Back in college, I was the editor of the school newspaper.
The newspaper had its own mail box at the school post office. And every week like clockwork, I got a copy of Gramma, the official propaganda organ of the Cuban Communist Party. A holdover from a previous, more-radical editor (although I was still a liberal at this point), it was helpfully translated into English. Stilted English that sounded like it came from the bastard child of a Yale semiotics professor and a half-literate union thug (“Comrade Castro announced that production of milk in the third year of the Fourth Five Year Plan in Metastiza Region had increased 35% over previous years, testimony to the wisdom of Comrade Castro’s agriculture pollicies”) but English nonetheless.
Viewed in that light, Andy Birkey’s piece in today’s Minnesoros “Independent” almost makes sense:
Some politicians running for re-election in a safe district can get lax in their campaigning,
Right. Some of them skip the Juneteenth Parade, until someone calls and tells them that Barb Davis-White is there.
but Rep. Keith Ellison is working hard in this year’s campaign. At a Saturday afternoon meeting of LGBT activists at the Spirit of the Lakes Church in Minneapolis, Ellison expounded on his “politics of inclusion and generosity” and the responsibility to engage every voter in the district even when the odds look good.
A new sugarcane harvest in Santa Margarita appearance in front of a friendly constituency.
Read the whole thing – a puff piece on Ellison’s outreach to gays – and ask yourself two things:
- Given how the local leftymedia has harped on Barb Davis-White’s religion – especially its anti-gay aspects – just as they do for every Republican politician who is open about a faith that doesn’t aggressively embrace homosexuality, why has nobody in the leftymedia asked Rep. Ellison (the way they ask Barb Davis-White and Michele Bachmann, to pick two random examples) about how his religion, the very anti-gay Islam, affects his views on homosexuality?
- Given that the Fifth is a district where the DFL can traditionally count on being able to wrap a bag of dog poop with DFL stickers, endorse it, and collect 50% of the district, why is Ellison – as lax and lazy a campaigner as Minnesota has ever seen – hitting the hustings?
What would Che do?
What do you know about Ellison’s campaigning?
Further, given he DOES in fact have a pretty much shoe-in race, I’m guessing you’d be complaining out of the other side of your face if he were campaigning HARD on a race where it wasn’t needed, wasting money, and the people’s time.
You want to complain about Ellison, and so you do, all you do is look for something to complain about, if the sun was up, you’d complain it was too bright, if it was down, too dark – or so it appears.
That said, it’s a fair question to ask Ellison – and when I see him next, I will, but let me venture a guess as you tilt at windmills, he’s say the same thing Mitt Romney says about polygamy or the subserviance required by Mormanism of women, while faith is important, he doesn’t embrace all facets… wow, now THAT was hard. Bachmann gets piloried about anti-gay bias because she has shown and supported anti-gay positions, and she’s asked to reconcile the hate-wing view of Chrisitianity, with the much more broad and inclusive view of it being the house of the LORD into which all are welcome. Perhaps Bachmann needs to do what Romney did, and DISTANCE herself from the anti-gay plank, but then again, that IS the ultimate question on this isn’t it, that Ellison doesn’t support an anti-gay plank (though you’ve tried to invent the idea that he ‘secretly’ does) NOTHTING he’s ever said would indicate he does, and much of what he has said clearly shows he is tolerant, while Bachmann does. This isn’t about their churches, it’s about their stances, Mtich – but nice attempt at cover, good on ya’.
Saying Mormans support of Polygamy is comparable to Islamic feelings against homosexuality is kind of not on the same level.
And how about the hate-Christianity wing of the Democrat party?
What do you know about Ellison’s campaigning
Clearly, more than you.
You want to complain about Ellison, and so you do, all you do is look for something to complain about, if the sun was up, you’d complain it was too bright, if it was down, too dark – or so it appears.
Baloney. I’ve had scads of very focused criticisms of Ellison. Do your homework.
I have asked Ellison how his religion affects his views on homosexuality:
“Andy: How does your faith affect your advocacy on behalf of GLBT issues?
Keith Ellison: My faith commands me to seek justice and it doesn’t make any restrictions. It says “Be just,” and I have to fight for justice. Because I have to fight for justice, I have to fight for the rights of all people, the civil rights of all people. That to me is rooted in my faith, that all people have dignity, that all people matter, that all people count, and that we need the talents, creativity, and skill of all people in order to have a stronger society.”
