I am really bummed about the election results. Alaska’s Senate race seems to have gone to the Republican as well, and I thought we had a good chance here. I added a post to one of the political threads and don’t want to reiterate it here.
I read a prediction that, if Bush won, the Republican Party would see a major internal revolution, with the moderates wresting control from the right wing. It’s a wonderful prospect, but I don’t think it will happen. The right (no, damnit, I’m not going to legitimize them by capitalizing the word) will see this as vindication of their stance and they will just push for even more. There seems to be a natural escalation in human behavior. Success encourages more until whatever it is gets to be too big or too extreme and a correct takes place and we go off in a different, often opposite direction. It’s the old pendulum swinging. We are going to have to wait this one out, I’m afraid; the momentum probably can’t be stopped until the excesses cannot be ignored by the average person. Of course, it has happened that a single event knocks the pendulum for a loop, as happened with the “Have you no decency?” speech in the Army – McCarthy hearings. I sometimes think that the world is speeding up and that changes are happening faster than in previous generations, and that is heartening, but I don’t know if it is true.
The exit polls indicate that “moral values” was the most significant thing in people’s minds in this election, more important than the economy or the Iraq War. That scares me. It seems to sanction more inclusion of religious values into the government. That growing intolerance of dissent and diversity spells really ugly times ahead. I wonder how much the gay marriage question had to do with the result here. The whole issue came out of nowhere and took on a prominence it shouldn’t have had. We, as gay men, jumped on it and ran as fast as we could, seeing it as representative of our struggle for acceptance and rights. The country wasn’t ready for it in one quick gulp. Such things take a long time, sometimes generations, and the deep right saw their advantage and exploited it well. I’m sure I would get jumped on with both feet if I expressed it openly in a thread entry, but I think it is still true.
As long as I’m opening myself up, I also have to acknowledge that the “gay lifestyle,” especially as it popularly perceived, is upsetting to a lot of people. Promiscuous, casual sex is lionized as a human right for gays. We would be much better advised to work hard at marginalizing that aspect of gay life. I know that’s how some people, especially hip, urban gays, live their younger adult years, but I think they are a minority and it ought not be something for young gay men to aspire to. Coming out should not be seen as an opportunity to fuck and suck as many other men as possible. We need to show that most gays want the same sort of stable relationships that the straights want. It’s as if we try to separate ourselves from the mainstream, where we would be smarter to emphasize the similarities.
I read a prediction that, if Bush won, the Republican Party would see a major internal revolution, with the moderates wresting control from the right wing. It’s a wonderful prospect, but I don’t think it will happen. The right (no, damnit, I’m not going to legitimize them by capitalizing the word) will see this as vindication of their stance and they will just push for even more. There seems to be a natural escalation in human behavior. Success encourages more until whatever it is gets to be too big or too extreme and a correct takes place and we go off in a different, often opposite direction. It’s the old pendulum swinging. We are going to have to wait this one out, I’m afraid; the momentum probably can’t be stopped until the excesses cannot be ignored by the average person. Of course, it has happened that a single event knocks the pendulum for a loop, as happened with the “Have you no decency?” speech in the Army – McCarthy hearings. I sometimes think that the world is speeding up and that changes are happening faster than in previous generations, and that is heartening, but I don’t know if it is true.
The exit polls indicate that “moral values” was the most significant thing in people’s minds in this election, more important than the economy or the Iraq War. That scares me. It seems to sanction more inclusion of religious values into the government. That growing intolerance of dissent and diversity spells really ugly times ahead. I wonder how much the gay marriage question had to do with the result here. The whole issue came out of nowhere and took on a prominence it shouldn’t have had. We, as gay men, jumped on it and ran as fast as we could, seeing it as representative of our struggle for acceptance and rights. The country wasn’t ready for it in one quick gulp. Such things take a long time, sometimes generations, and the deep right saw their advantage and exploited it well. I’m sure I would get jumped on with both feet if I expressed it openly in a thread entry, but I think it is still true.
As long as I’m opening myself up, I also have to acknowledge that the “gay lifestyle,” especially as it popularly perceived, is upsetting to a lot of people. Promiscuous, casual sex is lionized as a human right for gays. We would be much better advised to work hard at marginalizing that aspect of gay life. I know that’s how some people, especially hip, urban gays, live their younger adult years, but I think they are a minority and it ought not be something for young gay men to aspire to. Coming out should not be seen as an opportunity to fuck and suck as many other men as possible. We need to show that most gays want the same sort of stable relationships that the straights want. It’s as if we try to separate ourselves from the mainstream, where we would be smarter to emphasize the similarities.