The experts forecasted it. Democrats were afraid of it. Republicans aren't sure they want it.
Yes, it's the Tea Party! I have had to endure throughout the day friends and colleagues bemoaning Tea Party politics and the 45+ Tea Party candidates who will be sworn in to office, but I am chipper. Why? Because this could be exactly what the gay community needs.
The members of the Tea Party largely got elected because of the hot button topics of the economy and anti-Obama sentiment. In order to make voters happy, the Republican Party's focus the next year will have to be economics and working to frustrate Democrats.
This leaves a back door opportunity for two major gay issues to be decided out of the public arena and out of the sights of ultra-conservatives: Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and the inevitable Supreme Court hearings on gay marriage.
For almost three decades, the Republican party has used anti-gay rallying to unify its support base. As much as the Republican Party is celebrating Tea Party success, it is also a potentially divisive union. For all of the hoopla, the Tea Party represents in many ways a type of conservative extremism the Republican Party knows will lose centrists long term. In the scramble to embrace and utilize yesterday's Tea Party successes the Republican Party will have to be careful of how it picks its battles. Old mainstays such as gay rights now have to take a back seat to the more pressing demands of voters.
If gay rights leaders are wise, subtle discussions and limited media exposure are the formula to repeal D.A.D.T. and create a positive environment for advocating gay marriage.
Let the Tea Party have its heyday. Then maybe, just maybe, we can have ours.
Tea-Partiers are by-and-large conservative on social issues like gay rights. I suspect that DADT and DOMA will ONLY be advanced by the courts because America has just effed up our chances legislatively.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the Tea Party comes across as ultra-conservative, i believe that this may be a misconception. Although they are seemingly conservative on issues such as gun control and tax law, these may simply be facets of the larger struggle for individual rights. Far from being the fascists that I originally expected, the Tea Party has begun to exibit distinctly Libertarian traits. This is evidenced by their recent vocal support of the since failed Proposition 19 to legalize marijuana in California. This might just be me, but no Republican or Conservative candidate in her right mind would dare to support a piece of legislation like this, for fear of backlash from the "Moral" conservative voter base.
ReplyDeletejust a thought ..