I went to Rochester’s Pride parade yesterday. At the last parade I attended, three years ago, there were no Republican candidates, but some committee members marched. Yesterday, nothing, nada, niente, rien du tout.
Our Pride parade is a pretty tame event that’s been going on for 40 years. The most risque thing you’ll see there is a few guys without shirts and some drag queens. From the perspective of local politics, attending it is like attending a parade for Columbus Day, St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo. In other words, it’s a check-off for any candidate, and lots of Democrats, including some candidates from the suburbs, were walking yesterday.
It’s also an opportunity for the city to show off, so we saw vehicles from many different departments including, of course, fire trucks. What we didn’t see was an iota of presence of the county, because the head of county government, a Republican, wants to repeat her failed run for Congress and she’s cracking down by refusing to hoist a rainbow flag at the county buildings, and threatening Democrats who flew one out of their windows with arrest.
When the New York state legislature finally voted to allow gay marriage, thanks to some Republicans in tough districts, some of whom have either retired or been voted out of office thanks to Conservative Party spoilers running from the right, it was polling around 60/40. I would imagine current polling would run 73/27 but nobody’s bothering to check because nobody cares anymore. In New York the issue of gay rights is settled everywhere but in the minds of the Republican Party.
IowaOldLady
This feels to me like a parallel to the increasingly open racism of the Right. I’m hoping it’s a sign they feel beseiged and know they’re losing. It’s ugly though.
Baud
Isn’t there a tag for “Both sides do it!”? Seems appropriate here.
Chaplain Weasle
I’m just wondering: threatenening arrest *on what grounds*?
Sounds like a chance for some Democrats to take a stand and call her bluff… and have a good test case if she isn’t just blowing smoke… also, what is the nondiscriminatory policy of the county? I didn’t think one (elected) individual could override nondiscrimination policies….
MattF
So, at best, an appeal to bigotry.
quannlace
Well, they think they can repeal Obamacare if they only keep trying.
the Conster
When I think of Republicans and parades, I think of the marching band at the end of Animal House all marching down the dead end alley into the brick wall without stopping marching. Where gay rights are concerned, that’s exactly the right metaphor.
Lavocat
Most Upstate Republicans I know have given up the fight, finding it tantamount to fighting a rising tide.
Sooner or later they realize that time is very much NOT on their side – and they embrace the inevitable, like it or not.
The wiser and more opportunistic among them become overnight champions of equal protection.
After all, they’re all vote-whores, so why not attract as many more as possible?
Gex
They are going all in with the straight white male Christian strategy. Have fun with that. All they will manage to do is trigger dozens more lone-wolf, nutjob, hate crime killings.
Villago Delenda Est
@Lavocat:
Not only is it as stupid as trying to fight the tide, it’s absolutely as non-important in the course of everyday life.
Not that this will stop these dipshits.
Bobby Thomson
@Chaplain Weasle: From the article:
If there were examples of other items being removed, this could be enforcing a reasonable time-place-manner restriction on expression. In other words, it can be OK to say “no speech” at all in a content-neutral way. However, “the county doesn’t allow” makes it ambiguous as to whether any formal policy exists, or whether in this case “the county” means only “the county executive.” If this is something that was done ad hoc, it would be a lot more difficult for her to prove that her “policy” is content-neutral.
That’s just the First Amendment issues regarding enforcement. It’s really unclear from the article what the basis would be for criminal charges.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gex:
They don’t see this as any sort of problem, to be honest.
Davis X. Machina
@Lavocat:
it’s a complicated business. My daughter worked a couple of equal-rights repeal referendums up here, which polled well, but lost anyways. And I’ve worked for a Democrat in a red state house district who won against the tide in 2010.
The haters turn out, but in the population at large they aren’t numerous enough to make up a majority. Are the haters hateful enough to cancel themselves out, or are they stealthy?
The majority has the numbers, but does it have the propensity to turn out?
And is there a primary? Because you may have to face two differently-constituted electorates in fairly short succession?
How important is support from the local party committee? The state party? Are you beholden to one or two cash-cows, or is your financial support more diffuse?
