Despicable

On Daily Kos, a tempest in a teapot has erupted over the word “spitting”.  As in,

Obama: Stands up for Muslims, spits on gays? (5+ / 14-)

Quite a combination. If he was a courageous leader he’d come out for gay marriage, unless he really does think they should be second class citizens.

I am going to, in this essay, attack Daily Kos, and the denizens that inhabit it, because of this reasoning:

“Spits” is hyperbole. Not HR worthy, but if (2+ / 0-)

you want to make a point, you can do it without pissing off the people you are trying to convince.

Because you do have a real point…

No sir, it’s not that we have a real point, it’s that you have no point.

The spirit of resistance sometimes requires hard, accurate portrayals and words.  Even if it’s only arguably accurate.

It’s time to resist the President on gay rights.  Gently asking is not enough.  Humbly requesting is not enough.

Whatever language is used, the President’s heart has been hard on gay rights, and the human toll of suffering, based on what has happened to date, has not been enough to convince him to soften it.

I am not in this world to re-elect the President, or to support him, whatever that means.  When his re-election is imminent, I will evaluate his actions over the past four years, and decide what to do, not before.  But that is not and has nothing to do with resisting the President’s policies vis-a-vis gay rights.

What do you expect the LGBT community on this blog, or any other, to do?  We ought not have to convince you.  If you are allies, if you still believe in civil rights as a cornerstone of Democratic policies, you ought to be right there with us all — without us even asking you to be there.

At some point, we simply cannot sit back and hope and dream for the President to make success for us.  We have to make our own success, and if that involves, sometimes, saying bad things about the President, well, that is the least of it.

Saying we should not say bad things about the President?  Really?  Not saying we should have violence, but wars have been fought over less than the fundamental human liberties of an entire people.  The zeitgeist on places such as Daily Kos IS material in the sense that arguing over a trifle like the word “spitting” masks the dire nature of continuing to put our human rights in a box.

And now history itself is beginning to be masked.

I don’t care that certain liberal people wish to lionize the President.  But to do so in a manner that erases history — this I have a problem with.  There is a pattern of anti-gay actions on the part of the President.  That people are ignorant of this history is unacceptable, and, yes, let the chips fall where they may and let people draw their own conclusions.

If the President won’t veto a gay rights measure, that is not because he’s a good guy when it comes to gay rights — it’s because we put him in a box.  And it’s time to put him in that box, and the people who do not wish him put in that box are wrong, not the other way around.  His political career, and the political fortunes of all Democrats in America, are not worth the loss of one gay life due to bigotry and fear.  That certain people don’t say so, but act as if the opposite is true, this deserves to be confronted, finally, and confronted loudly, if other things don’t work.

I don’t have to resort to the word “spitting” to make my point — but my point is, the point has already been made, in action.  Making outrage over this kind of wording, frankly, is what is despicable — not the other way around.

And there is a history to reference, and to forget about it is despicable.  To focus on the word “spitting” when it’s used in relation to the President, as opposed to what the president is doing to gay people, is despicable — not that the word is used.

Let’s talk about history:

1.  A gay hate fest masked as a “cure the gays” party with ex-gay homophobe Donnie McClurkin is utilized openly to win South Carolina for now-President Obama

2.  Obama has Rick Warren, now known to have been involved deeply in the Kill-the-Gays fiasco in Uganda, to make his inauguration speech.

3.  Obama promises Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach that he would take care of DADT.

4.  Lt. Col Victor Fehrenbach is now being discharged from the military on account of his sexual orientation.

5.  Dan Choi has to tie himself to the White House fence, and get arrested, to get this white house to pay attention to the problem of gay people being witch hunted out of the military.  They do this paying attention with a shell game — a game that would not actually lift DADT, but would put DADT in the hands of the President.

6.  The President’s supporters lie that DADT would be lifted by this action, and that DADT would soon be a memory, endangering the military careers of people in the Armed Forces with the idea that DADT would soon be history, in preference to an accurate portayal of what the situation actually is.

7.  The President’s supporters openly lie that the President is legally bound to defend DADT and DOMA in Federal court.

8.  The President breakfasts with the organization known as The Family, at the National Prayer Breakfast, whose members are responsible for prompting Uganda to consider mass murdering every LGBT person in the country, or imprisoning them for life.  The Family achieved this goal by, among other things, comparing gay men to Nazis.  The President shares breakfast and breaks bread with these people, and, as in the manner of sharing crumbs, calls this pattern of behavior odious.

Spitting?  Really?  Saying the President spits on gay people is what is despicable?

I’m not how sure Dan Choi, Lt. Col Victor Fehrenbach, or the hundreds of honorably serving personnel who have had their careers destroyed under the Obama administration, would feel about this characterization of the President.

What did he — yes — he, through his decisions and those of his administration — do to their careers?  Pat them down lightly?  

It’s so interesting, this outrage committed upon the person of the President, saying he’s “spitting”.  What an outrage, I agree.  I don’t know how the aforementioned people think what has been done with regard to their military service … that it has been spit on?  Surely not.

Surely the outrage of saying the President is spitting on gay people is more important.

People in the military are expected, in this jingoistic society of ours, to be lionized, feted and thanked for their service.

Whatever I may feel about this state of affairs, stands in opposition to what the President does about gay people in the military — which is, drum them out of the service, sometimes not give them honorable discharges, and treat them as if and in the exact same manner as if they were openly criminals.

If we have to convince you of the rightness of our cause, by refraining from such gauche phrases as “the President is spitting on gay people”, it is already clear what side you are on.  You are on the side of the British Tory in the Revolution.

You are on the side of the Republican who gins up fake outrage over an ill spoken word out of context.

You are on the wrong side of history.

And if we have to convince YOU, If you consider us saying the President is spitting on gay people is what is despicable, you are already despicable.

You are despicable because you care more about, and have personalized, the President’s political career, in preference to the fundamental human rights of an entire people.