Celebrate Equality Today; Think Big Tomorrow

Today, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon will once again make history by having the state recognize their more than half a century of commitment…this time for keeps! It is going to be an exciting day and I can’t wait to feel the energy of equality, and progress, and Love that engulfed the City four years ago when then new Mayor Gavin Newsom made one of the coolest moves I have ever seen in politics.

This isn’t a battle we wanted to wage, the quest for equality is an obligation, it is a necessity — not a choice. Yet how we arrived at today offers progressives our first major Overton Window victory in the new millennium.  

When I first entered politics in 1996, the idea of equality for the LGBT community was almost universally considered unthinkable. I tried to take a long view of history approach and hoped it was something I might see in my lifetime, but a part of me figured that would be more a factor of advances in medicine than societal progress. That summer my small, hometown in Montana hosted our state’s first major Gay Pride Parade, a single act that moved the needle so far that it gave me an entirely new outlook and faith in my neighbors.

KKK fliers began targeting local business, I remember specifically the used books store that sold jazz LPs, because teh gays are literate and listen to music or something. And the community responded and rallied against the hate. I was a security volunteer and in the training noticed that almost every person learning how to deal with what we feared would be an inevitable confrontation were hetersexual, good people choosing to spend their time to let the LGBT community try to enjoy their day. In the end, there was no violence and our town took a giant step forward. Equality was no longer unthinkable, just radical.

In the next few years, the idea of domestic partnerships went from unthinkable to acceptable. And when Newsom made his bold move, it advanced to be considered sensible and even popular policy in California. Now, even Marriage Equality is considered acceptable in the state and this fall’s hate amendment and the fact the world won’t end today may prove it sensible this year and soon popular.

That process, from unthinkable to sensible in a decade holds powerful lessons for progressives in areas beyond civil rights. We’ve already seen it with Iraq, we have only the final stage of policy to achieve on that front. We are seeing progress in the area of health care, also.

This holds important lessons for Democrats. Despite DLC fears, the Democrats who put Marriage Equality on Schwarzenegger’s desk in 2005 weren’t thrown out of office and the votes for justice actually increased when the bill was again passed in 2007. Iraq is even a better example, cowering to the conservatives on Iraq was a disaster politically in 2002 and 2004, yet when Democrats stood up and fought in 2006 we captured both houses in a landslide year.

So enjoy today, and tomorrow, think about the what needs to be done, but is considered unthinkable.  

Calitics Show: Julie Bornstein

(bumped – this was a really good discussion.  I’m more excited now about the Bornstein candidacy.  Be sure to check out the podcast. – promoted by David Dayen)

Another exciting Calitics Show this week. We’ll be talking live to Julie Bornstein, Democratic nominee for CA-45. CA-45 is a Congressional District that we have a real shot at. Despite being only the 194th Most Republican District at R+3, it is currently listed by Cook as a solid Republican Seat.  I’ll note that Cook also rated Pombo as a solid Republican seat around this time two years ago. Bornstein, a former Assembly member, is a solid candidate with the possibility to shock a few people come November.

Calitics Show homepage

The show’s live at 3:30 today. You can catch it live or archived at the Calitics Show homepage or grab the podcast at iTunes. If you’d like to call in live, shoot me an email with your phone number and I’ll send you the call-in #.

A Hostage Crisis, Not a Budget Negotiation

That’s what California Republicans are planning this summer, according the LA Times:

GOP lawmakers hope to use their leverage over the state budget, which cannot pass without some of their votes, to roll back landmark policies implemented by Democrats and the governor. Among them are curbs on greenhouse gas emissions, regulations banning the dirtiest diesel engines and rules dictating when employers must provide lunch breaks for workers.

They tried the same stuff last summer and it went nowhere. But with a larger deficit Republicans clearly believe now is the time to hold a gun to students’ and patients’ heads and demand right-wing policy implementation or else:

“We think the budget is an appropriate place to talk about these issues,” said Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster). “We are setting them on the table for discussion.”

Runner acknowledges that the proposals won’t help balance the books in the coming fiscal year, but he argues that they would stimulate the economy and thus generate cash for the state over time.

“They are reasonable issues to bring up” now, he said.

Democrats and the Sierra Club denounced the hostage plans in the article, but it is going to take more than complaining to a newspaper reporter to overcome this. Democrats need to be more aggressively framing the Republicans as a party that wants to destroy schools, hospitals, and transportation systems while also gutting the global warming laws that Californians overwhelmingly endorse.

Framing the Republicans as a radical fringe that has to resort to hostage taking to get their way would do wonders for the Democratic position in these negotiations and would also set up Democrats very well for the November elections. Unfortunately we haven’t seen much at all from Sacramento Democrats in the way of framing or other PR wars against the Republicans, even though they’ve given Democrats a priceless opportunity.

If Democrats think the budget is going to be resolved in the halls of the Capitol building, instead of on the airwaves, in print, and in daily conversation that follows from both, they’re quite mistaken.

A Nice Day To Be A Californian

Today at 5:01pm, Mayor Gavin Newsom will officiate a private wedding ceremony between Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin.  At 6:00, Mayor Ron Dellums will officiate marriage ceremonies in Alameda County, with Rep. (and new DNC member) Barbara Lee on hand, among others.  All over the state, couples, regardless of gender, will engage in the basic civil right of marriage.  

And all over the state, stories like this are appearing in the morning papers.

It’s 9 a.m. on a Thursday and Paul Waters and Kevin Voecks are paging through photos of cakes at the Vienna Bakery in Thousand Oaks.

