I spend hours a day speaking with candidates all around the country. listening to their rationale about why Blue America should endorse them and help them raise money. Sometimes it's an absolute joy-- like meeting brilliant, refreshing and sincere progressives who I know will make such a difference when they're in Congress. It's how I felt when I spoke to AOC, to Alan Grayson, to Donna Edwards, Rashida Tlaib, Ted Lieu, Pramila Jayapal, Jamie Raskin, Ro Khanna and, more recently to Andy Levin, Kim Williams, Mike Siegel, Eva Putzova, Audrey Denney, Jamaal Bowman, Shan Chowdhury, Rachel Ventura... I better stop now or I'll fill up this whole page.But you know what drives me crazy when I talk to candidates-- when they show a like of courage, stupidity, greasy careerism... when they show me they get their talking points from Fox News, the DCCC, EMILY's List or the Republican Party. Don't we have enough people in Congress wasting seats with mindsets made from that garbage? Yesterday I wasted hours on the phone talking with Democratic congressional candidates who wanted to tell me how conservative their districts are and how progressive ideas could never win-- how Medicare-for-All, the Green New Deal and raising the minimum wage would kill their campaigns. When I take the time to try to make one understand why he was getting it all wrong about raising the minimum wage, he got all huffy and said, "Well, that's your opinion" and then cited one of the most right-wing morons in Congress-- who is likely about to lose her seat because she's pissed off her own base so badly by voting with the GOP-- as proof of why raising the minimum wage was a bad idea. His mind was made up. He has zero chance of winning the seat.But if you think the GOP doesn't have a team sitting around coming up with narratives and talking points-- as does the DCCC-- I suggest you read this piece Steve Contorno wrote for the Tampa Bay Times yesterday, Memo reveals a House Republican strategy on shootings: downplay white nationalism, blame left. "Congressional Republicans," wrote Contorno, "recently circulated talking points on gun violence that falsely described the El Paso massacre and other mass shootings as 'violence from the left.' A document obtained by the Tampa Bay Times and sent by House Republicans provides a framework for how to respond to anticipated questions like, 'Why won’t you pass legislation to close the ‘gun show loophole’ in federal law?' and 'Why shouldn’t we ban high-capacity magazines?' The answers are boilerplate Republican arguments against tougher gun restrictions. But it also included this question: 'Do you believe white nationalism is driving more mass shootings recently?' The suggested response is to steer the conversation away from white nationalism to an argument that implies both sides are to blame."
“White nationalism and racism are pure evil and cannot be tolerated in any form," the document said. “We also can’t excuse violence from the left such as the El Paso shooter, the recent Colorado shooters, the Congressional baseball shooter, Congresswoman Giffords’ shooter and Antifa."U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, included the talking points in a newsletter that he emailed this week to his Florida constituents. His spokeswoman Summer Robertson said they were “provided by the House Republican Conference," the caucus arm in charge of devising messaging strategy for its members. The conference’s internal strategies are not usually made public.
The Dayton shooter, a conveniently dead KKK supporter has been painted as a Bernie and Elizabeth Warren supporter by Trump and the GOP. He shot and killed his transgender brother in the murder spree (who was reported to be a girl by the media. Contorno reported that despite the GOP talking points-- often reported as facts by the media-- "Extremist-related murders have spiked in the last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League, and the vast majority-- 73 percent-- are committed by right-wing extremists and white supremacists. Not a single extremist-related murder in the United States last year was carried out by 'the left.'... FBI Director Christopher Wray recently told Congress 'a majority of the domestic terrorism cases we’ve investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence.'" That's the opposite of what Republican officials, Fox News and Hate Talk radio use to brainwash their moron victims. It's a damn shame when Democrats running for Congress get caught up in the rinse cycle.I was born into a Jewish family that was very anti-fascist, primarily because of the shared Jewish experience of the Holocaust, which was not a "both sides" kind of thing, just an example of right-wing racism gone amuck. So it really pains me to see Jews buy into the whole Republican/Trumpist thing-- and there are plenty who do for one reason (selfishness, stupidity, racism, greed) or another (Israel). There are still people alive today who can when there were a few Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto who joined Group 13. Horrorfying... but you know what's even more insane than a Jew revitalizing the whole kapo idea? Gays doing the same thing today. Ever hear of the Log Cabin Republicans? Gwen Aviles wrote a piece about then yesterday for NBCNews.com, Gay Republican Group Endorses Trump In Reversal From 2016. "The Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest collective of LGBTQ conservatives, has officially endorsed the re-election of President Donald Trump-- after its board of directors voted against endorsing him in 2016-- stating that Trump has advanced LGBTQ rights and helped the GOP move past 'culture wars' during his tenure. In a Washington Post OpEd published on Thursday evening, Robert Kabel, chairman of the group, and Jill Homan, its vice president, wrote that 'for LGBTQ Republicans, watching the 2016 GOP convention before Donald Trump was like a dream fulfilled' and marked the beginning of Trump removing gay rights 'as a wedge issue from the old Republican handbook' and 'taking bold actions that benefit the LGBTQ community.'" Sounds like an alternative universe? It is. Sad that these people are so incredibly stupid or-- much worse-- kapo-like.
