dictator is gone and he’s trying to win with a kinder, gentler speakership. BUZZ! Wrong!
I don’t mean to sound blase, but gays and lesbians have been used for political cannon fodder for so many election cycles in the last three decades that I’m unimpressed by the fact that it is happening again this election cycle.
That reminds me the time 10 years ago when the Empire State Pride Agenda (I’m pretty sure it was them) gave a presentation on an anti-school bullying law they wanted passed that I attended as part of a class assignment (I had to pick one of several presentations to lobby my representative on).
And it was a great presentation, and a great bill.
They didn’t mention that “gender identity and expression” was really code for protecting transgender students. They didn’t mention that a competing anti-school bullying law had regularly passed the Republican-controlled chamber. They didn’t mention that the sole reason they couldn’t pass a school bullying law was because they insisted on the laundry list version.
As attempts to manipulate me in my state go, that was mild. Gay News! in politics used to be behind the scenes. Now it’s out, front page news, and so is the corruption. I think that’s what makes things harder.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
As a side note, following up on a note to an earlier post, Canada’s Conservative Party dropped opposition to same-sex marriage from the party platform yesterday. Same-sex marriage has been legal in Canada since July 2005. Let’s hope that the Republican Party will follow suit with all deliberate speed.
posted by Houndentenor on
If Republicans don’t like being embarrassed by their anti-lgbt positions, why not abaondon them. The Canadian conservatives just dropped their opposition to gay marriage. Their British counterparts did so years ago. They could do it if they want to. So let’s just admit that they keep the anti-lbgt positions because that’s what they really believe.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
So let’s just admit that they keep the anti-lbgt positions because that’s what they really believe.
Anti-gay is embedded in the DNA of the post-Reagan Republican Party.
I can’t wait to see the 2016 Republican Platform. The Platform Committee is chaired by three strongly anti-gay politicians, Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, and North Carolina Congresswoman Virginia Foxx.
We can safely predict right now that the 2016 Platform will be the 2012 Platform all over again, with a doubling down on so-called “religious freedom” and support for “bathroom bills”.
The Republican Party is not going to change its anti-gay stripes any time soon. And Republican “leaders” like Speaker Ryan who are trying to sweep it all out of sight under the rug are not going to get any traction. How far did the Priebus autopsy get?
posted by Houndentenor on
It can’t be any worse than the state party platforms Republicans are passing all over the country. I don’t know why any gay person is still supporting the GOP.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
It can’t be any worse than the state party platforms Republicans are passing all over the country.
Most likely, pretty much the same-old, same-old. The Republican Party has been in a rut for years, and not just on “culture war” issues.
posted by Houndentenor on
Actually the Texas one is worse than they have been the past few election cycles. Not as bad as the ones in the 90s that called for ENFORCEMENT of the state’s sodomy laws (which applied only to homosexual sex, one of the main reasons they were overturned in Lawrence). But there seemed to be a slight toning down of the rhetoric in 2008 and 2012, but that was before Obergefell.
posted by Tom Jefferson III on
The Independence party had some traction in Minnesota, largely due to some state Republicans wanting a more pragmatic, less idealogical, centrist party.
It fizzled out due to party infighting and lackluster campaigns. However, I am surprised that the GOP dosent split into two parties.