Erosion
By Mitch Berg
Did you ever wonder why Big Gay spent so much time and effort trying to demonize Target for donating to pro-business (ergo pro-Republican) PACs?
Well, it certainly wasn’t because, as they claimed, Target was “anti-gay”; even in religiously-“progressive” Minneapolis’s business community, Target has stood out for decades in its support for “progressive” ideals; it’s been one of those “good corporate citizens” that the left always barbers about wanting companies to be.
Partly, of course, was that it didn’t want Twin Cities companies to get the impression that they’re allowed to leave the DFL reservation. Dictators know you have to keep the peasants in line lest they get uppity.
But at least partly it must be due to the fact that Democratic hold on gay voters juuust might be slipping away from the left:
Gay men, lesbians and bisexuals who self-identified to exit pollsters made up 3 percent of those casting ballots in House races on Tuesday, and 31 percent of them voted Republican. By itself, that number is amazing, especially when you consider that way too many people think being gay and voting Democratic are one in the same. But that percentage is ominous news for a White House viewed with suspicion by many gay men and lesbians, because that’s four percentage points higher than the change election of 2008.
Self-identified gays have been slowly sidling up to the GOP for a while now. In the 2008 presidential race, they made up four percent of the vote and gave 27 percent of their votes to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) against then-Sen. Barack Obama. In the 2006 midterm elections, when the House and Senate flipped to Democratic control, gays made up three percent of the electorate with the Republicans snagging 24 percent of their ballots. And in the 2004 presidential elections, President George W. Bush got 23 percent of the gay vote. They comprised four percent of those polled.
There’s no point in embroidering the fact that one wing of conservatism – the southern, social variety – isn’t especially pro-gay. The other two wings are much more live-and-let-live about social issues – either through culture or libertarian bent.
Either way – the idea that gays are finding increasing traction with the conservative message, even despite the inhopitability of one wing of the movement, has got to have Big Gay scared out of its mind:
Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director of the gay conservative group GOProud, is heralding the uptick in votes from gay men, lesbians and bisexuals for Republicans.
“The gay left would have you believe that gay conservatives don’t exist. Now we see that almost a third of self-identified gay voters cast ballots for Republican candidates for Congress in this year’s midterm,” continued LaSalvia. “This should be a wake-up call for the out-of-touch so-called leadership of Gay, Inc. in Washington, D.C., which has become little more than a subsidiary of the Democrat Party.”
It’s an exit poll, of course, with a large margin of error. But those polls have been creeping upward, margins and all, for most of a decade.
November 9th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
There is a middle ground……libertarianism and social conservatives have an incidental common ground. They don’t want things forced on them. And they also will leave an advisary alone if that advisary is not on the offense.
When was the last time you heard of a social conservative going to San Francisco and bringing a lawsuit against a leftest organization? Yet the reverse happens all the time. Again in Cleveland last month were a gay activist set up a bakery run by conservative Christians. The activist demanded a special order of “rainbow” cookies for a gay rights rally. Baker said she will sell them anything they have in the store, but will not do the special order. City is now trying to close down the bakery.
November 9th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
My point being is that for the most part, the gay crowd will be left alone by the conservative crowd, unless the former goes on the offense and attacks the latter.
November 9th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
I had a co-worker who is a practicing gay catholic (let that sink in for a moment). We are still good friends and I think he’s conservative but I’m actually too afraid to ask. I think no matter what you decide to bang you are tired of the government screwing you out of your hard earned money. The evangelical right would be wise to STFU for the next couple years, maybe by 2012 we could get that up to 40%
November 9th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Chuck I remember that story. Amazing… also I have quite a few gay friends and they are really embaressed by the Gay Pride parades. Guys walking around with S+M outfits and thongs and women with strap-ons runnning around isn’t the best way to win people over to your side. I do think they have a 1st amendment right to but why do they have to throw it in our face? If you want to go pound each other fine I don’t care, just do it in the damn bedroom like straight people do. I wonder how long before this post is chopped up by some lefty blogger and I’m called a homophobe.
November 9th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
I kept waiting for “Al” to appear at the end of each “Big Gay”. Dang it! Now “I’m Super” is playing in my head.
Ben said:
“The evangelical right would be wise to STFU for the next couple years”
Not wise advice, if you ask me. Nobody likes the back seat. Maybe a more palatable way of presenting “their” (as if “they” are all homogeneous and interchangeable) view of gay people? I don’t know. *shrug*
November 9th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Troy until unemployment gets under control the social issue should, and hopefully will, take a backseat to economic and geo-political issues.
November 9th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
There’s no point in embroidering the fact that one wing of conservatism – the southern, social variety – isn’t especially pro-gay.
That’s the only wing. Don’t you watch MSNBC?
Haven’t you heard about the NIXON’S SOUTHERN STRATEGY?
What about STROM THURMOND’S HALF-BLACK CHILD?
Don’t you know that Republicans want to LOCK RAPE VICTIMS IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS SO THEY CAN’T ABORT THEIR BABIES?
Republicans think that it is okay to KEEP GAY MEN WHO ENJOY THE COMPANY OF YOUNG BOYS FROM BEING SCOUTMASTERS!
WINGNUT WINGNUT WINGNUT REAGAN DID NOT FIGHT IN WW2 AND CHENEY GOT A DRAFT DEFERMENT WINGNUT
——
Sorry. Got possessed by my vegan, Kucinich-voting older brother for a moment. It won’t happen again.
November 9th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Well I must admit I’m not “pro-gay”. Any Christian who interprets their Bible literally can’t be. That being said, I’m not “anti-gay” either. It is quite simply not my job or business to judge anyone based on their proclivities (as long as they are not harming others). It is between them and God. That is the honest Christian stand.
November 10th, 2010 at 8:14 am
I also know several gay men. They are business owners and worked tirelessly for a couple of GOP candidates.
Two of them commented to me after that idiot sued eHarmony for not allowing gays to join, that they felt like going to New Jersey and LA respectively to bitch slap Erik McKinley and Linda Carlson. They understand Ben’s point – do what you want behind closed doors and don’t be ass clowns!
November 15th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Kermit, any Christian who interprets their entire Bible literally needs to have their head examined.
Read the part about how the rules work for selling your daughter into slavery lately – including sexual slavery? Or the rule against masturbation (how often is that one violated, as in modern Onan ‘spilling his seed upon the ground’ – seriously, do you think God intended that to be on pain of death)? Or concubinage, or… women having to live under a separate roof during menstruation. or…… the list of things we do NOT accept out of the Bible is enormous.
It is reasonable to reinterpret our understanding of same sex attraction in the light of modern science, not the most backward and wrong-headed parts of the Bible. It doesn’t really matter much if it is a culture war with the right or not; your side is losing, and will continue to lose, as those with your point of view die out and are replaced by younger people who also think that attitude is stupid.
Big Gay? Seriously? Bwaaahaaahaahaaaaaaaaaa