The group, which announced new board leadership in March, cites Trump’s commitment to end HIV/AIDS in 10 years, which was met both was cautious optimism and flat-out skepticism, and his work with Richard Grenell, the openly gay U.S. ambassador to Germany, to encourage other nations to end the criminalization of homosexuality, as examples of his dedication to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.It also states that other Trump policies, which were not specifically delineated as LGBTQ policies, such as his tax cuts, trade deals and “hard line on foreign policy,” have benefited gay Americans.Though the Log Cabin Republicans are lending their support to Trump, the group said that it does not agree with all of his and his administrations’ actions, including the so-called transgender military ban.“We are committed to letting all qualified Americans serve in the military,” the Log Cabin Republicans wrote. “We oppose the transgender service restriction and will continue to press the administration to reconsider.”The Log Cabin Republicans endorsement of Trump comes as it marks a reversal from its 2016 stance.The former president of the Log Cabin Republicans, Gregory T. Angelo, has been critical of policies enacted under Trump in the past. Three years ago, he issued a statement against Trump’s election platform, which he called “the most anti-LGBT platform in the party’s 162-year history.”“Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of ‘pray the gay away’-- it’s all in there,” he wrote at the time. “This isn’t my GOP, and I know it’s not yours either.”Yet, Angelo appears to have had a change of heart, writing on Twitter Thursday night that the Log Cabin Republicans’ endorsement of Trump should have come in 2016.Not all members of the Log Cabin Republicans agree with the group's assessment of Trump's track record on LGBTQ issues.Jordan Evans, who became the only openly transgender Republican elected official after she was elected the Town Constable of Charlton, Massachusetts, in 2017, said she was "extremely upset" by the group's endorsement."I'm awestruck that they would endorse Trump, given his track record that's been nothing but detrimental to the LGBTQ community," Evans said. "Especially because we have another Republican candidate-- Bill Weld-- so to not even give him a chance or to wait to make an endorsement until after the RNC convention is unexplainable."Evans added that the group's endorsement was indicative of the "greater disconnect" between Republicans and LGBTQ individuals and that it would make it harder for the Log Cabin Republicans to collaborate with other queer groups who were already "weary" to work with them."We keep falling back on the queer issues of yesterday, but we need to approach this new horizon, which includes fighting for public accommodations and transgender rights," Evans said. "We should be focusing on how we can have an effective voice, not going backwards."A number of gay Democrats have also disavowed the endorsement.“Hey @LogCabinGOP, that endorsement seems even more #%** stupid today...,” Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia, wrote on Twitter.“You’re an embarrassment. And a sympathizer for a racist, queerphobic regime,” Jonathan D. Lovitz, senior vice president of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, wrote in response to a tweet from Richard Walters, the chief of staff for the Republican National Committee, sharing news of the endorsement. “History will always remember where people like you and the @LogCabinGOP stood.”In addition to the president’s contentious transgender military policy, which bars transgender personnel from serving openly and denies them access to gender-affirming medical care, the Health and Human Services Department proposed a new rule in May suggesting that federal laws banning sex discrimination in health care don’t apply to patients’ “gender identity."United States citizenship has also been denied to some children of LGBTQ couples, and just this week, the Trump administration unveiled a proposed rule that would greatly expand the exemption that allows religious entities to ignore anti-discrimination laws by broadening the definition to include federal contractors that declare themselves to be religious-- a rule that LGBTQ advocates have decried as a license to discriminate.While the Log Cabin Republicans are a significant endorsement for Trump, LGBTQ voters are a reliable part of the Democratic base, according to exit polls. In the 2018 midterm elections, over 80 percent of LGBTQ people said they voted for the Democrat in their local federal election, while just 17 percent voted for the Republican. And in 2016, 78 percent of LGBTQ voters said they voted for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, while just 14 percent reported supporting Donald Trump.
There are lots of gays in Congress. The Democrats, with just a very few exceptions from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, are all fine with their identity and out of the closet. None of the Republicans are "out." All of them-- from Jason Smith (R-MO) and Adrian Smith (R-NE) to Lindsey Graham (R-SC), #MoscowMitch (R-KY) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC) are homophobic, self-loathing, deceitful closet cases who vote against the LGBTQ community whenever they have the opportunity and who have become practiced liars, not just about their sexual identity, but about everything!
