Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus

Monday, September 18, 2006

Op-Ed by caucus member Phil Tudor

Stay this course? No

By Philip Tudor

It's that time again. Time for the negative campaigning and true and false promises, all leading up to that day in November when "we the people" get to make a decision about who leads us. Despite all the verbosity, our vote is a clear choice: "stay the course" with the Republicans, or "change course" with the Democrats.

"Stay the course" is not original. It's been said in many ways throughout the centuries. Louis XVI said "stay the course" while the wealthy few in France paid no taxes and the populace simply stayed poor. We all know the fate of Louis' nation: revolution, brutality and turmoil.

Nicholas II of Russia said "stay the course" while the aristocratic few retained incredible wealth, the masses of other Russians starved, and his nation fought a losing slaughterhouse war in World War I. Nicholas' Russia suffered the same fate as Louis' France. The true democracies of America, Britain and France prevailed in World War I because their governments had some success to show to their citizens as they put their lives on the line to fight a warmongering German Empire.

In World War II, Hitler said "stay the course" even as 14-year-old Germans fought to defend his bunker while the Russians took a carpet-bombed Berlin block-by-block.

The elite few who controlled all the money, power and military in the USSR and its slave satellite states also said "stay the course." The citizens of the now-defunct Communist states stopped listening and "changed the course" at the risk of their lives.

Lyndon Johnson said "stay the course" as he propped up the corrupt "democracy" of South Vietnam with American lives. The result: "peace with honor," which translated to Americans running for their lives in helicoptors off the roof of the American embassy in the city formerly known as Saigon.

Now, thanks to the wiser decisions of presidents since, who fully admit we made a huge mistake in Vietnam, we have a situation where Bill Gates can visit Vietnam and be treated like a rock star.

During the Republicans' term at the helm, the wealthy elites of Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina, with our covert or overt support, said "stay the course." The result: left-wing governments in all those countries whose citizens hate us, and a constant threat from Venezuela to cut off its flow of oil.

If history is any example, the wealthy elites of those countries who said "stay the course" will evenually lose all their property, and what few civil rights people had to speak up and disagree with the powers-that-be will soon be eliminated.

For several years now, we Americans have been treated to the constant Republican rallying cry of "stay the course," as our leaders ignore what Jane and John Q. American know and see every day.

"Staying the course" means being in worse shape militarily in Iraq than we were when we first invaded. "Staying the course" means being less safe because we've managed to make the whole world despise us. Our ports are unsecured and the Southern border remains an open sieve where anything can come in. "Staying the course" means being unable to respond to a national disaster like Hurricane Katrina. "Staying the course" means tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest few thousand in America, while the other hundreds of millions of us make ends meet on tighter and tighter budgets, and government services to Americans shrivel because Republicans have turned a budget surplus into the highest budget deficit in U.S. history.

History and our recent experiences show us exactly what "staying the course" with the Republicans means. It is my fervent prayer that in November, Floridians and all other Americans remember not only history, but what they have actually seen with their own eyes.

Florida Sun Sentinel

See the full article

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Gay vote important in governor primary

Democrats less reserved in seeking support

By Anthony Man
Sun-Sentinel Political Writer

Democratic candidates looking for anything that might give them an edge in Tuesday's gubernatorial primary are courting gay and lesbian voters more than ever.

Activists and analysts say it shows the growing political clout of the gay community and the passing of an era in which campaigns feared a backlash from conservative voters.

"You've got the two Democrats trying to outmaneuver each other," said Eric Johnson, the openly gay chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, whose district spans Broward and Palm Beach counties. "I think it's really refreshing and it says a lot about how the politics has changed that they're both going after the gay community."

The Democrats are proclaiming their support for issues important to gay and lesbian voters, such as ending the ban on same-sex couples adopting children. The candidates are visiting with gay political groups, and leaders of those groups are responding with endorsements and fundraising help. The candidates even put out press releases to their statewide media lists touting endorsements from gay and lesbian groups and leaders.

