Commentary: Am I Blue?
Idaho Teeters on Verge of Political Sea Change
By Joan Opyr, 11-03-06
I’ve just come back from ten days in England and Amsterdam where, contrary to what the supporters of HJR2 might think, same-sex marriage has not rocked the foundations of Western Civilization. No plagues, no earthquakes, no fiery wrath of God in evidence. In Great Britain, even the Conservatives are now in support of same-sex unions. When what was meant to be a scandal broke in the tabloids over a shadow cabinet minister who left his wife for his male house decorator, the news was greeted with yawns, at least on the train I was traveling. The stout Yorkshireman sitting in the seat across from me read the article in The Evening Standard, said “Bloody hell, who cares,” folded his newspaper and went to sleep.The British and the Dutch have allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military for several years now, and both countries have troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq with the “Coalition of the Willing.” We didn’t turn away their assistance in a fit of poofter panic, and I doubt that Donald Rumsfeld has suffered a single sleepless night or even a mild case of indigestion worrying that the British and Dutch aren’t up to snuff on the battlefield or that they’re a threat to unit cohesion. Here’s a thought: what if the much vaunted black-and-white moral mettle of George W. Bush and his Republican Party isn’t black, isn’t white, and is in fact morally relativist. What a shocker!
By contrast, the news that greeted me on my return home was genuinely surprising. Several polls, including the highly-respected Cook Political Report, have put Idaho – yes, Red Idaho – in play. Democrat Larry Grant is in a statistical dead heat with Republican idiot’s idiot Bill Sali, and retiring Congressman C. L. “Butch” Otter is no longer a shoe-in for the governorship. Democrat Jerry Brady is in with a real chance.
I have been foolishly hopeful in past elections. When I moved to this state in 1993, we weren’t blue, but we were a nice shade of purple. The great Democrat Cecil Andrus had served for a combined fourteen years as Idaho’s governor, and another Democrat, Larry LaRocco, held the First District Congressional seat. What happened? It’s hard to say. Idaho grew redder and redder and, finally, it tipped entirely out of balance and fell off the edge of the earth. This became the land that time forgot. Cars actually sported bumper stickers that said, “Idaho Is What America Was.” Never mind will be. We didn’t give a damn about the future. We were too busy trying to recreate some mythical past, one in which education, natural resources, civil rights, health care, social welfare and constitutional protections didn’t matter, not so long as taxes could be cut and spending pared to the bone.
Is there a sea change afoot? I hope so. I think so. I believe it to be. The tide nationally is turning against the Republicans and the stranglehold the Fundamentalist Christian Right has had on that party since the Reagan era. The Terry Schiavo debacle, the Mark Foley scandal, the Larry Craig outing, the mass exodus of manufacturing jobs, the erosion of civil liberties, Abu Ghraib, warrantless wiretapping, record budget deficits, and the dramatic failure of the war in Iraq – all of these are taking their toll on the party that claimed it was best able to protect us. Five years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, what do we most want protection from? Arrogant, belligerent one-party rule.
The lesson the nation has learned in five years has been thirteen years in the making in Idaho. We are the poster child for what happens in a single-party state, and it’s not pretty. I don’t know what will happen with HJR2, the proposed amendment to the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships. Idaho has a strong libertarian streak, and I was pleasantly surprised by the defeat of Proposition One in 1994. Should I hope for another Idaho miracle? Or should I put my eggs in a slightly smaller but no less remarkable basket, the Red State Democrats resurgent?
I don’t know what will happen next Tuesday, but I’m feeling more politically optimistic than I’ve felt in a decade. This week’s implosion in a male prostitution scandal of megachurch minister and president of the National Association of Evangelicals Ted Haggard may be the hypocrite straw that breaks the red state camel’s back. It certainly has fellow Colorado Springs resident and Focus on the Family head James Dobson worried.
