Scaring Your Votes Off
Yes, it is Halloween, and most bloggers are probably posting about the holiday in some way, shape or form. Despite the fact that I awoke to find my car had been egged (who knew kids still did that?), I have another topic with scarier repercussions than one night of mischief and mayhem: the Republicans running for president in 2008. Oooohhhh! Be afraid, be very afraid.
BBC.com posts today “US religious right faces 2008 dilemma”. For a loosely-defined Democrat like myself, such a headline makes my heart skip. A dilemma for the opposition means points for our side. This becomes clearer when you continue reading. The article focuses on Rudy Giuliani, a moderate Republican, with stances many of his right-wing constituents do not approve of. The dilemma is thus whether one should vote for the candidate with values that meet their own, or for the candidate most likely to meet whomever is the front-runner for the Democrats. As far as Giuliani goes, he would be considered the latter as the leading candidate who supports gay rights and the right to choose.
To be sure, this might be a problem on the other side of the table as well. If we are talking politics, the more moderate the candidate, the more likely winning the overall election. If Giuliani appeals to social values of the left, even while being fiscally conservative, he could potentially draw votes away from the Democrats, even while losing Republican support at the same time. This could help Giuliani in the long run, or, as the debates and campaigning continue, could spell a drop in the polls.
The Democrats are in a very similar position considering that our two top candidates are minorities in their own right who have never been elected to office before: a Black man and a woman. Who is more likely to be elected despite their minority status in a country with biases against both? It is really going to come down to experience, issues and plans of action.
Perusing both Obama and Clinton’s sites, there are a few stances I am particularly interested in, including the environment and Climate Change, Health-care and LGBT rights. On www.barackobama.com, each of these issues are tackled to some extent, providing the reader with speeches and individual pages on all of these. On www.hillaryclinton.com, however, I was extremely disappointed to see that there is NO mention of LGBT constituents whatsoever. Really Hillary? I thought you were a champion for our community, so why would you not campaign to them on your website? Not to say that this is the only issue I care about, but it is definitely an important concern. When someone like me is wavering between these two candidates with a lot of similar beliefs, knowing that Barack Obama has a tab catering to LGBT voters entitled Obama Pride might be a clincher.
It took me several hours of weeding through video after video on Clinton’s site before I found even a mention of LGBT rights in one of her live webcasts. I was definitely happy to hear her stances in favor of passing legislation against sexual orientation discrimination, as well as her promise to implement civil unions. But if she is a “wholehearted” champion for gay rights as she claims, why is she not devoting at least a little site space aimed specifically towards the community? I must say, I’m a little disappointed.
According to Mark Halperin from Time.com, Clinton has presented herself well to the gay community before, specifically during the Democratic debate held on August 9, 2007 by LOGO – the LGBT cable television channel. Halperin reports, “Attuned to her audience, [Clinton] bashed George Bush, Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich, pointed out the first Marine wounded in Iraq sitting in the crowd and, rather than responding strictly to the panelists, addressed the full room with major doses of Clintonesque eye contact. Was focused and empathetic during an emotional exchange with questioner/rocker Melissa Etheridge about the Clinton administration’s incomplete efforts on homosexual rights. Remains the nomination front runner with another strong performance.” Considering that the article said nothing about the other debaters, including Obama, Edwards and Richardson, one must assume that Clinton is currently the LGBT community’s favorite candidate at this point.
The campaigns continue, and I hope there will be more focus on LGBT issues in the year to come. As of now I am divided in my decision of who to support, and I think as the primaries move closer, we will see more from all candidates on this issue as well as all others. Nobody should be too hasty to jump on either bandwagon just yet.
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