Republican Family Feud

Last Friday, I posted a video of a debate on MSNBC between someone from GOProud , a conservative “gay” group, and someone from Concerned Women for America, a noted anti-gay group.

Well, here’s another, more fiery debate between rightwing Republicans. This time, joining spokespeople for GOProud and CWA is a spokeperson from one of the several competing Teapublican groups, Tea Party Nation. Gotta feel a little sorry for GOProud: It’s pretty reviled in the mainstream GLBT community AND by heterosexual conservatives.

In this debate, however, GOProud was correct on some very specific points. First, the election was NOT won by Teapublicans because of social issues. Yes, the leaders and candidates are rightwing christianist extremists, but the folks who bought the message and voted for them are not necessarily—many simply bought the fiscal conservative message, which, as we all remember, is precisely what the Teapublicans were selling in the campaign. It’s not surprising that, having won, they’re revealing their true agenda, but that doesn’t mean they have the right to pretend now that the culture wars was always their focus.

Also, the rightwing agenda to outlaw same-sex marriage through constitutional amendment would absolutely be the biggest expansion of federal power in at least a century, probably more because it would be federalising something—marriage—that has always been a state issue.

To me it sounded like the CWA and Teapublicans don’t want anything to do with those dirty homos. The Teapublican apparently believes that one cannot be gay and conservative; in fact, GOProud is far more conservative than it is gay. CWA has a long track record of fighting to keep gay people second class (or worse) citizens, so their antipathy toward GOProud is certainly in character for them.

Oddly enough I don’t take any particular delight in this family feud (well, okay, maybe a little…). Instead, I think this is yet another example of how the political right in the US is rock solid anti-gay. We already know that dialogue with rabidly anti-gay groups like the CWA is impossible, but I think this also shows how the Teapublicans aren’t the least bit interested in dialogue, either, even with people who would be their allies on perhaps 98% of their radical agenda.

The lesson in all this seems obvious to me: Progress on GLBT issues in America is impossible through working with the far right culture warriors in the Republican/Teapublican Party: Dialogue, let alone compromise, is clearly impossible.