Gay Marriage Among Looming Ballot Issues

[norml]

Gay Marriage Among Looming Ballot Issues

Thursday March 30, 2006 9:46 AM


By DONNA CASSATA

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The divisive issues that spurred voter turnout in 2004 and helped decide the presidency will be back with a vengeance in November.

This time, they could shift the balance of power in the Senate, an outcome with broad implications for the remaining two years of President Bush's term, and could affect governor's races in states certain to comprise the presidential battleground landscape in 2008.

Ballot initiatives that would define marriage, raise the minimum wage, ban affirmative action hiring and endorse embryonic stem-cell research are among the measures that have been gaining the necessary signatures to earn a spot on the Nov. 7 ballot in several states.

Initiatives stating that life begins at conception, limiting the growth of government spending and promoting renewable energy sources also could end up on the ballot on Election Day.

Such issues could bring more voters out in states such as Missouri, Ohio and Montana, where the results of competitive Senate races could determine whether Republicans keep majority control or Democrats break the GOP lock on Congress


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http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5721136,00.html

[cboy4]

1. I propose "Vicious, Immoral, Hateful and Desperate" as the

Republican's 2006 campaign slogan.

At a time when there's war in Iraq, corruption in the Bush administration and congress, out of control gas prices, global warming, an assault on a woman's right to choose, outrageous health care prices, homelessness, no security at the ports and a zillion other major problems.......it all comes down to gay marriage, because that's truly the #1 threat to this country. :sarcasm:

I get so sick and tired of gay people being used as wedge issues in order for the Repukes to steal elections. It's repulsive. :mad: :puke:

[hellbound-liberal]

2. The Democrats need to state their position and change the subject

immediately. They also need to remind the media who will be fanning the flames to help create the smokescreen that there are far more important issues that need to be addressed. It looks like KKKarl Rove has figured out how to use the "Great British" to distract the American people.

[salin]

3. The irony is that the more the GOP use this ploy

to fire up their furthest rightwing supporters, the more the public sentiment has shifted to favor the perceived 'compromise' position of civil unions. In the short term the GOP will push this because they believe that for another election cycle or so it will get a firey part of their base to the ballots... but the shifting public opinion will likely, in the coming years, shepherd in a period of more states allowing civil unions - and the far religios right (which is being pandered to right now for political calculus) being left even more angry as their efforts become not only thwarted, but public policy that they are against starts becoming more common. The irony? That without these hard pushes right now (used to get folks to national election polls), the public sentiment probably would have remained more stagnant and less favorable (towards civil unions and same-sex marraige) - but the in the face legislative pushes - esp when done so at the expense of REAL pressing issues (such as local economies) - is the very thing shifting public opinion away from the far religious right.

In sum - short term we are likely to see more of this and it will get worse... but in the long term, I believe, much will be reversed, ironically because of the mad political pushing we see in the short term.

[dusty64]

4. I agree, what

I don't get is why our side doesn't play this game. Why not put very popular progressive initiatives on ballots in states where this is allowed? Why aren't they doing this?

[salin]

5. fear

there is still a belief that the repubs will successfully smear anything progressive, and anyone associated with it. I think strategists still see the Cleland race (not that he pushed something progressive, but that the smear that was so outrageous - actually worked) and think that the GOP still have this kind of universal "power." Thing is, that the public context has greatly shifted from 2002 - and much of what gets spewed from the right, is now viewed by many in the public (not just those on the left) with incredulity. I think dem strategists still operate in fear, and like those on the right, haven't yet recognized or adjusted to the reality on the ground that public sentiment has significantly shifted in the past four years.

[megatherium]

6. This is exactly what happened in Kentucky in 2004.

They ran a anti-gay marriage amendment in Kentucky, which probably was instrumental in allowing the Republican incumbant (Jim Bunning) to win his Senate race. He defeated his Democratic opponent Daniel Mongiardo (a political unknown at the beginning of the race) by only 1%.

The marriage amendment passed by 75% to 25%. The local megachurch in Louisville ("Six Flags Over Jesus," as the locals call it) ran anti-gay billboards all over town ("One Man One Woman God's Plan For Marriage"). Their October sermon series was on marriage. On a typical weekend, 17,000 people attend services at that church.

[cboy4]

7. OMFG....Six Flags Over Jesus?!?

I could handle their rollercoasters, but the sermons? They would make me yack every time! :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[megatherium]

8. It's really called Southeast Christian Church,

one of the ten biggest in the country if memory serves. They are actually a fairly vanilla evangelical church. But the scale of the place is impressive: The main building looks like an airport concourse, you expect to see signs in the atrium lobby that say "gates 1-20" or "gates 21-40". The sanctuary seats 9,000. The sermons are extremely good, very smooth and professional. (The messages, on the other hand, frequently leave something to be desired :) )

For those who might find such things interesting, a little technical information about this church. It comes across as Southern Baptist, but they actually are a member a denomination called the Churches of Christ (if memory serves). So their services always have communion, which would be unusual for a Baptist church. Communion at this church consists of a projected Bible verse, and the distribution of the little cups of grape juice and tiny pellets of unleavened bread, which the communicants drink and eat these when they wish during a quiet meditation time. I've heard that Southeast Christian Church actually holds a patent on the machine they invented to efficiently fill the thousands of little glass cups with grape juice.

[cboy4]

9. Well, if the sermons are "extremely good" but the messages

"frequently leave something to be desired," that's a contradiction and makes no sense. :shrug:

But thanks megatherium for taking the time to post a fascinating description -- as scary a place as it sounds to me. ;)

[megatherium]

10. What I meant to say is that the services and sermons are very

professional and entertaining. They use professional musicians for the praise band, which plays soft rock songs in lieu of traditional hymns. They embellish the sermon with projected video clips and power-point graphics. (You can't really see the preacher from most of the sanctuary because it's so big; but you can see him on the big video projection systems. I say 'him' because they don't allow women in the preaching ministry.) So if the preacher mentions a bible verse that happens to use a lion as a metaphor for sin, you'll find yourself watching a video clip of a lion tackling a wildebeest.

The messages leave something to be desired unless you believe in biblical inerrancy, and believe that all sex outside of marriage is wrong, and so forth. By biblical inerrancy I mean they believe that Genesis is literally true, there was an Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. This religion is like Alice in Wonderland, when the Red Queen tells Alice that she can believe in six impossible things before breakfast, if she tries hard enough.

[Bridget Burke]

11. Aren't there any Gay "Illegal Aliens" who want to marry?

That would be touted as the ultimate threat to Our American Way of Life!