Republicans Take Control of US Senate

[gong]

Any gays that voted Republican should have their head examined...brainless!!

Changes in gay rights are taking place in all liberal Democracies, including the ones where conservatives are in power(e.g. UK,Canada,Australia,New Zealand). In US the practical changes came from Supreme court where Republicans have a majority 5:4. I see the election results as very positive: by no means it is a victory of ultra-conservative forces which were
at bay in Republican Party (the only place they manage to spoil things was Louisiana which now go to additional elections). There are too many things which are going wrong way in America (which is reflected in many polls) and the current swing of pendulum was inevitable. As for the gay rights...They were not on the agenda of this elections.

[Gaybutton]

I'm a little more optimistic. Judges have been upholding gay rights on constitutional grounds, so it would be difficult to legislate out those decisions. Even the Supreme Court has unexpectedly been moving in the right direction. Something similar happened when Bill Clinton was president. I remember him saying, the day after the election, "I got the message."

Maybe the Democrats need to acknowledge getting the message from this election too, whether we agree with the message or not. And if the Democrats want to win in 2016, they better not only get the message, but start doing something about it - now. Merely complaining about the election outcome won't change a thing.

I would have much preferred the Democrats to win, but since they didn't maybe the Republicans won't be so anti gay as many seem to assume they will be. There's little choice other than to wait and see.

I'm more worried about their more aggressive war policies. As for gay rights, as you said Obama still has veto power and the courts can still rule against anti gay laws on constitutional grounds. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there might be a few gay rights setbacks, but I doubt they can undo the progress that has already been made. I'm not so sure they will even try. I'm hoping the worst that will happen might be preventing or delaying further federal progress.

[Up2u]

DNC Debbie Wasserman Schultz should resign, a poor leader. Could somebody explain to me what the Democrats message was and why they deserved my vote? I will not vote for Hillary Clinton if the party message is this poorly articulated. I hope pressure by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren that have a clear populist message can get the message pointed in the right direction.

[Maple]

Any gays that voted Republican should have their head examined...brainless!!

On those rare occasions that I actually find an American Gay Republican in Thailand, I ask them how they can vote for a GOP candidate who hates Gays as demonstrated by their political positions: anti-Gay, anti-Gay rights, anti-Gay marriage -- and who hate a Gay Farang's lifestyle of having interracial and inter-generational sex with Thai guys. Most often, there is no response... or they just walk away.

[Up2u]

I know gay Republicans and they argue fiscal responsibility, taxes, their pocketbook trumps social and gay rights issues.

[Gaybutton]

I ask them how they can vote for a GOP candidate who hates Gay

I think the answer to that is pretty simple. They either are not from the USA or no longer live there and don't give a shit about gay rights in the USA. Even if that's the case, I suppose they don't understand that gay rights in the USA affects policies worldwide, often directly.

Thailand seems to be on the verge of legally recognizing same sex marriage. I don't think that would even be an item for discussion if gay rights in the USA hadn't so dramatically improved over the past couple years.

I also think Up2U is correct in saying gay rights is not the only issue and doesn't seem to be a big priority in this election, although I can't see myself agreeing with any current Republican policies

[RichLB]

I accept that I am politically naive, but for those US Republicans on here (gay or not) I'm mystified about what the Republicans want. I'm quite clear what they don't want, what they complain about, and how hostile they are to whatever policies Obama might put forward; but what do they want to do other than continue to put the brakes on any changes to America's doldrums. I'm just asking.

[Gaybutton]

but what do they want to do

Republicans Have Unveiled Their 2014 Agenda: Do Nothing

by Rep. Alan Grayson, U.S. Congressman for Florida's 9th District

A few weeks ago, the Republicans unveiled their 2014 agenda, and it was... nothing.

I kid you not. Here is how it was reported in Politico:

"Last Thursday, a group of House Republicans filed into Majority Leader Eric Cantor's Capitol office suite and received a blank piece of paper labeled 'Agenda 2014.' ... A Republican aide .... said ... 'The problem is we don't know where we are headed...'"

