From: eisimps@cie.uoregon.edu (Eileen Simpson)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections
Subject: Re: Better Off Than Four Years Ago NOT
Date: 22 Aug 92 18:30:32 GMT
Organization: University of Oregon Campus Information Exchange

>In article <1684A74DF.MEDELMA@cms.cc.wayne.edu>, MEDELMA@cms.cc.wayne.edu (Michael Edelman) writes...
>>you could hardly call it underfunded. And if you read the placards at the
>>convention you'd note there are a significant number of Republicans who are
>>active in the area of helping AIDS sufferers and gay rights.
>

Yes, there are R's who are active in the area of gay rights and helping
AIDS patients, and I am one of them.  But I despise this administration all
the more because I see its hypocrisy and deceit towards hurting people through
Republican eyes.  AIDS spending is high by one measure, but not when one
looks at need (housing, and medical insurance for example) or threat (end
human race per my brother-in-law the MD).  As an attorney advising
businesses on labor and employment issues, I frequently encounter large and
small organizations who will violate labor laws and fire someone as soon as
it it known they are HIV positive.  Bush opposes laws that would create
penalties that would prevent this practice.  Too burdensome to business,
govt. regulation, etc., etc.

But we cannot limit this discussion to new legal remedies. This administration 
sucks up to the religious right on every discussion of prevention.  We have
a medical problem of enormous dimentions, but we are getting a religious
response!  Bush flunks the leadership test for the biggest threat to public
health since the Black Death.  Added to that is the way they treat gays.

You will probably say that Bush made a statement that shows he does not
hate gays.  He probably doesn't.  But he is willing to play a very very
slick game that lets the Republican religious right hate gays, while he
supports them in a way that is difficult to pin down.  

It works this way:
the religious right is "pro-family".  That means, explicitly in their
presentations, anti-gay.  It is a sin, gays are sick evil people who need
to be controlled.  Republican speakers--but not the President--go out over
the airwaves spouting off about the religious rights views.  The President
may or may not disavow them.  *He does not make it known that they must
stop.* *He does not disavow them in strong, angry language.*  

In that context, Bush and Quayle give hard-hitting speeches about "family
values" and "pro-family."  Then they put out one liners about not hating
gays.  It confuses the public--as it is designed to do.  The right is happy
because they know the content of "family values" is gay-hating and feminist
hating.  The public thinks family values is the Waltons.  HIs slick
maneuver lets Bush get along okay with both groups.

The problem is that the religious right sets the policies to implement
family values, and Bush knows it.  Their agenda is down-right scary!
The result is that Gay-bashing goes out to the public without a clear, 
consistent condemnation by the President, in fact, there is a very very 
mixed message from the top.  The religious right gains political clout for
its extreemist views.

I think this is the most cynical, hate and fear mongering outfit to
hold the White House in my memory.  Since I am older than most netters,
that memory goes back to Nixon.  Yes, I do think that Bush beats Nixon on
the deceit and cynicism scale.  He just has a more refined way of doing it.
Bush is slick and comes across as a nicer guy.

Our local party is behind a measure to outlaw homosexuality and force gays
out of jobs in the public sector.  Their stated goal is to amend the
Constitution (starting at the state level) _to prevent anyone from talking
about homosexual rights ever again._  Yes, folks, they are going after that
minor American value: speech to and by elected public officials! They
intend to outlaw speech, to or by the government, that advocates any view on 
homosexuality that doesn't condemn it as perverse or that advocates even 
treatment for gays.  Equal rights are advocay in their view, as is any 
discussion that homosexuals are not evil or sick. 

At the last meeting of the Central Comm., at which we moderates lost 
control of the party, I was told, point blank, that AIDS was God's 
punishment for sin, and that only sinful people get AIDS.  I was told that 
homosexuals are evil people who will steal children and assault them.

Before you say that is only one wing of the party, let me remind you that
the National convention chose to speak to that wing of the party and 
to speak only the views of the religious right in its speeches.

If your post was to defend the integrity and compassion of individual
Republicans, fine.  If it was to defend the _party_ and its nominees, that
cannot be done on this administration's record!  They preach hate and
separation and they rely on people who are very very dangerous to win
elections.  I think they are selling out the basic principles of
responsible democratic leadership when the appeal to the religious right,
and that it is their civic duty to avoid and isolate these people as to
much of their agenda because that agenda does not respect the political
structure itself.

                    ***********************************

By: a spokesperson for Republicans Against Hate; a woman who has always worked
outside the home, and who doesn't plan to change her values but to change
her vote!
Xref: sparky alt.politics.bush:2067 alt.politics.elections:10881