From: rrizzo@star-trek.bbn.com (Ron Rizzo)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Republican Convention, Houston, 1992
Summary: Buchanan/Duke in '92
Keywords: Where's the nearest passport office?
Date: 19 Aug 92 23:01:40 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.l95kmkINNe64
NNTP-Posting-Host: archive.bbn.com



			BUCHANAN IMPERATOR


Here's my $.02 on the Republican convention to nominate Pat Buchanan for
president.  I don't see why the GOP doesn't simply create a position of
eminence grise for him.  Maybe everyone is confused by George Bush's 
behavior:  can anyone recall the last time a head of state made himself
a puppet of one of his minions?

This is for Republicans of soc.motss:

Where Republicans stand:  Excerpts from the 1992 platform (Boston Globe,
8/18/92, page 12?):

	Gay rights

	We oppose efforts...to include sexual preference as a protected
	minority receiving preferential status under civil rights statutes
	at the federal, state, and local level...We oppose any legislation
	or law which legally recognizes same-sex marriages and allows such
	couples to adopt children or provide foster care.

If the platform, rammed down the party's throat by fundamentalists and the
radical right, who pack the state delegations but take their cues from the
White House, leaves any doubts, convention speakers and their audience 
removed them by burning the Log Cabin to the ground with glee.

Weld underwhelmed in his 5-minute speech, doing something for his political
career if nothing for gay or abortion rights.  Barbara Bush retracted her
whisper of a doubt about the party's fervent anti-abortion stance.  (The
fact that this woman reminds people of their grandmothers doesn't say much
for American families.)   Gay Republicans were reduced to wearing Weld in
96 buttons.  Any discussion on the floor was squashed, with barely a complaint.

So much for the gay right or moderate Republicans.

This is for everyone else in soc.motss:

According to the 8/18/92 Boston Globe, page 11, at the Christian Coalition
rally for Vice President Dan Quayle in Houston, some Republicans:

	handed out flyers that combined Nazi insignias with raw antigay,
	antiabortion rhetoric.

Does anyone know more about this (which groups, relation to the GOP)?  Are
there any indications at the convention itself of the presence of American
neo-Nazis?

The 1992 GOP convention is an incredible and bizarre outpouring of hate and
fear.  Bush and his cronies are terrified of losing power.  As pointed out on
NPR, the Republican Party has been deprived of its 2 issues, anti-Communism
and prosperity.  In desperation it has embraced fascism, openly, on camera.
The under-30 delegates who screamed in delight at the bilious scape-goating
taking place on the podium would have been thrilled by large public gatherings
in '30s Germany. If the campaign goes badly, which it can in many ways, I think
Bush will center his attacks on gay men & lesbians. How many physical assaults
on gaypeople will result is anyone's guess.  I think the news from Houston is
bad, maybe *bad*!

What is really creepy is to hear clueless coworkers bask in the bland
amusements of conventioneering via TV each night, as if ALL IS NORMAL.
They're not really clueless: I'm sure there's nothing wrong with their
hearing, mental processes or command of the English language.  They know
that I and other employees are gay.  They're aware that females exist and
probably even know what a uterus is.  Heck, some of 'em have uteruses.  And,
pat on the back, there aren't any knee-jeck nativists here, in the halls of
high tech.  Either they don't give a shit (hey, it's not their necks on the
block, at least not yet) or they're too terrified to think about it at
all, and perhaps too terrified to admit to themselves they're terrified.
Besides, there are too many things to be scared shitless of, like mortgages,
layoffs, burning hills or burning cities, the number 1993, next month, next
week, tomorrow.  Why worry about the odd fortunes of exotic populations?

If I were Clinton or Gore, I'd hire more bodyguards.  I'm not joking.
Given the explosive mixture of zealotry and animus that makes up the GOP
today, I don't find political murder far-fetched.

Bush may go down to a huge defeat, dragging Republicans in the House, Senate
and even assorted statehouses with him, the ReaganBush era fading to a bad
memory.  But never underestimate the stupidity of the American voter in the
late 20th century, or his/her capacity for resentment:  Bush has a smaller
but real chance of getting re-elected, if white Americans opt for blood, soil
and cable TV.  If so, life in the USA could become quite ugly.  (If you think
it's bad now, with AIDS, neo-Nazis and creeping poverty, remember: there is
no bottom and there are no guarantees.)  If a social catastrophe overtakes
the United States later in this decade, I think the Houston convention will
be considered a major turning point, if not the crucial one.

For the time being, David Duke lives, and prospers, in the Grand Old Party.

So hope for a Democratic victory.  Better still work for it.  But make sure
you renew your passport.  No smileys here.

Regards,
Ron


****************************************************************************
Q: How does John Giotti differ from George Bush?
A: Giotti has at least one conviction.
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