Haggard, pastor of an 11,000 member church, has been a prominent supporter of Amendment 43, Colorado’s considerably milder version of HJR2. Referendum One would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but it is on the ballot with a legislative initiative to create a same-sex domestic partnership registry. Recent polls suggest that voters will pass both. Hypocrisy? Confusion? Not really. It’s all about the word marriage. Many voters who support gay and lesbian civil rights just can’t seem to extend their vocabulary to allow marriage to include same-sex couples. Civil unions? Yes. The M-word? No. Silly? Thoroughly. But I’ll take it, thanks very much. And I’ll take Brady and Grant and LaRocco, too. Am I blue? You betcha! It’s always been my favorite color. [End of article]
As a Christian, I think Ted Haggard's fall is demonstration of why we should stop forcing people to hide and suppress their sexuality (look at how much encouragement he had to be "straight" and yet how much he failed to the hurt of all). I feel bad for Mr. Haggard and his family, but I think it should serve as a lesson for those who are against homosexual persons.
After years of prayer and introspection, I firmly believe that our homosexual brothers and sisters are exactly that--brothers and sisters. How often people on the extreme right forgot that they too will be judged--including their treatment of Jesus' creatures.
Thanks for reading this. God Bless.
Idaho Dem's are about to make history, but this is not the time to rest. We all MUST get everyone out to vote. We can make a difference.
Comment By einsteinstoe, 11-03-06Saturday:
10 to 1
democratic flyer(s) distribution
2 to 4
VoteMobile
Sunday
1 to 3
Rally for change march start end @VoteMobile
Curling
430 to 630
Monday
Seahawks
Tuesday
800
Vote! straight dem ticket
Yes! on Prop 1 No! to Prop 2 No! HJR2
10 to 2
call leaning/likely dems for get out the vote!
4 to 6
call leaning/likely dems for get out the vote!
7 until late/early
hurry up and wait
cheers!
It is a widely accepted belief that the liberal mindset pivots on feelings of the heart (emotions) more so than critical analysis. Liberals have adopted the "fairness demands syndrome" that says government should give them this and government should give them that because they feel it is only fair. They feel that it is unfair that the wealthy are rich so they feel they have a right to empower government to re-distribute the riches of others. Liberals feel in their heart that poverty of the mind can be cured by government cash infusions into the pockets of those same crippled minds extorted from the most productive of our society, emotional arguments.
Liberals by and large are peaceniks crippled by fear of the unknown triggering an inability of objective analytical thought, replaced by emotional reaction. They become incapable of equating that - Armies and bombs annihilating evil tyrants = liberty, peace and prosperity.
Go ahead and give Islamic Fascisms their Caliphate and grant them their Obsession. MUST SEE DOCUMENTRY! It is important to see what we are up against.
Liberal objectivity is also crippled by their "fairness demands syndrome" which dictates their bogus level playing field rationalization. Granted these are feelings from their heart.
But lets imagine that Idaho goes Democrat. When you vote for an Idaho style Democrat you are really voting for San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi as well. If Idaho gives the Democrats the majority in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi will be Majority Leader and will set the agenda for the House of Representatives.
Ms. Pelosi voted against all tax cuts that have brought us out of the economic downturn that started in 2000 when the stock market fell from it’s former peak of 11,722 on 1/14/2000 to 9,796 on 3/7/2000. The economy tumbled farther the following year after 911 and the corporate scandals which made the market bottom out at 7,286 on 10/9/2002. Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts have pushed the Stock Market to a record 12,100 plus points in spite of the cost of our War on Islamic Fascism. Ms. Pelosi claimed tax cuts would lower tax revenue to the treasury, in 2004 tax revenues to the US Treasury grew 5.5%. In 2005 they increased another 14%, or 274 billion dollars, and they continue to grow by double digits again this year proving Democrat conventional wisdom wrong. Ms. Pelosi wants to kill this golden goose that has saved our economy during a very difficult time.
Nancy’s team will give Islam their Caliphate.
You libs go ahead and vote with your heart, I am going to vote with my head for prosperity and security.
It is a widely accepted belief that the liberal mindset pivots on feelings of the heart (emotions) more so than critical analysis....
Maybe in your head; I don't know. But you lost me on that statement alone because I know as a proud liberal, that's not true.
