What Gay Rights Activists Can Teach the Left About Winning

[BR_Parkway]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/09/what-gay-rights-activists-can-teach-the-left-about-winning/245471/

Remember when you believed that if we just elected enough Democrats to Congress and took the White House, we could take this country back? We could stop giving tax breaks to people who didn't need them so that we would have a shot at creating jobs, providing for those in need, and still break even. We could end government-inspired discrimination against people because of the way they look, who they love, or where they were born. And we could actualize "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal," to quote Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

That was 2008.

As Keith Harrington, an environmental activist, wrote last month:

Three years ago, I spent a number of weekends going door to door in Virginia urging people to vote for our president. In that campaign I found a sense of pride, a sense of excitement, a sense of energizing virtue.

This weekend, I spent a good chunk of time training to do civil disobedience at President Obama's door in the desperate hope that he'll fulfill the promise that drove me onto the streets for him in 2008. And in so doing I've found the same sense of pride, the same excitement, and the same energizing sense of virtue that I did three years back.

I guess I probably need to add that posting that there are effective ways to pressure Obama and other Democrats to actually stick to their campaign promises instead of taking the easy way sometimes does NOT equal "I hate Obama, I'm going to hold my breath and sit out the next election and let President Perry handle everything for a while, then maybe we'll see some change" (or that posting this last paragraph doesn't put me automatically in the Obamabot either)

[Tx4obama]

1. The problem is that NOT enough democrats were put into Congress.

Senator Franken was not sworn in until July 2009, and Senator Kennedy died in August 2009.

We had 60 Senators in the Senate for a very short time in 2009.

With all the GOP obstruction it takes 60 'yes' votes in the Senate to invoke cloture.

The only way to FIX the problem is to elect MORE Democrats, and NOT spending time/energy training folks to do civil disobedience at President Obama's door !!!

[SteveM]

3. IMO, the GLBT organizations have succeeded regardless the # of Dems. nt

[Tx4obama]

4. President Obama succeeded in keeping HIS campaign promise to repeal DADT.

See: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/293/call-for-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell-policy/

[SteveM]

7. I completely agree. nt

[BR_Parkway]

6. True enough, the House certainly did their part in pushing through

things only to see them die off or get whittled down to nothing in the Senate. And lets face it 60 Dems that included Leiberman and several Blue Dog Senators, we needed closer to 65 to get consistent votes through

[WhiteTara]

8. [phone]! n/t

[msongs]

gay activists don't give Boner 98% and settle for2% that I know of nt

[SteveM]

2. Good post. I've long said that there are 2 activist communities with equal power...

in this country. One is the community of GLBT organizations, who damn well know how to get up again after being knocked down, and the Second Amendment organizations (NRA, GOA, etc.), who damn well know how to pop someone in office who opposes their policies. Completely different groups, different styles, different tactics. But nevertheless, the 2 strongest "special interest/pressure groups" in our political system. Gnash teeth, pull hair, then learn from them.

[-..__...]

5. Why not learn from the person who redefined "winning"?

[saras]

9. We're here, we're queer, and we're NOT going away.

One thing both groups do is that they have loud, out, radical wings that ARE NOT DISOWNED BY THE MAINSTREAM.

This one thing makes everything else both groups do much more effective. It's a lesson that the Democrats need to learn.