Gex
@Villago Delenda Est: How about the guy who was capped in NYC just a few weeks ago as a guy screamed homophobic statements? Not a problem for you? Was it common for people to be screaming at gays in crowded places and running up to them and blowing their brains out all along?
Read JoeMyGod.blogspot.com before you assume there really aren’t gay people getting slaughtered in the country. Violent crimes against gays have shot up since W. called for the marriage amendment. Maybe even a dozen murders a year. I just see the stories roll by.
Fred
Most everyone thought voting rights and a woman’s right to reproductive choice were settled issues too. Evil never sleeps.
Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS)
@Gex: I don’t think VDE was saying he agreed with it, merely that GOPers don’t care.
Villago Delenda Est
@Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS):
Aye. The Rethugs frankly don’t care that they’re encouraging lone wolves, because, after all, the lone wolves are going after THOSE people, so it is in fact a good thing, from the Rethug perspective.
A Ghost To Most
@Lavocat: you haven’t met my family then. They will never give this up.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Meh. It’s been a lousy weekend and what I want more than anything else is to just get on a plane and fly home. It’s going to be a long three weeks until I can do that.
the Conster
@A Ghost To Most:
What does SSM mean to them? How do they think they’re affected?
aimai
Old people don’t go to parades. Old people do vote. So avoiding having your picture taken at a parade is a good strategy for someone relying on the old white people vote.
gogol's wife
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Hang in there. Have you made any friends? That’s what saved me when a long winter in Moscow stretched ahead.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@gogol’s wife: I’m very sparing with the word “friend”. I use it to describe maybe 15-20 people in my life. I have met some people I like. And I do enjoy the teaching, even if I screwed up the first midterm and will probably tell the students that they can drop it from their final grade if they want.
I’m hoping that getting back in the classroom tomorrow and interacting with the students again will help revive me. But I’ve had intestinal issues this weekend (not drinking the water is a lot harder to do in practice than you might think) and a panic attack from overstimulation by crowds yesterday so right now I just feel exhausted. I’m tired of living out of a hotel room and I really miss my cats.
Violet
@Gex: Seemed like Villago Delenda Est was saying that Republicans don’t care, not that he doesn’t care. The lone wolf nutjobs and their very slightly less crazy enablers are the Republican base. They aren’t going to do anything to piss them off.
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
I would go so far as to say that’s a goal. Remember, lynching has a long and successful record of suppressing minority rights.
SatanicPanic
@Roger Moore: Once you realize conservatism is all about protecting white male Christian privilege, it all makes sense. It doesn’t make it right or good, it just makes it logical.
Felonius Monk
Same thing over here in the eastern part of upstate NY.
And because the wing-nut replacement didn’t have gays to kick around anymore, she became the darling on the gun-nuts. This shit never stops even on Sunday.
Ruckus
@the Conster:
They don’t think like you. Or me. Or as it is turning out, a majority of us. And it isn’t that they are affected. They think SSM is icky and wrong. There is no logic, no thought to it, they just don’t agree with it. They just know it.
And therefore you can’t have it.
If you change the subject from SSM the results are the same. They just know. They don’t need history, they don’t need logic, they don’t need to analyze a subject, they just know. It may be because their betters told them but it just doesn’t matter. Thoughtfulness and logic will not sway them because they are righteous and pure, even when they obviously are not.
And therefore you can not have whatever it is.
Tyro
@Roger Moore: Did you ever have a friend or relative who ran around with a bad crowd, but was sort of dim and gullible enough that he was the only one in that crowd who would get into serious trouble. They would be just impressionable enough to do seriously stupid stuff at the behest of their “friends” yet lack the judgment and street wisdom to know when to avoid trouble by stepping over the line or screwing with the wrong person at the wrong time. The Republican Party is that bad crowd depending on their dull-witted hangers on to do their dirty work and take the fall while leaving their own hands clean.
eric
” the minds of the Republican Party” assumes facts not in evidence.
scav
@eric: Minds out and there’s not much evidence for any heart and soul of the R. party either. Relevant body part? Easy. Spleen.
