Poor Losers
The Prairie Progressive: A Newsletter for Iowa's Democratic Left
by Prairie Dog
The sinking feeling
in the delegate’s gut got deeper each night of the Democratic National
Convention. Seated twenty feet in front of the Fleet Center stage
alongside his fellow Iowa delegates, his view was all too clear as the
generals, the veterans, and the bands of brothers marched across the
stage with increasing frequency.
When
John Kerry took the stage on the final night, saluted smartly, and
announced that he was ‘reporting for duty,’ the mob of delegates
cheered and waved American flags dispensed to them moments before. The
caucus candidate who was said to be the ‘only one who could go
toe-to-toe with Bush’ on military and foreign policy issues was now the
party’s nominee.
Some of
the delegates looked at each other and shrugged sheepishly as they
cheered. Polls had shown that nearly 90% of them opposed the war. Many
of them wore bright-red ‘Out of Iraq Now’ stickers. Most of them had
leaped to their feet during Al Sharpton’s denunciation of George Bush’s
presidency. But they all understood that the strategy had been set, the
dice had been rolled.
A few
feet away, Barney Frank sat cross-legged in the aisle between the Iowa
and Massachusetts delegations, somewhat to the annoyance of the throng
of photographers jostling for position. Barney, himself doing some
positioning for Kerry’s US Senate seat, worked his way onto the stage
within minutes of Kerry’s concluding remarks. As the balloons poured
down upon the generals and the brothers, could our country’s first
openly gay congressman have possibly anticipated that three months
later his fellow Democrats would blame Kerry’s defeat on anti-gay
backlash?
The e-mail message arrived early in the morning after Election Day, from a Democratic staffer in California:
“Gay
marriage hurt. Republican turnout was high, but it was especially so in
states with same-sex marriage amendments on the ballot. This is still a
BAD issue. Thank you bigotry, and thank you Gavin Newsom…he is 2004's
Nader. “
A minute later, from an Iowa City attorney: The Dems have lost the culture war. Period.
Next
came the exit polls, pinpointing ‘moral values’ as the most important
issue for 22% of voters. The verdict was in, and the scapegoat had been
determined. For many Democrats, stricken by defeat and unwilling to
look in the mirror, the victims had become the villains.
It’s bad
enough that self-serving Republicans, religious fanatics, and herd
journalists exploit gay-marriage amendments as the crucial factor in
Bush’s victory. For Democrats – the champions of civil rights – to do
so is shameful.
~
Democrats passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, despite LBJ’s forecast
that it would cost the party a generation of Southern voters. He was
wrong. It cost the party at least three generations. No doubt the Dems
would now control all three branches of government if Rosa Parks had
gone to the back of that damn bus.
~
The broad category of ‘moral values’ covers a myriad of issues, from
abortion to R-rated movies. Its 22% exit poll response was much lower
than the total of 34% scored by Iraq and terrorism. The economy, jobs,
and taxes totaled 25%.
~
Anti-gay marriage referendums in 11 states did not dramatically
energize turnout. Bush’s increase in votes over 2000 was less in those
11 states than in the 39 states without referendums.
~
Bush became the first Republican presidential candidate since 1984 to
win Iowa, a state that did not have a gay marriage referendum.
~ Kerry won Oregon and Michigan, states with referendums on the ballot.
~
The number of American daily newspapers that print same-sex wedding
announcements increased from zero in 1990 to 504 in 2004.
~
Bettendorf recently became the sixth Iowa city to add sexual
orientation to its civil rights ordinance. Burlington, Decorah,
Waterloo, Sioux City, and Dubuque have inched closer. Maybe the road to
equality for gays and lesbians will be town by town – painstaking as it
is – instead of state by state or at the national level.
Backlash
to social change usually indicates that progress is being made. Anyone
who thinks that momentum has now swung toward cultural conservatism
hasn’t studied much history.
Those of us who love our Iowa caucuses are also experiencing that sinking feeling. Do we still deserve first-in-the-nation status?
In years
gone by, most Democrats voted for whom they wanted to represent their
party: Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson, Paul Simon, Tom Harkin. The caucus
season was a time to influence the debate, to drive issues forward, to
determine the direction of the party. This year we became pragmatic
experts, prematurely calculating who was most ‘presidential’ and
‘electable.’
To
speculate that any candidate would have fared better than Kerry against
Bush is futile, but the lemming-like rush to ‘electability’ still
rankles. Nothing’s worse than losing…except losing for the wrong
reasons.
Co-editors
of The Prairie Progressive are Jeff Cox and Dave Leshtz. Mr.
Leshtz is a former staffer for Dean for America. Subscriptions
are
$12 for 4 issues/year in old-fashioned hard copies; checks to Prairie
Progressive, Box 1945, Iowa City 52244.
Blog For Iowa 
Those of us in gay community thank Dave Leshtz and others in the Democratic Party who see things as they really are.
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“This year we became pragmatic experts, prematurely calculating who was most
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