Sunday, June 28, 2009

Gay Rights, Or The "Carrot On A Stick" For The Left

For about two decades now, the Left has been promising one of it's constituent groups their fair share of rights, but they've taken very little real action to prove their good intentions.

Gay Rights have been dangled out in front of the Gay Community every election cycle like clockwork to garner the votes of approximately 5-7% of all Americans (current estimate puts the Gay population at around 10% so I'm giving a rough conservative estimate). Following the election, the whole idea is shelved until needed again in two years. This dishonest and disrespectful treatment of a constituency is a golden opportunity for us on the Right.

It occurs to me that if the GOP wants to break the image of "The Party of No", as well as the impression that we are out of touch, and shake up the opposition, we should address this matter.

I have written about how the issue of Gay Marriage should be handled, so I won't reiterate it here. However, the approach to such would be a win-win-win situation if we only had the testicular fortitude to use it.

Basically, we would do the following:

1. Secretly write up a bill outlining the above linked idea.

2. Introduce the bill directly after the mid-term elections. This would be somewhat underhanded, as we would be going against our base. So, to counter that effect, give the people lots of time before the next available election to get used to the idea. Given that no Democrat worth his membership to Progressionism would dare to attack us on the measure, the only ones to worry about would be the Republican Junior Representative and their Senate counterpart hopefuls in 2012.

3. Watch the fur fly on the Left.

Obama would be in a bad spot as he would have to make a no-kidding real tough decision. Would he anger the Gay Community by Vetoing the bill, or would he risk the ire of the Black and Latino Communities who indubitably gave their support with the inclusion of a "short list" of things to not do (Gay Rights being on it, I assure you)? Either way, he would lose votes (roughly 5-7% either way in my estimation), and we would gain them. In addition to the direct fallout from his actions, we would also enjoy a measure of sympathetic gratitude from (mostly moderate) voters who would see this as a real "change" in our party.

The Left in general would seethe over having this issue ripped out from under them. The base would scream bloody murder at us, but they would be more angry with their own for letting us take the glory on it. In Washington, every Democrat in Congress and the Senate would have to smile and praise us publicly while cursing our existence in (very) private.

The Serpent Immortal of the Gay Rights issue would be at last defanged, with only Military Service remaining as a semi-serious bone of contention.

You see, as soon as the Black and Latino Communities realize that Obama will need an extra boost to his polls to get through the 2012 election, they may give the "Green Light" for such action on the Left. As such, we need to preempt them by "poaching" it for ourselves.

I believe though, that the greatest benefit from this action (aside from votes) would be the improvement in PR and Brand Image. Even our fiercest detractor would have to acknowledge this as a move in the right direction (no pun intended).

The only problems that I could see would be the base's reaction to such a thing. Many would rail against it, and the Left would certainly help that along, but with proper presentation and planning, we could minimize the "homefront backlash" and call out any Democrats attempting to assist the opposition from the right.

To conclude, I will say this:

I have always found myself more respectful and even trusting of an honest enemy than a dishonest friend.