All I’ve heard this week is ‘everyone else in the country is stupid for not supporting the DNC ticket;’ I look forward to the day that african-americans take advantage of their educational opportunities and apprise themselves of the means to escape the DNC mis-education.

Without the poor and uneducated, the DNC ceases to be a factor in politics, they’re already irrelevant to everyday life.

Liberalism: a method by which economically advantaged caucasian college graduates atone for their consuming guilt at being born better off than someone else

Don’t give me a handout, give me a hand up.

As for examples of Democrats forcing gay marriage and civil unions, reference Gavin Newsom and Howard Dean (and the VT legislature), for starters. The very real possibility exists that a U.S. District court (such as the 9th Court of Appeals) or state courts could mis-apply the equal protection clause to gay marriage and rule that all in that region/state MUST sanction gay marriages. The people don’t want that, and are talking about how best to prevent it. People are not voting against gays, and unlike the Civil Rights movement, nobody is challenging their ability to work, to receive an education, or to be treated with the utmost and equal respect as individuals. Further, if nobody is pushing gay marriage, what is the harm in codifying in constitutions actions which are already illegal? The only difference is that now that law is beyond the reach of the courts.

As for overturning RvW, I think Bush wouldn’t mind seeing it changed, and isn’t the only one. The whole discussion is a muddled, complex issue, and I think a significant case can be made for either view on the issue. The difference is clear – Bush said he would apply a litmus test on abortion to his judicial appointees, Kerry said that he would. Funny, I keep hearing that conservatives aren’t open-minded….

Again, it really doesn’t matter at this point. A majority of people voted to make gay marriage illegal in certain states. It doesn’t matter that you have an issue with rual americans and republicans.

As long as more than 1/2 the population has a certain view, they can get laws changed. That’s a democracy. It sounds like your issue is with democracy. Either convince enough people that your views are right instead of theirs, live with things the way they are or leave. Those are your choices.

Your definition of reasonable needs work. And like I pointed out before, gay marriage was and will continue to be a codeword for homosexuality. Nobody remembers it, but we’ve been through this before with interracial marriage. And if you’re not willing to see the hatred (or at least deeply ingrained cultural prejudice) behind all of the anti-gay initiatives than you’re **trying** not to see it. Go check out all the groups that pushed these initiatives. Read their websites. See what they have to say about homosexuality in general.

As for the rationality of abortion that, I agree, is entirely up for debate. But that doesn’t change the simple facts:

1) Rural Americans hate gays.
2) Rural Americans hate abortions.
3) Republicans have capitalized on this and completely radicalized rural Americans.

As long as rural Americans are single-”moral”-issue voters they will be in the pockets of Republicans and it’ll be bad for the entire country.

Just because you don’t believe in it doesn’t mean it’s unreasonable. In the states where gay marriage was made illegal, it was reasonable to a majority of those people. Sorry, that’s the way it is in a democracy.

This isn’t about gay marriage at all. Tell me, have you ever heard of a single Democrat ever, anywhere, campaign FOR gay marriage? Who is trying to ram it down anybody’s throat? Please. The people who voted weren’t voting against gay marriage, they were voting against gays. Plain and simple.

Let’s be honest and call a spade a spade. There’s nothing rational about it and the Republicans know this. Rural America has been successfully and totally radicalized. As long as this is the case, Republicans will get their votes for “free” and **everybody** will get screwed.

(Unless you think Bush was serious about the Constitutional Amendment? Or that he’ll actually try to overturn RvW?)

This has nothing to do with trying to typecast anybody. The facts are as I stated them above. I didn’t call anybody dumb or ignorant but they are hateful. There’s no doubt about that.

Your comment is further evidence of this. No matter how hard the Democrats try, trying to ram issues like abortion and gay marriage down the throats of rural America is a futile effort. Your refusal to accept their opposition on these issues as a reasonable position, and instead casting it as hatred is, in fact, part of the problem. I see this same attitude on Slashdot – all people who voted for Bush are dumb, ignorant, or hateful. This characterization is, in fact, ignorant. Some of us are actually capable of holding a differing opinion without slandering anyone who disagrees.

As for the war – yes, I think I’m aware of that. If you haven’t noticed, Bush IS working on it. Now that we’re engaged there, a fast withdrawal is the quickest way to ensure that the whole effort was a waste. The “insurgents” there are not rational, and must be defeated. All of the major groups want the installation of a minority, highly partisan government that will systematically oppress those not in its ethnic or religious group. Show me a major resistance group there that has noble intentions.

1) Rural Americans hate gays.
2) Rural Americans hate abortions.
3) Republicans have capitalized on this and completely radicalized rural Americans.

BTW, you know we’re in the middle of a war? Somewhere in the Middle East I think. 1 or 2 American soldiers dying each day, I think. Perhaps Bush might want to work on that.