Another Blogger In The News

The Strib writes a profile of local gay, black Republican minister Dennis Sanders.

Kudos to Dennis, who I've featured in this space because of his blog, "Moderate Republican".

Here's the funny part: the article is called For this GOP member, usual labels won't fit

"The Usual Labels?"

The Rev. Dennis Sanders laughed at the suggestion that he's your typical gay, black, Republican minister.

"No, I'm more of a moderate, old-style Rockefeller Republican, which makes me even more of an oddity," said Sanders, 34, a vice president of Minnesota's Log Cabin Republicans and a minister at Lake Harriet Christian Church in Minneapolis.

The Rev. Terry Steeden, senior minister at Lake Harriet Church calls Sanders "an anomaly," describing the Flint, Mich., native as a man who "encompasses some very meaningful old traditions, but, on the other hand, is a rebel ... with a cause."

Well, rebels are just fine.

But let's get back to the labels:

"Labels at least help identify who a person is," Sanders said. "It's only a problem when the labels basically become the people.

"People who have labeled me have asked, 'Why would you stay in a party that doesn't want you?' Well, I'm a Republican, but I hope people don't think all Republicans sit and listen to Pat Robertson."

Ah. So that'd be one of those labels - intolerant, fundamentalist...?

In Sanders' blog, he pays the same obeisance to the man every Democrat regards as the "good Republican", Arne Carlson:

Sanders became interested in the Log Cabin Republicans, a small organization that backs gay-friendly Republican candidates for office, in 1992, when gays in the military was a big issue.

Minnesota's governor at the time was Arne Carlson, whose political career defied stereotypes and labels. Carlson, a longtime Republican, campaigned for governor in 1990 as an independent. He was elected with the blessing of Republicans only after the party's endorsed candidate, Jon Grunseth, withdrew from the race just weeks before the election after being accused of sexual misconduct involving adolescent girls.

"Moderates" and Democrats in Minnesota all seem to miss Arne Carlson, in the same way as their national compatriots miss Nelson Rockefeller; he was a Republican who liked high taxes, intrusive government...

...he was one of them!

Anyway, kudos to Dennis. And here's a challenged to the Strib; come to a real GOP meeting; see how many of those "labels" apply.

And then they can tell us where the "labels" come from...

Posted by Mitch at September 22, 2004 07:01 AM | TrackBack