The Endless Contest

This post evolved from a reply I made over on the SF-PinkPistols list in response to a writer suggesting that it was the duty of "gay gun-lovers" to hold their noses and vote for Barack Hussein Obama, as he would allegedly forward LGBT civil rights which (according to this poster, more achievable/important than 2A rights).

The above graphic is my present best guess on how things look for the Electoral College at the moment, and is created using the electoral estimator at the Washington Post. The below is my "upgraded" response to that view, and hints at some of the reasons that I believe that as gun owners, much as we may hold McCain in disdain, that faced with the threat of an Obama presidency, we have no choice but to support McCain and urge our friends, family, and acquaintances to do the same.

I disagreed.

In his argument he stated that what he described as full civil rights for the LGBT community are inevitable, and that a McCain presidency would at most delay the process of achieving that goal.

I suggest if we accept that as true, it actually diminishes any actual or perceived need to vote for Barack Hussein Obama as in that case LGBT civil rights are inevitable with only the timeline in dispute. Firearms rights, however, particularly under an Obama administration are on much more dangerous ground and thus in much greater need of such protection as we can afford them.

If we are less hopeful regarding LGBT civil rights, given the ever-present phenomena of "backlash" (to which he also alluded), many of us may well take the position that it is time for LGBT activism to take a breath, for us to consolidate our gains, and allow the mainstream majority to catch their breath and realize that if same sex marriage (or our current civil rights gains) are generally accepted as legal and on a par (legally, at least) with opposite gender marriage and civil rights that:

1) The world won't end.
2) Straight folks won't rush out (more than usual) and get divorces.
3) LGBT won't sudddenly spring up all over (it isn't catching).
4) That, if they mind their own business, it really won't matter to them.

Given a chance to catch their collective breath, most folks (LGBT and otherwise) are fairly decent folk and pretty ok with the notion of equality before the law for all with neither privilege or prejudice against any. If we keep pushing, on the other hand, we might just provoke the backlash we decidedly do not want.

An Obama presidency might well be considered, from such a viewpoint, as poking a sharp stick at a sleeping (or at least groggy) giant that best serves the LGBT community by remaining blissfully lethargic.

For many of us, the *only* position we agree with Barack Hussein Obama on even somewhat is LGBT civil rights, and even then, many of us have reservations about issues such as hate crimes legislation. For example, I truly don't care *why* someone is having the crud kicked out of them by a band of thugs, I merely desire that it stop immediately and that very bad and consistent things happen to the thugs regardless of the reason for the beating, excepting self-defense (and I have great difficulty imagining 5:1 as self-defense).

For us, it is the *act* that offends far more than the reason - at least partially because telepathy is not required to ascertain most criminal acts, where divining the reason for misbehavior is much more treacherous.

Blessed with lawful carry, we are in a position to choose defend ourselves and our loved ones against the bullies, bigots, and generally bad persons that would harass, assault, maim, or kill us. I would suggest reviewing this essay for a more detailed rationale.

All things considered, and while progress is both desirable and necessary, asking gun owning LGBT folks to throw ourselves under the bus for the "sake of the community" is a bit unreasonable.

Both the GOP and the Dem parties are hidebound collections of competing special interests held together by mutual despite for the other, lust for power, true believers, and the all too common "useful idiot".

Neither is worthy of our blind loyalty or our trust, leaving us to support that party which, as individuals, offends us least.

Neither, today, is our best buddy - the one takes us for granted as a "gimme" voting block, the other has given up on us as blind partisans beyond hope of reason of their opposition and beyond hope of reason; less kindly, for the one we are "useful idiots" and the other "hopeless idiots".

The one needs to be asked "what have you done for us LATELY?" and the other, "When are you going to work for our votes rather than giving up on us as hopeless?"

As regards national health care, all it takes is a long cold look at the NHS of Britain, and I shudder in horror at the very thought - and my concern is reinforced by all those Canadians engaging in medical tourism in the United States and elsewhere in order to get treatments or priority they cannot find in their less decrepit version of the NHS nightmare.

Many of us do not regard liberalism, at least in its' current form, as a good thing. We may be capitalists, or we may simply realize that under an Obama administration we would be relegated to criminal status and our rights that we enjoy in more civilized states (objective standards for grant of Concealed Carry licenses, reasonable regulations, etc) stolen from us under an Obama administration.

This makes McCain the one we'll likely find ourselves holding our noses for as we go to the polling place.

Speaking for myself, I believe both John McCain and Barack Hussein Obama to be utterly vile choices as presidential candidates. McCain as an unprincipled pragmatist, and Obama as the product of the utterly corrupt Daley Machine of Chicago (and virulently anti-gun, anti-carry to boot). I will vote for McCain not because I am enthused, but because I'm marginally less disgusted.