I submit, that any candidate who can't utter the seven words: "I support full equality for all Americans" doesn't deserve to lead the Democratic Party, and doesn't actually deserve to be President of the United States.
Consider the answer in light of everything that has gone on in our society, and the problems and divisions the opposite has caused, the answer to all these questions:
Senator, do you support a woman's right to choose?
Answer: I support full equality for all Americans.
Senator, do you favor ending the Don't Ask, Don't tell policy in our nation's military?
Answer: I support full equality for all Americans.
Senator, do you support the inclusion of GLBT Americans when it comes to hate crimes protections?
Answer: I support full equality for all Americans.
Senator, what about "English only" in our nation's society, and what about the backlog on processing naturalization of new American citizens?
Answer: I support full equality for all Americans, and I support full equality for all prospective Americans.
Senator, what about passing the Employment Non Discrimination act, without the inclusion of the transgendered?
Answer: I support full equality for all Americans.
Senator: What about people released from prison, who often can't find jobs, and recidivism in the face of economic shutouts?
Answer: I support full equality for all Americans. A second chance means, "a second chance."
Senator: What about the high rate of unemployment among some minorities? What about opportunity.
Answer: I support full equality for all Americans. That means supporting equality of opportunity, as well.
The stakes are high, and are going to get higher. We cannot have a Republican in the White House for another 4 or 8 years. We just can't.
Here are the stakes:
Supreme Court
Justice John Paul Stevens will be 88 years of age in November. He is one of three solid liberals on the Supreme Court.
If a Republican gains the White House in 2009, the balance on the court will be skewed even further to the right.
This damages not only liberal causes, but our Constitution as well. The far right on the court has exhibited little love for the rule of law, a woman's right to choose, or even their vaunted love for "state's rights" when it gets in the way. (Witness the 2000 election).
Gay and Women's Rights
The media is filled with reports of so-called "socially liberal" Republicans falling all over themselves to kiss up to the Christian Right. Romney, Giuliani, and even McCain, cannot wait to cave to the far right and are filled with fear.
When the right gets a frown on its collective face, even the least conservative Republicans lay down in fear.
I do not want a Presidency where the likes of Pat Robertson and James Dobson call the White House weekly and are in a position to browbeat our chief executive.
Do we want a Presidency where the wacko and nutso right has such a powerful say in all decisions? We have that in our current president. There have been reports of James Dobson calling President Bush and browbeating him on the choice of Harriet Miers for a Supreme Court justice.
Do we want a President that personally takes James Dobson's calls? Do we want a President that believes it is proper and right to elevate the voice of the far right beyond the voice of other Americans?
The war in Iraq
I hear on Daily Kos all the time that Clinton is going to keep the war going, and neither candidate has the position many of us on the left would like them to have.
But consider the Republicans: McCain thinks the "Surge" is going swimmingly and would like to keep us in Iraq for "100 years." He attributes the decline in violence in Iraq of late on the "surge". This furthers the breakdown of our military, and isn't even true: Violence has declined in Iraq because of diplomacy and the reticence on the part of powerful Iraqi interest groups for further terrorism. It has nothing to do with the so-called "surge".
And if I may be so bold, McCain is the most reasonable of all the Republicans, if you discount, possibly, Giuliani, who doesn't have a chance, on social issues.
Both Clinton and Obama would keep the war going .. but not indefinitely. Unlike our Republican friends, they will succumb to the screams of 200 million Americans to make it stop.
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I ask Obama and Clinton supporters how much of the squeamishness among Democrats, how much the equivocating, and unwillingness to speak the words "I support full equality for all Americans" has energized the far right element in this country. If you cannot say that, it is blood in the water for the right.
If you can't say those seven words, you can't decry the right's "Feeding the politics of hate" with a straight face. You, Senator Clinton, you, Senator Obama, for all your words and your speeches, are feeding the politics of hate by refusing to say those words, and hold to them, absolutely and with no apology.
How is a gay teenager, contemplating suicide because of homophobic familial disapproval, supposed to feel, when he knows that not even you will support marriage equality? How is he supposed to feel when he is told, even by you, that he must marry a woman or not marry at all?
What about Unity?
You ask us, Senator Obama, for unity, but if you don't believe in full equality for all Americans, you don't believe in Unity.
Commenters and posters on Daily Kos are chided all the time, for statements made "attacking the candidates". But from my perspective, you are attacking us. You ask us, you ask GLBT Americans to vote for you, but you do not want to honor our basic civil rights. We, GLBT Americans, have more right than anyone to chuck it all and let the Republican win -- because hope and faith have been abandoned. More reason to, and even more reason to fight the Republicans with every ounce of our collective being.
By the Loving V. Virginia decision of the Supreme Court, coupled with the 1st (freedom of religion), 4th (due process of law), 9th (enumerated rights not being the final word as to civil rights) and 14th Amendments, marriage is a human right. Do you respect the court's decisions, or do you not? Do you respect the Bill of Rights or do you not? Do you respect the Constitution, or do you not?
How can you answer the complaint that, while people in prison for committing crimes must be allowed to marry, GLBT Americans cannot?
There is no answer, no answer without resorting to the most basic homophobia. And that's wrong. It's destructive. And, I'll fight you. I'll fight you in the ways I know how, without being destructive myself.
The choice, when it comes to resisting marriage equality, is indeed that stark. And by resisting granting GLBT Americans the right to marry, you are giving aid and comfort to those who would like to further pull apart these things: The respect for court precedent, and all those Amendments, can be further eroded by giving lip service to arguments they mean nothing when it comes to the civil rights of GLBT americans.
The far religious right will use your resistance to our equality. They will use your own words and make you eat them. When it comes to a woman's right to choose, this rests on a respect for court precedent, namely Roe Versus Wade. When it comes to voting rights, this rests on court precedent and the 1st, 9th, and 14th Amendments. Just like marriage equality.
How can you answer the cynical laughter when you speak of Unity? How can you silence it.
I submit: You can't.
Yes, Senator Clinton, yes, Senator Obama. I have thought about it, and, perhaps with a heavy heart, I will as necessary vote for either of you for President, even if you do not speak those words.
Because, by so doing, I will not be responsible for the downfall of this country to hate. Because, by writing these words, by doing my civic duty, I will be a good American, with tragically limited choices, but doing my best.
Then it will be up to you.
I will be a good American, a good citizen. I supported John Edwards because, despite not being better than you on GLBT rights, he was better than either of you as a choice to be President, in my view. I put my own concerns aside already.
Senators, will you be good Americans? Will you honor your oath, in all respects, to preserve, protect, and defend, the Constitution of the United States, from all enemies, foreign and domestic?
John Edwards made this hard for me, and with him out of the race, I am liberated to tell you.
And, I will endorse for President the first candidate to speak those seven words. Without equivocation. By so doing, you will have, in a single stroke, leaped beyond him. Not only for GLBT Americans, but for All Americans. If either does. If not, one of you Senators will be President without my endorsement; and I don't care which.
I don't want to hear from Hillary or Obama supporters about speeches. I don't want to hear about grades from the Human Rights Campaign. And I surely don't want to hear any other kind of happy talk as to GLBTs. Because, in the background of my thoughts, all I care about is the fact that your candidate does not want us treated as equals.
And, lets face it, if you aren't gay, and can put yourself in my shoes, you might feel the same, were you in my position.