Many people saw the absence of an agenda as a problem. I think that it understates the problem. My concern is that the Republicans don't know where to go, not that they don't know how to get there.

To give you an idea of where they seem to think we should go, here are some actual bills that were actually introduced by actual Republicans last year:

a bill to allow the states to nullify any federal law (didn't we settle that in 1865?);
a bill to require every high school student to read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (mandatory libertarian indoctrination -- oh, the irony...);
a bill to prohibit lap dancing and jello wrestling (which contained fascinating definitions of the terms "nudity" and "sexual device");
a bill establishing a state religion (not Islam, that's for sure); and
a bill authorizing restaurants, hotels, hair salons and other businesses to deny service to gay customers.

If you're trying to do stuff like that, then doing nothing is a massive improvement.

But more importantly, you just can't do nothing about nothing. You're always doing nothing about something. When the Republicans say that they have no agenda for 2014, then in effect, they're saying this:

"We're going to do nothing about the 20 million Americans who can't find full-time work."

"We're going to do nothing about the fact that America now has the highest inequality of wealth in history."

"We're going to do nothing about the fact that our military expenditures are roughly equal to that of every other country combined, even though we face no conceivable threat of invasion, and we spend approximately50 billion spying largely on ourselves."

"We're going to do nothing about the fact that the United States has run a trade deficit of at least 350,000,000,000 every single year since 2000, with no end in sight."

"We're going to do nothing about the fact that the Arctic ice cap is disappearing, the release of methane greenhouse gas from tundra is snowballing ('snowballing' -- hah!), and global temperatures may rise by 10 degrees by the end of the century."

"We're going to do nothing about the fact that there are so many corporate income tax loopholes that corporate tax revenue is at its lowest in 50 years."

"We're going to do nothing about the fact that according to some tests, American students have the lowest math scores in the entire world."

"We're going to do nothing about the fact that 434 out of 435 House members and 99 out of 100 senators raised most of their campaign funds from big donors [the only exceptions being Sen. Sanders (I-VT) and moi]."

"We're going to nothing about the fact that the federal minimum wage buys less today than it did in 1968, and the bottom 20 percent has a far lower household income today than it did in 1999."

"After we repeal Obamacare, we're going to do nothing about the 50 million Americans who can't see a doctor when they're sick." [The Republican healthcare plan: Don't Get Sick. And if you do get sick, Die Quickly.]

So it may seem that the Republicans are doing nothing about nothing. But they're actually doing nothing about everything. Whatever the problems we face, their infantile solution is always the same: close your eyes, and it will go away. Close your eyes, stick your fingers in your ears, and repeat "La-la-la-la-la-la-la."

Will that work? No. All of these problems have solutions, but none of them is going to solve itself.

That's our job.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-alan- ... 42529.html

[Alex]

Any gays that voted Republican should have their head examined...brainless!!

Too bad that real people wear many hats at the same time, not just the "gay" hat. That makes it a bit more complex in the real world, although the pink fantasy world where only gay rights matter and nothing else does have its appeal. Add to this that many people, gay or otherwise, are just fed up with the Obama government and their only option - at this time - was to vote his bedfellows out. So that's what they did. I'm not at all surprised, in fact any other result would have been a BIG surprise.

[Up2u]

Any gays that voted Republican should have their head examined...brainless!!

Too bad that real people wear many hats at the same time, not just the "gay" hat. That makes it a bit more complex in the real world, although the pink fantasy world where only gay rights matter and nothing else does have its appeal. Add to this that many people, gay or otherwise, are just fed up with the Obama government and their only option - at this time - was to vote his bedfellows out. So that's what they did. I'm not at all surprised, in fact any other result would have been a BIG surprise.

This election was not about Obama although the Republican strategy of making it about the President was successful. These midterm elections were about local issues, your representative, your Senator, your Governor; Democrats typically stay home during midterms but often forget the Senate is at stake and the repercussions of losing (the Supreme Court nominees, etc.) The demographics were against them, Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Virginia, Kansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, none are democratic strongholds but it was up to leadership to show the electorate a vision and they failed. There is no "gay" hat if you are a Log Cabin Republican.