From: anderson@macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson)
Subject: Party vs Members (was Re: Colorado Addresses)
Organization: Madison Academic Computing Center, UW-Madison
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 92 03:12:15 GMT


In article <16840@umd5.umd.edu> jns@elea.umd.edu (J. N.
Shaumeyer) writes:

>Andrew Solovay (solovay@netcom.com) wrote: 

>>The Republicans are heavily divided on gay rights, which is
>>also new.

How about some facts to support that.  Since when and by how
much have Republicans been more divided on gay rights than
they were formerly?  According to whom?

>Some people who call themselves republican may support equal
>rights for homosexuals.  How nice.

I'm persuaded this is a true statement.  I know Republicans
who are aghast at discrimination against lesbians and gay
men (I don't happen to know how they feel about bisexuals).

>The Republicans are a single party.
>
>The Republicans had one campaign platform.
>
>The Republicans had one plank in that platform specifically
>opposing equal rights for homosexuals.
>
>The Republicans are NOT divided on equal rights for
>homosexuals.

Maybe this ties into notions of duty and honor mentioned
here a couple days ago.  Any organization like this has
liberal and conservative wings.  This year, the ultra-
conservative wing of the Grand Old Party seems to have
dominated things quite thoroughly.

One might think responsible Republicans of conscience would
dissociate themselves from the extreme right-wing platform
in a very public, no-nonsense fashion, as a point of honor,
as a duty to democratic ideals.  That the top leadership
and its candidate did not do so speaks loudly, I think, to
their moral default.

On the other hand, what the Satanic Twins Pat & Pat want
most is an intact means of furthering their hate programs,
for which the GOP would be a quite suitable candidate.
Indeed, they may have succeeded.

But were I a liberal Republican (never mind the implied
oxymoron, I know such creatures exist), I might feel my
greatest duty was to forestall having my party hijacked by a
bunch of crypto-fascists, and determine that the best thing
I might do toward that end was stay in there and fight back.

Similarly, I'm hoping that those of us who live in Colorado,
painful and discouraging as that must be right now, will
somehow find the strength to stay there, organize, and fight
back.  For if the CFV succeeds in driving all our people out,
they will have won something they very much want: an
established base of operations.  That kind of success would
bode very ill for all of us, I think, which is one reason I
think it's important for those of us not living in Colorado
to be as active as we can be in helping our brothers and
sisters there, fostering and supporting nationwide and local
efforts to oppose the creeping fascism the OCA, CFV and
other such organizations represent.

There's a lot more at stake than just our hides.

-- 
Jess Anderson <> Madison Academic Computing Center <> University of Wisconsin
Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu <-best, UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson
Room 3130 <> 1210 West Dayton Street / Madison WI 53706 <> Phone 608/262-5888
<>  <>  <> Discrimination, Bigotry, and Hate are not Family Values <>  <>  <>
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