{When you vote for an Idaho style Democrat you are really voting for San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi as well. If Idaho gives the Democrats the majority in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi will be Majority Leader and will set the agenda for the House of Representatives.}
Daanng! Straight from the commercial!
Kitt: Yes the commercial is right, and the stock market figures are from the Dow Jones website and the Treasury revenue info is from the US Government Treasury Website.
Liberals feel the economy is bad. I should have said: that it is widely believed 'by conservatives' that the liberal mindset pivots on feelings of the heart (emotions) more so than critical analysis. We wouldn't expect liberals to share our collective conservative analyses, but when libs call this economy bad you must question their critical thinking ability.
The only problem is our prosperity may trigger inflation, a situation where Greenspan would have raised interest rates a quarter of a point per quarter to slow the economy, the Democrats (Charles Rangel D-NY - Ways and Means Committee) want to slow down the economy by ending the strategy that was the recipe for its recovery, John Kennedy style tax cuts.
Today on Meet the Press, Rahm Emanuel, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said when the Democrats take over the House the first thing they will do is go after Osama bin Laden. If on Wednesday President Bush invaded Pakistan where Osama most likely is, the Democrats would criticize him for expanding the war.
Kitt, should we invade Pakistan? Bush and I thinks so but the pantywaists on our team (the Democrats) will not agree to it and if by chance they did, six months later they would be stabbing Bush in the back like they did in Iraq.
Dr. A.Q. Khan. The "Father of the Islamic Bomb," Khan is seen as a national hero in Pakistan he developed the bomb for Islam not specifically for Pakistan.
Democrats are beating Bush about the head with Iraq because they want power and belittling the leader and questioning motives to discredit him is a tactic to get power, a tactic that weakens America. Iraq is one battle in the war against the Islamic radicals quest for world domination, we haven’t been able to fight this battle as offensively as we should because of America’s pantywaist constituency keeps applying the brakes and we are paying the price.
Like I said; if you ‘feel’ that the pacifists of the Democrat party are good leaders for the war against the Islamic radical’s goals of world domination then vote your heart, just remember that pacifists are the unwitting accomplices of the enemy.
Daryl: belligerence comes from the heart, not the head. You're not thinking clearly. Whether or not we're in a battle for survival against Islamic extremists, the Bush administration and its enabling Republican Congress have been an unmitigated disaster for America's standing in the world, for our economic future, and for our military.
And you think pacifism makes us
unwitting accomplices of the enemy?
Are we safer now than we were five years ago, when Al Qaeda struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? The evidence on the ground (not my gut feeling) suggest otherwise. The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan. Iraq is in chaos, disarray, and civil war. We've lost more than 2,800 U. S. soldiers and another 20,000 plus have been wounded.
Mr. Hunter's reference to an "Islamic Caliphate" comes from an obscure and not oft-quoted Bush speech delivered this past September. President Bush, in turn, cribbed the phrase from Osama bin Laden's various speeches, pronouncements, and grandiose claims. Does anyone really believe that the Islamic world -- which is every bit as diverse as the Christian world -- will rise up as one and unite behind bin Laden to create an oil-controlling, West-defeating caliphate?
This is a bogeyman without substance; a straw man; a hollow threat. Terrorism is real. The threat that we might find ourselves facing a newly resurgent Ottoman Empire is not.
Joan - You really need to stick to wedding announcements and dancing the polka. Or, perhaps you need to start a blog focused on your little personal fetish called same-sex marriages. I'm sure THAT would get a huge readership..not. Snore... Your knowledge of the Middle East and Islamofacism, well, isn't. Its about as on-target as your ID-state election predictions proved to NOT be. Hope you weren't hoping for an interview with the new ID Guv-elect! lol Anyway, as an intel professional with over 18 years of experience and STILL employed in that line of work, I can tell you that the threat of Muslim extremism and Islamofacism is VERY real and unrelenting. I commend your readers to read "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades." Its a Islam-for dummies of sorts. They might want to pick up a copy of COL David Hunt's book "They Just Don't Get it" which beats up on our intel efforts spanning the last 25+ years and shows how administrations of BOTH political parties didn't do enough to protect our country and our American culture from that threat. While I don't agree with Pres. Bush on everything, I DO give him credit for being steadfast and unwavering in his position on the Global War on Terror (GWOT). If only he had a similar zeal for protecting our borders from illigal immigration (a la Rep. Tom Tancredo) which is NOT an un-related issue. But, on the GWOT, hes right. Period.
