Amy's Robot

There were many sad moments during last night's convention activities. One was Arnold, the Republican Governor of California who has won the support of a Democrat-led state legislature through his relatively liberal social ideology, throwing his support to a radical conservative like Bush. Perhaps that's why he included this line: "And maybe you don't agree with this party on every single issue. I say to you tonight I believe that's not only okay, that's what's great about this country. Here we can respectfully disagree and still be patriotic, still be American, and still be good Republicans." [tx King Pigeon] Was this his attempt to play it both ways? To say "Hey, California, deep down I think Bush is a dickwad too, I'm just here because I'm technically a Republican. Sorry!"

I wonder if Arnold's words came as any consolation to Patrick Guerriero, the Executive Director of Log Cabin Republicans? Ray Suarez interviewed Patrick on the convention floor, and this interview was another one of the sad moments. Guerriero went through impressive mental gymnastics trying to explain how he still "loved" the Republican party, even though it had obviously made him and members of his organization very, very angry lately. In fact, most of the issues listed on the LCR website are framed in direct opposition to the stated Republican party platform. As Guerriero pointed out, the platform goes farther than simply promoting the Federal Marriage Amendment, it also calls for an end to civil unions, and benefits for domestic partners. It clearly singles out gay people and supports the limitation of their civil rights.

Guerriero said he hopes that Bush will not let the obviously gigantic pool of Christian fundamentalist voters sway him toward legislating discrimination against gay people, and that Bush will respect the rights of the 1 million gay and lesbian Americans who voted for him in 2000. Well Patrick, good luck. As David Brooks said in his PBS commentary about this interview, those 1 million voters are a drop in the bucket compared to the hoardes of conservatives in places like Missouri who don't give a shit about gay rights, and who would probably like to see the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court decision reversed. As long as Bush has these people's support, the Log Cabin Republicans may as well abandon the Republicans and vote for someone who is on their side. -Amy