Driving Arizona From Libertarian-Republican to Conservative to Democrat
One local columnist thinks Andrew Thomas can win the Republican nomination for governor. God forbid. I would vote for Elizabeth Warren for governor before I voted for Andrew Thomas (or see the Phoenix New Times coverage). Forget for a moment about his awful policy prescriptions, he is corrupt, and a serial abuser of power.
Last year when we finally folded up shop on Equal Marriage Arizona, a big reason we did so was lack of support from large gay rights groups. A few said they had trust issues with a center-Right coalition to legalize gay marriage. Fine. But several said they did not want the gay marriage issue solved from the center-Right, they wanted Democrat credit for it. Further, they did not want it solved in 2014, because they wanted to run on it to shift Arizona blue in 2014 and 2016.
I was skeptical of the latter, but it may be possible if the Republicans run Andrew Thomas.
randian:
That confirms what I've thought for years, gay marriage was never about marriage, it's about power.
July 28, 2014, 12:22 pmmahtso:
I don't read Ms. Roberts' opinion pieces, but I think it is possible Mr. Thomas will win the primary for two reasons: (1) the Democrats will be motivated to vote in the Republican primary to vote for Mr. Thomas and to vote for AG Tom Horne under the theory that the Dems can then win in the election; (2) there are many Republicans running and the "sensible" 70 to 80% of the vote will be split leaving Mr. Thomas's hard core fans enough room to give him the win.
July 28, 2014, 12:36 pmHarry:
So, Coyote would rather vote for Elizabeth Warren, as he drapes his arm fondly around her, than wake her up without biting his arm off?
July 28, 2014, 3:39 pmOrion Henderson:
Disregarding local AZ politics, about which I have no knowledge: the fact that gay rights groups do not want to get gay marriage legalized as quickly as possible in order to gain political power is absolutely disgusting. It shouldn't surprise me, but it does. I support gay marriage 100%, and I suspect most gay people, at least those not involved in politics, would be equally, if not more, disgusted than I am. These political groups are deliberately withholding rights to their very own constituents in order to gain power.
July 29, 2014, 6:01 amJoe:
Pro gay-marriage Republicans can run for office by pointing out the radical position of some of the pro-gay marriage groups desire to adopt such policies based purely on partisan politics. Most LGBT people will probably look at that and see that they are being screwed. They don't care about the politics. They just want their civil rights protected.
Progressives Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt were some of the most homophobic Presidents in US History. More than anyone else, these two people were responsible for the military's anti-gay policies. While it is true that gay service members could have been discharged from the beginning of this country until just recently simply for being gay, it was never explicit in the military code until Wilson signed into law the Articles of War of 1916 and 1920. Without these laws the military's policies would have naturally evolved on their own as society evolved on these issues. As Undersecretary of the Navy during the Wilson Administration FDR authorized an entrapment operation in which young male investigators were chosen to approach members of the military suspected of being gay and try and have sexual relations with them. The service members that agreed to have sex were promptly discharged and some were sent to a military prison. This operation occurred in Newport, Rhode Island and became known as the "Newport Sex Scandal". As President FDR made it official military policy to actively seek out and discharge gay members of the military.
Most progressives today probably care little for LGBT rights and use them to divide people and scare them into voting for Democrats. Your anecdotal experiences support this theory.
August 1, 2014, 10:53 pm