Well I finally got an answer to an age-old question...

[PCIntern]

How can intelligent gay males vote Republican?

For many years I have treated a gentleman who is very bright and very well-respected. He and his partner live a wonderful lifestyle and hold down prestigious and interesting jobs for which they are not highly paid, but modestly compensated enough to achieve this level of American success. He was in my office today and of course we were talking about the election. My assumption was that he was a liberal Democrat since he had always espoused great sympathy and empathy for people who are characteristically downtrodden.

So I was utterly amazed that he informed me that although he was voting for Pres. Obama in this election, he had voted for John McCain in the previous selection with great enthusiasm. I could not hide my amazement, and so I asked him if I could ask him a "personal" question. That question of course Was "How can a gay man vote for a presidential candidate who represents a party which has done nothing but repress all minorities over the years including blacks, Hispanics, gays, and people of foreign extraction among many others?"

His answer was startling. This is essentially what he said to me: Bill Clinton she considered to be a very weak president with respect to foreign policy and blamed the 9/11 catastrophe largely on Clinton and his administration. He has been pleasantly surprised however, that Pres. Obama's administration has been so aggressive and forceful when it comes to foreign policy and was well pleased that he took out Osama bin Laden. He further stated that he is is not a one issue voter and he feels that America's position in the world it is of paramount importance and that all the other issues are secondary in fact distantly secondary. Then he added interestingly, that he felt that Romney was extremely weak and lack character which was the hallmark individuals such as McCain, both President Bush's and Pres. Reagan. (My jaw was hanging open as you can imagine by this time.)

I acknowledged his answer and then asked him "But you haven't answered my question. Don't you feel that the obvious disdain and repression of the rights of you your partner many of your friends and colleagues mitigates against the candidate from that party for president United States, since the president is considered titular leader of that party? Doesn't it equally bother you that the attempts of the party abrogate the civil rights and constitutional rights of many individuals in the United States who happen to disagree with that Party can act in such a way as to virtually permanently destroy any opportunity with you your family your friends might have to establish yourselves as individuals who are equal under the law?"

He retorted, "I must look at the greater good of the country rather than the good of the individuals."

So much for constitutional protection right?

At this point I figured I'd just better shut up before changes his mind and vote for Romney. This whole exchange amazed me. I know that I'm should be past amazement at this stage of my life But I suppose I equally surprised when I see African-American people on TV endorsing Republican candidates with vigor and vehemence. Oh well...

[rock]

1. Yep, jaw-dropper.

[valerief]

2. So he votes repub cuz he's a warhawk. Crazy. If people voted for their own interests,

the world would be a much better place. And more peaceful, I suspect.

[hrmjustin]

3. I have dated a few gop gay men in my time.

They always say I don't need the right to be married. As if we have to cow-tow to the rest of the world. Always very weird.

[bemildred]

4. Ask why the greater good of the country requires repression of minorities, women, and gays?

I don't see any connection, in fact I think weakens us.

[PCIntern]

5. As I said,

Shut up before I convinced him to change his vote for Romney. Anything is possible.

[lunatica]

6. Isn't it the good of the individuals that creates the good of the country?

Why do people think government isn't primarily for the good of the people?

That's what's always been a puzzle to me. Do Americans still think in terms of kingly hierarchy? Do they see the government as a body ruling the country? Do they see the President as King on some subconscious level? I wonder if that isn't the case a lot.

[frazzled]

7. I understand his answer

(though I have never in my long life voted for a Republican, and never could). There are many things that the Democratic Party stands for that do not benefit me personally, but I think are important to the greater good of the country: say, Medicaid, the Earned Income Tax Credit, or the Civil Rights Act. I'm am neither in the poorest of the poor nor am I black, but I support those things because I feel they are for the greater good of us all.

I can think of an example from long ago when my kids were in elementary school. I sat on the school's Parent Advisory Board, which dealt with school policy, and was thus often contacted by other parents on issues. It was a time when the school district was facing difficult budget cuts, and I received a call to ask for my support in contacting School Board members to restore funds to the district's Gifted and Talented program. I told the woman that I couldn't do that unless and until funds were restored for ESL instruction (we had a huge Southeast Asian population). "How could you not support Gifted and Talented?" she asked me, annoyed; "Your kids are part of it and benefit from it."

"Yes," I responded, "but they'll be fine if it is cut. These Hmong and Vietnamese kids will not be fine without English-language instruction and help, so they come first, before my kids. And the school will be better for it." I got the sense that she really couldn't comprehend my answer. But it made perfect sense to me.

[Warpy]

8. Sometimes dropping it is the best thing you can do.

At least the war hawk realized the Republicans are all talk on this issue and Obama has really done a few things, most notably removing bin Laden and most notoriously keeping the drones killing innocent civilians in Pakistan.

We have to take votes where we can get them, I guess.

The only gay guy I knew who voted Republican was an upper level executive and lived with another upper level executive and they both wanted tax cuts in order to wring every bit of benefit out of their bloated salaries. I can understand that better than I can understand voting for war hawks, although I found it just as self defeating.

After the election, you might open a discussion with this guy about whose inattentiveness caused 9/11 and it wasn't Clinton's. He'd commissioned the Hart-Rudman report detailing bin Laden's organization and outlining a plan to neutralize it but the Bush boys were focused on Iraq as the problem and shelved the report for eight months, not revisiting it until after 9/11. They were blinded by ideology and that needs to be brought home to Mr War Hawk.

[PCIntern]

9. I wasn't going there,

As "they" say...

He was voting Dem, so I figured that I had better leave it at that.

Bush was MIHOP AFAIC...

[PATRICK]

10. Seems like participatory authoritarianism

As long as we kick "them" around it is all right if I get kicked around within reason. Bad for jaws, pits of stomach and back of neck with hairs standing on end for people not very authoritarian. That term by the way, like all terms, is something we think of more broadly and think we understand. Authoritarians are "absolutely" freed from having to understand. When tested by a more thoroughgoing victimization when they really really want to belong to the stick wielder society it gets more interesting. Verbal arguments, facts and better values toward others won't, likely can't cut it.

In educational theory there was mentioned the type of child that can't be dealt with. The vengeful one who recycles all efforts for help and progress and protection of others into self-justification and incitement for more revenge. Through the years it seems the best people give up and violent response and do not get violence at all. Sometimes it seems beyond heroic pacifism. Inherent bravery. Those who blithely OK violence at least are graced with never having experienced it. Probably inherent cowardice, hypocrisy or potential lurking beast. Also possible converts.

Meanwhile we are all, with very few exceptions, pretty predictable marks for exploiters if get too comfortable with this weird state of affairs.

[Sirveri]

11. Guy sounds like an idiot. The GOP fundies would happily kill him if they could.

A country that would elect those types does not deserve good things.