Politics: More of Same
I'm sorry, I've got to come back to this. The Justice Department's reversal on the Gay Pride event is so transparent, and the entire ruse so cunning, it's staggering.
Clearly, this is being looked at as the traditional tempest in a teapot. The Justice Department will argue that it doesn't have a bad attitude about the Department's gay employees, it just was following the letter of the law. And the gay employees, who like having jobs and not being investigated without their explicit knowledge, and like not being held in 6x6 cages in Cuba, will simply have to accept that this was a huge misunderstanding.
While Eric Lichtblau's breaking of the story here and his piece on the reversal here all note the fact that anti-gay bigot groups on the Religious right applaud the decision to ban the pride events, and that previous pride events included a Deputy AG, the dots don't quite connect.
Here. I'll spell it out for you. The action, even without staying in effect, sent the message to the right-wing interests that they are the winners. They have the ear of the administration and they don't have to worry about the "homosexualists" or the "feminists" or any of the other right-wing bugaboos you're all so worried about getting away with their agendas. This is the wink and nod that tells Norquist and Schlafely and Sekulow and the rest of the gang that Bush is still working for them.
And it works perfectly. It blows up nicely, and causes people to see the Bushies standing firm in the face of all the progress of the last five decades or so.
This is defined as making a stand. This morning Debbie Elliott on the NPR had a piece about the 40th anniversary, today, of George Wallace blocking the doorway to Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama, making a stand for segregation. Of course, Wallace's stand is remembered, even though eventually, on that day, the two African-American students were permitted to register for classes inside the Foster Auditorium. A professor from the University makes an interesting point after Elliott notes that Wallace's stand beat the forced integration of Alabama into memories. Wallace maintained a tradition known as making a stand. Like many in the South believe with regards to the surrender at Appamatox, making a stand and losing isn't that far from winning.
Bush never loses because he always makes a stand. Even when he backs down on something, even in a lunky and un-gainly method as the Justice Department did with the Gay Pride situation, Bush has made a stand, and his friends know the symbolism of this action. This is a standard model for taking a stand: nominating anti-choice or anti-civil rights judicial nominees, taking aim at Title IX, nominating anti-gay bureaucrats to the AIDS panel and on and on. It's shooting for the moon, and somehow, they win every time.
I'm sorry, I've got to come back to this. The Justice Department's reversal on the Gay Pride event is so transparent, and the entire ruse so cunning, it's staggering.
Clearly, this is being looked at as the traditional tempest in a teapot. The Justice Department will argue that it doesn't have a bad attitude about the Department's gay employees, it just was following the letter of the law. And the gay employees, who like having jobs and not being investigated without their explicit knowledge, and like not being held in 6x6 cages in Cuba, will simply have to accept that this was a huge misunderstanding.
While Eric Lichtblau's breaking of the story here and his piece on the reversal here all note the fact that anti-gay bigot groups on the Religious right applaud the decision to ban the pride events, and that previous pride events included a Deputy AG, the dots don't quite connect.
Here. I'll spell it out for you. The action, even without staying in effect, sent the message to the right-wing interests that they are the winners. They have the ear of the administration and they don't have to worry about the "homosexualists" or the "feminists" or any of the other right-wing bugaboos you're all so worried about getting away with their agendas. This is the wink and nod that tells Norquist and Schlafely and Sekulow and the rest of the gang that Bush is still working for them.
And it works perfectly. It blows up nicely, and causes people to see the Bushies standing firm in the face of all the progress of the last five decades or so.
This is defined as making a stand. This morning Debbie Elliott on the NPR had a piece about the 40th anniversary, today, of George Wallace blocking the doorway to Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama, making a stand for segregation. Of course, Wallace's stand is remembered, even though eventually, on that day, the two African-American students were permitted to register for classes inside the Foster Auditorium. A professor from the University makes an interesting point after Elliott notes that Wallace's stand beat the forced integration of Alabama into memories. Wallace maintained a tradition known as making a stand. Like many in the South believe with regards to the surrender at Appamatox, making a stand and losing isn't that far from winning.
Bush never loses because he always makes a stand. Even when he backs down on something, even in a lunky and un-gainly method as the Justice Department did with the Gay Pride situation, Bush has made a stand, and his friends know the symbolism of this action. This is a standard model for taking a stand: nominating anti-choice or anti-civil rights judicial nominees, taking aim at Title IX, nominating anti-gay bureaucrats to the AIDS panel and on and on. It's shooting for the moon, and somehow, they win every time.
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