And Lavender has asked him the same question and even more pointedly than I did. [They don’t have archives]
What the lefty media has harped on is Davis White’s STATEMENTS that are anti-LGBT. Same thing for Bachmann. They use their faith to justify those statements in public campaigns so it’s pretty much fair game.
Davis White is running in a district with a heavy turnout of LGBT and LGBT-supportive voters yet she rails against same-sex marriages and calls gays sinners.
I don’t think anyone’s ever asked Bachmann or Davis White to speak for the bigotry of their entire faith, but that seems to be what you are asking of the ‘leftymedia’ to do to Ellison. Ellison is not espousing the bigotry common in his faith, and has explained how his faith colors his views on the topic.
I have asked Ellison how his religion affects his views on homosexuality:
“Andy: How does your faith affect your advocacy on behalf of GLBT issues?
Keith Ellison: My faith commands me to seek justice and it doesn’t make any restrictions. It says “Be just,” and I have to fight for justice. Because I have to fight for justice, I have to fight for the rights of all people, the civil rights of all people. That to me is rooted in my faith, that all people have dignity, that all people matter, that all people count, and that we need the talents, creativity, and skill of all people in order to have a stronger society.”
And Lavender has asked him the same question and even more pointedly than I did. [They don’t have archives]
What the lefty media has harped on is Davis White’s STATEMENTS that are anti-LGBT. Same thing for Bachmann. They use their faith to justify those statements in public campaigns so it’s pretty much fair game.
Davis White is running in a district with a heavy turnout of LGBT voters yet she rails against same-sex marriages and calls gays sinners.
I don’t think anyone’s ever asked Bachmann or Davis White to speak for the bigotry of their entire faith, but that seems to be what you are asking of the ‘leftymedia’ to do to Ellison.
Andy,
Keith Ellison: My faith commands me to seek justice
Well, kudos for him. The answer was just a tad evasive, of course, since the Quran is pretty explicit that all people do not have the same dignity, etc. I mean, I’m perfectly fine with Ellison shorting the parts of Islam that most modern Americans would find noxious – including its fairly explicit call to repress gays – but he really didn’t answer that. Nor, to be fair to him, did you press him on it. Nor, to be fair to the rest of us, will Ellison take questions from those who might.
I don’t think anyone’s ever asked Bachmann or Davis White to speak for the bigotry of their entire faith,
Let’s leave aside, for the moment, the falsity of your premise (there’s no honest comparison between the Bible and Quran’s approaches to homosexuality, and in any case Moslem societies and governments take vastly more action against gays than any Judeo-Christian western government does.), you can hardly say that Bachmann or Davis White’s faith and views aren’t a (constant) topic in the leftymedia – can you?
but that seems to be what you are asking of the ‘leftymedia’ to do to Ellison.
Basically, yes. I am asking Ellison to answer the question “how does he reconcile the Quran’s virulent approach to homosexuality with his life in a small-l liberal democracy today?”. It shouldn’t be hard to answer.
You ask him that, and I’ll ask Bachmann and Davis White the same thing…well, as close to it as I can, since the Bible is not nearly as strident about its approach to gays as is the Quran.
Do we have a deal?
Davis White is running in a district with a heavy turnout of LGBT voters yet she rails against same-sex marriages and calls gays sinners.
Yep. Unlike (I suspect and maintain) Ellison, she’s not sugarcoating what her faith tells her to believe out of political expediency.
Which isn’t entirely stupid, politically; the turnout of blacks is way heavier than glbts, and afro-American Christians of all political stripes take a harder line on gay marriage than the population at large (and even the general public is opposed).
LGBT, GLBT, LGBTQ, QRSTUV….WTF??
LOL!
OBGYN. LSMFT.
Thank you Bill Cosby
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I think you raise a good question about where Keith Ellison stands on this issue Mitch. I will cordially and respectfully disagree with my colleague Penigma in that I think actions speak louder than words, and Ellison joined Bachmann and Kline in voting NO to the repeal of DADT.
I would be interested in knowing if this vote was for religious or other reasons, and how it represents his attitudes towards his gay constituents.
Actions speak louder than words.
I’m with you on this one Mitch!
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