A little fact-checking would serve you well. Are we safer than on 9-11. Answer/fact..we've not had another successful attack on U.S. soil since. And, believe me, they've tried. You're a fool if you think otherwise. Have we improved our intel gathering efforts? Of course. Have we made great strides? Certainly. So, are we safer? I think so. Next.."The Taliban is resurgent in Afghan.." Answer/fact.. It comes and goes. Sure they try. But, the NATO coalition (to include the French and Germans whom I'm sure do NO wrong in your eyes) has been keeping the bad-guys in check. Are there occasional setbacks, of course. To expect otherwise is naive and unrealistic. And, Pres. Karzai's administration is making progess; something not very common in that backward part of the world. You say, "Iraq is in chaos, disarray, and civil war." Answer/fact... The country is NOT in a "civil-war." Is there sectarian violence in Baghdad. Yes. But, while that city is the focus of news coverage, the Kurdish region to the north is virtually calm and peaceful; not very newsworthy I guess. And, most of the rural parts of the country are tribal and the clashing between shia and sunni extremists is non-existent. But, leave it to the liberal media to report ONLY the bad news. The people of Iraq have elected a coalition government that is representative (almost down to the exact percentage) of the three main ethnicities, and it is making tremendous progress given the country's history. They even have a constitution and are making sweeping reforms daily. Unfortunately, the progress that is being made is simply not fast enough for the liberal media and liberal politicians in Washington. Finally, you're right..we HAVE lost over 2,800 military personnel in this GWOT spanning the last 3+ years. But, while each life IS precious, to be sure (and as an active duty military officer, I am intimately aware of how personal each loss is)..That number is statistically insignificant when we compare it against the 10s of thousands lost in Korea and Vietnam...to say nothing of the numbers lost in the 2 world wars and our own civil war. What if Lincoln had thrown in the towel because it wasn't popular (and he sure wasn't popular in HIS day!)..and FDR and his party took a mid-term whopping in 1942 (like the GOP did recently) for the 100s of thousands lost in WWII. But, what if FDR caved to public opinion polls? Maybe we'd be all speaking German now. Then consider this.. 40,000 people die in cars each year in this country. So, when we lose 2800 people spanning a timeframe over 3 years (and not all from enemy fire; some just from accidents that they might suffer right here at home) in defense of our very existence, I think its worth the investment. But, then again, each soldier, sailor, marine and airman is a volunteer and knows EXACTLY what he/she is signing up to do. THOSE people are heroes.
Finally, the term Caliphate is real and you're muddying the conversation is dangerous and irresponsible. The Islamo-fascists would like NOTHING better than to claim a country as its caliphate and begin its march. Anwar Sadat was assisinated in Egypt.. The royal family in Saudi Arabia is constantly under assualt, and the Pres of Pakistan has had numberous assassination attempts made on his life. They have no intention of stopping. Its not a bogey man. Its the real deal Your dismissive attitude is the same bury-your-head in the sand approach that Chamberlain had with respect to Hitler..and look how that ended up. At least Bush has read up on and understands history. Methinks you could do a little reading yourself. Your readers might also want to take a gander at: http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org. Lots of great reference material there.
Chris B: Good post.
Joan, read this<A HREF="http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/November/middleeast_November255.xml§i>Iranian officials are pushing for a pro-Iranian activist to be promoted within the Al Qaeda terror network’s hierarchy, The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday.</A>
The formation of a Caliphate will be tough for them but it is not impossible and it is their collective goal. It is written in the Quran that Mesopotamia is to be the heart of the Caliphate, on that both Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Osama bin Laden agree. America's left want to give Mesopotamia to them on a silver platter.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that he can expedite Armageddon, an event that will usher in the twelfth Imam (Islam’s second coming of Christ). He can do that with his nuke!
With our apathy and ignorance we are playing with fire.