It's a phenomenon no longer confined to liberal Broward County.

Earlier this summer, gubernatorial hopefuls Jim Davis and Rod Smith both made the rounds at a state Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Caucus gathering in Tallahassee. Before that, Davis and Smith both stopped at the annual Stonewall Ball in West Palm Beach.

Michael Albetta, of Fort Lauderdale, president of the state caucus, said it has 14 chapters throughout the state.

Albetta said most statewide Democratic candidates no longer seem to fear repercussions from supporting issues important to gays and lesbians, such as domestic partnerships and adoption.

Fred Fejes, of Fort Lauderdale, a communications professor at Florida Atlantic University, said the change is not as seismic as some gay and lesbian political activists believe -- at least not yet.

"In some ways this is very comparable to the way many major politicians back in the 1950s dealt with the black vote," he said. "They had to say the right things but not alienate the white voters."

Fejes is writing Moral Panic and Gay Rights, a book due out in 2007, about the period in the 1970s when gays and lesbians emerged on the political scene.

Late last week the Democratic primary was still a race. A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed 43 percent of likely Democratic voters for Davis, 32 percent for Smith and a quarter undecided.

Laurie Watkins, of Oakland Park, a member of the Dolphin Democrats and South Florida deputy finance director for Smith's campaign, said the decisive votes in a close race could come from the gay and lesbian community.

Which is why, at the end of a 12-hour day of summer campaigning in South Florida, Davis pitched his candidacy at the last pre-primary gathering of the Dolphin Democratic Club in Fort Lauderdale.

He used the acronym "GLBT" in his remarks and promised to "end our shameful place in this nation" that prevents gay couples from adopting children.

"If you and your lifetime companion want to have the same rights and responsibilities as my wife and I have, I'll stand up for that, too," he said.

Tom Runyan said he liked the way Davis integrated issues important to gays into his overall speech. Now a Fort Lauderdale lawyer, Runyan lost a 1998 primary for state representative in Monroe County and was president of Key West's Lambda Democrats.

"For too long, candidates have been afraid to talk to the gay community, but we're here," Runyan said.

He said they must not go to extremes in their courting.

"I want to hear that people today recognize all their constituents and don't pander. Mean it. They go to every other group."

Runyan backs Davis, who has support from lots of gay Democratic Party leaders in Broward. Smith has more support from Palm Beach County gay activists. The atmosphere is different on the Republican side. Gubernatorial candidates Charlie Crist and Tom Gallagher each claim to be the truest conservative. Gallagher has made his opposition to gay marriage, civil unions and gay adoptions a central theme of his campaign. Crist said he opposes gay marriage and adoption but is open to civil unions.

Yet Wednesday's Quinnipiac University poll showed that even among Republicans calling themselves born-again or evangelical Christians, Crist is ahead of Gallagher 53 percent to 38 percent. Overall among likely Republican voters, it's 57 percent for Crist and 32 percent for Gallagher.

"Waving the red flag of gay marriage is sort of spent, and it's not going to work anymore," Fejes said.

Former Wilton Manors Mayor Jim Stork said demographics are playing a role. Using gay issues doesn't turn most younger voters against candidates.

When Stork ran for Congress in 2004 against U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, his campaign polled in the Broward-Palm Beach County congressional district to figure out if his being gay would be a problem.

When a "would you vote for" question was changed to inform the voter that he was "openly gay," Stork said his ratings went down among veterans and male seniors -- and went up among people younger than 50.

Daniel Smith, an associate professor of political science at the University of Florida, said the candidates are responding to the growing activism of gay and lesbian voters. But he doesn't think it has nearly the power of teachers unions or the AARP.

Albetta and Johnson said the gay community is becoming as important a constituency as organized labor, religious and ethnic groups and the elderly.

"We're not the demons anymore," Albetta said. "We're not the people with the horns and the tails."

See the full article

Monday, September 18, 2006

Op-Ed by caucus member Phil Tudor

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Gay vote important in governor primary

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