2016 Postmortem

DonViejo

(60,536 posts) Thu Jul 3, 2014, 08:09 AM Jul 2014

GOP’s culture war disaster: How this week highlighted a massive blind spot

Why are women’s rights stalling even as other societal advances are made? The answer is a disaster for the right

JOAN WALSH

Progressives often comfort themselves that while they’re losing a lot of economic battles, at least they’re winning the so-called culture wars. New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a staunch proponent of both gay marriage and tax cuts for the wealthy, symbolizes that political paradox for the left. But lately it’s impossible not to notice that even our culture war victories are uneven. They mostly involve gay rights, particularly marriage equality, and rarely women’s rights.

In the same few years that one state after another has legalized gay marriage, with occasional help from the Supreme Court, dozens of states have restricted abortion, and contraception has become controversial and divisive in a way it hasn’t since the Supreme Court’s Griswold v. Connecticut ruling almost 50 years ago. On the heels of the court’s awful Hobby Lobby decision Monday came welcome word that a judge had struck down Kentucky’s gay marriage ban. There have been plenty of bittersweet days like that over the last year.

I don’t mean to pit women against the LGBT community, or suggest one side is “winning” at the expense of the other. Women make up at least half of LGBT folks, so their advances are advances for women’s rights, and many barriers to their freedom and full equality remain. But why, when women’s concerns stand alone, are their rights so often abridged?

I’ve come to believe that the difference exists because, except for far right religious extremists and outright homophobes, marriage equality is, at heart, a conservative demand – letting gays and lesbians settle down and start families and have mortgages just like the rest of us will contribute to the stability of families and society. In his 1989 essay “Here comes the groom: The (conservative) case for gay marriage,” Andrew Sullivan argued that marriage would “foster social cohesion, emotional security, and economic prudence,” particularly among gay men too often viewed through the lens of partying and promiscuity.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/07/03/gops_culture_war_disaster_how_this_week_highlighted_a_massive_blind_spot/

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GOP’s culture war disaster: How this week highlighted a massive blind spot (Original Post) DonViejo Jul 2014 OP

Nah Cosmocat Jul 2014 #1

Well said Anarcho-Socialist Jul 2014 #2

Some of us have been saying this years HockeyMom Jul 2014 #3

Cosmocat

(14,565 posts)

1. Nah

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Thu Jul 3, 2014, 08:24 AM

Jul 2014

marriage equality is no way, shape or form a "conservative demand."

"conservative" politics is the politics of pitting people against themselves to garner votes to help advance the power interests of politicians and ensuring control of government by monied interests.

The "culture wars" are NOT what drive the "policy" of the republican party, the are the means to the end.

What is happening, right now at least, with gay rights is that people are tired of this particular fight, with each generation there is less and less of a discomfort with homosexuality and less fear/rage/anger to tap into. Also, far from unique with pretty much everything else they come up with, there is a clear disconnect between the "keeping government out of our lives" meme and trying to tell people what to relative to their sex/personal lives.

It does ebb and flow, so it can obviously take a turn backwards.

Abortion still is a VERY strong touchstone to their core religious base. And, I know some will take this wrong. I am NOT saying women don't care or that there has not been some situations where it has come back to bite them. But, overall, on average, they simply have not felt enough pain on election day, yet at least, from women for pulling all of their shit against them the last three, four years.

Republicans are VERY set in their ways and go back to what works repeatedly.

They will continue to target women to placate the dolts who vote for them until they REPEATEDLY suffer consequences in elections.

Anarcho-Socialist

(9,601 posts)

2. Well said

Reply to Cosmocat (Reply #1)

Thu Jul 3, 2014, 08:49 AM

Jul 2014

HockeyMom

(14,337 posts)

3. Some of us have been saying this years

Reply to DonViejo (Original post)

Thu Jul 3, 2014, 09:25 AM

Jul 2014

that they would not stop with just abortions but that they would go after contraceptives also. That also includes barrier contraceptives and sterilizations. "Abortifacients" also? Not always the reason.

It IS connected to gays with some ultra religious, i.e., the Catholic Church. Gay sex and contracepted sex is the same to them. Defeats the PURPOSE "God" intended. A (married) man and woman procreating through intercourse. A straight couple not procreating is the same as a gay couple can't/not procreating. No new LIFE. You ain''t seen nothing yet if you think Hobby Lobby was bad. The rest will be far worse.

To quote Opus Dei Scalia, paying for, or even a doctor discussing BC, is "facilitating" immoral behavior. I could go on, and on, with this from 12 years of Catholic school, and including my daughter's nutty MIL.

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