Shakezula
Wow. Because we have an amendment about speech, and a shit ton of court cases about what constitutes protected speech and I’m pretty damn sure arresting someone for flying a flag would create the sort of case the ACLU could handle in its sleep.
Hill Dweller
Is the headline a Tame Impala reference?
Roger Moore
@Tyro:
Only because the press corpse refuses to acknowledge the connection. Nobody seems willing to make the connection between Republican leaders’ provocations and Republican followers’ actions. Certainly nobody with the kind of respect required to make a significant issue of it.
Roger Moore
@scav:
Totally unfair! The spleen is an important part of the immune system. Given the amount of shit they spew, I’d tend to compare the Republican party to the anus.
NickT
@Roger Moore:
I’d suggest the appendix. Useless, left behind by evolution – but easily turns septic and can kill if left untreated.
Dolly Llama
Mad props for the Tame Impala reference in the title.
Dolly Llama
@Hill Dweller: You beat me to it. If it’s not, and I were mistermix, I’d try to make it look like I meant it.
Anoniminous
@Davis X. Machina:
In a non-presidential year election a 50% voter turn-out is huge. The average in 2010 was less than 42%, nationwide. The wacko 27% turn-out in enough number to win. It doesn’t matter how issues poll if the supporters don’t engage.
Anoniminous
That’s what I thought about abortion.
geg6
@Anoniminous:
Abortion? Hell, I thought birth control was a settled issue.
Davis X. Machina
@Anoniminous: That kind of math — plus a little non-strategic voting, and a five-candidate field — is how we got Gov. Paul “Landslide” LePage.
Passionate minorities roll apathetic majorities all the time in politics. The crawl-over-broken-glass-to-vote vote runs the country — and right now it still loves its guns and still hates its gays, and when there’s no Presidential election, you get things like North Carolina.
The crawl-over-broken-glass-to-vote vote is older, whiter, and more religious than the electorate, which is why the government of the day looks the way it does.
db
I, for one, am SHOCKED that Maggie Brooks would act so craven and political. SHOCKED, I tell ya!
SectionH
@NickT: Ha, yes. I was just about to suggest Appendix.
Ruckus
@NickT:
If I follow this line to it’s logical conclusion I’d have to say septic is a while ago. We are at the emergency op phase right now but without health care insurance so the chances of a life saving op are slim and even if the op is done recovery is easily in question.
James E. Powell
Despite all the talk about rebranding, it’s pretty clear that, at least for the 2014 midterms, the Republicans are going to stay with the ‘end of times’ campaign to rally their base. It’s probably going to work.
Yatsuno
@James E. Powell: 2014 is a turnout election. If our side turns out, we’re in. If their side turns out, Obama becomes the only firewall. Not that much will get done mind you, it will be a tie between Obamacare repeal and constant impeachment.
joel hanes
@A Ghost To Most:
my family … will never give this up.
Valar morghulis.
Svensker
Toronto’s crack mayor, Rob Ford, refuses to participate in the city’s Pride Week, one of the world’s largest gay pride festivals. He always has “family time at the cottage”. Of course, he’s there in effigy, so it all works out.
HelloRochester
I always thought the Rochesterian attitude towards homosexuality was an archetype of a realistic best-case scenario for living in harmony. There were lots of openly gay people (even in the early 80s) and attitudes that range from homophobia (because, duh) to “Meh, that’s not any of my business” to “I am so excited for Adam and Steven’s commitment ceremony”. Due to plenty of people not living in fear, most people in my GenX cohort had a favorite uncle or school teacher who just happened to be openly non-hetero and to whom we mostly learned to say “live and let live” if “yay!” wasn’t possible. Thanks to the Teabillies and a shitty economy in the area being a perfect storm for the less-flexible Boomers, the wagons have circled a bit and the bigots are a bit more ascendant but this too shall pass.
AHH onna Droid
Drag queens r risque now?
Btw, I’ve heard raunchier comments out of temporarily sober white chicks behind closed doors at work than any drag show I’ve been to.
Str8 ppl are weird.