“Would you want something like that?” Voecks asked, pausing briefly on one.

“Hmmm,” Waters replied.

It’s 12 days until their wedding.

Voecks, 51, pointed to another, a four-tiered cake, with icing studs running down its side. “This one reminds me of a tuxedo shirt, it’s not effeminate.”

“I think bow ties here,” Waters, 53, said. “And I like the wedding bells on it.”

“Bow ties would be awesome!” Voecks said.

His soon-to-be mother-in-law, Peggy Waters, 80, looked on as her only son and his groom finalized the order.

“Kevin’s a 10,” Peggy Waters said. “All the women Paul brought home, I never liked. This is still a dream come true.”

It’s pretty special to witness this, although my real hope is for the day when this is unexceptional.  These are our neighbors, our mail carriers, our office workers, our waitstaff, our bosses, our dogwalkers, our friends.  And they have their personal lives as do we.  And starting tonight, there are no barriers between us.

There is an enormous political battle ahead.  But today is simple and special.

An Inconvenient Impeachment

There he goes again, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, reading into the Congressional record just 35 of the reasons why this Congress should be impeaching this sitting president and his VP. With diminutive stature but steely resolve, Kucinich forcefully takes his place alongside the earlier patriots who stood up to executive abuse, the “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and spoke out for accountability.

And who was listening? Certainly not the US media, and by extension, no one else. The C-Span viewer was one of the few in the country who could witness this historic event. Or, check youtube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=JLf… Gore Vidal  rightfully points out that anyone truly interested in knowing what’s going on in our country must be reading foreign coverage–all still available online–since other countries ARE interested in what happens in the U.S. http://www.truthdig.com/report…

The impeachment resolution, HR 1258, was introduced June 9th as a “privileged motion” to get around Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who personally opposes impeachment and has reportedly said she “likes” President Bush.  

Two days later, the House voted that this motion be referred to John Conyers’ Judiciary Committee. Kucinich, as well as co-sponsors, Robert Wexler (D-FL) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), voted FOR this referral. For rollcall see: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/200…  Most pundits are saying that the motion will die in Judiciary. If so, then why would these three have voted for it to go there? Is there hope that Conyers will actually step forward and support impeachment hearings as he did BEFORE he took over as chair after the 2006 election?

Yes, let’s roll back to that time when those who vote came out and said ENOUGH!!! Give control back to the Democrats so that they will stop this war and put brakes on this renegade band in the White House! Yet, immediately after this 2006 election when DEMOCRATS were handed the majority in both houses (well, sort of, if anyone really still considers Lieberman one), Nancy Pelosi, as the new Speaker, took it upon herself to dismiss the constitutional requirements to hold the executive branch in check through the mandated procedures of impeachment.

“Impeachment is off the table,” said she. And one by one, the little sheep in the Democratic flock, have gone along with her pronouncement. They seem to think that they will somehow be rewarded and handed the presidency in ’08 as a result of their cowardice. It may not be convenient that we are in a presidential election year, but should this be used as a reason to NOT INVESTIGATE these serious charges? I think not. A far greater threat is to allow them to pass onto the dung heap of dead motions and, thus, take a stand that ALLOWS the destruction of our constitution. Is that really what Democrats stand for in this presidential election year?

My own Congressman, Henry Waxman, went to great pains to explain to a group of activists from his district last year that there “wasn’t enough time.” He was not ready to support impeachment regardless of those within his district who wanted his many hearings into the corruption of the Bush administration to END with a SERIOUS RESULT — IMPEACHMENT. West Hollywood, a city within his CD, had voted to support impeachment. The Pacific Palisades Democratic Club, one of the oldest and largest in his CD, declined to endorse this incumbent’s candidacy (in spite of no one running against him). David Swanson just posted his take on Waxman’s inaction: http://afterdowningstreet.org/…  (what his constituents have said for a long while).

Are our incumbent Democrats so entrenched and bought out by corporate lobbyists that they will not respond to their electorate? And the dwindling electorate increasingly opts out and won’t vote because “it makes no difference.” And fewer and fewer people make it to the polls, especially for those so-called “little elections” where state officials are selected and gain entree onto the political runway. And incumbents with no opposition funnel their lobbyist funds to their anointed choices who win elections with a tiny fraction of those eligible to vote. And the cycle perpetuates itself.

And the democracy that we’ve been taught we had, is no more, taken over by the corporate and religious interests who dictate both domestic and foreign policy and continue to loot the treasury and spin this nation into the unending pit of trillions of dollars of debt…and the country’s mainstream media fiddles on, themselves complicit.

So, WHY ARE the members of Congress so afraid of this president and his henchmen? Have there been blackmail threats? Are there internal dossiers of their own many transgressions? Do they have sexual proclivities that will be revealed if they dare show any backbone? Have their families been threatened? And, what about Blackwater? Is it being used for private enforcement and surveillance?

I recall the days when Senator Wayne Morse stood up to oppose another war and another administration. He was a true patriot.  And earlier in this current war, when our most elder statesman, Senator Robert Byrd, stood up and tried to stop his colleagues’ “rush to war.” Thank you Dennis Kucinich, for standing up once again in the midst of your fellows who are busy doctoring and reframing the meaning of patriotism.

Democratic leadership may think this is an inconvenient time to remind them of their constitutional responsibilities. If you disagree, start calling your electeds and jam the lines. 202-224-3121 is the main number for the House. Or, better yet, go to www.house.gov, tap in your zip code, and get the direct line to your congressional representative. And, call often. Even daily. Remember, there’s a local AND a Washington DC number. Call both.

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