Here's why.
If I lived in Nevada and had the vote, even though Sharron Angle is beyond nuts, I'd vote for her. Better nuts than this disgusting, cynical, partisan Washington kabuki dance, when people's lives and dignity are at stake.
This was in response to Harry Reid's maneuvering with the defense authorization bill. Read it again.
If I lived in Nevada and had the vote, even though Sharron Angle is beyond nuts, I'd vote for her. Better nuts than this disgusting, cynical, partisan Washington kabuki dance, when people's lives and dignity are at stake.
From Andrew Sullivan, this is extraordinarily misguided outrage. It's like he suddenly felt the need to post the stupidest opinion that popped into his mind.
The villains in his narrative are wrong. The villains were the Republicans and the Arkansas Democrats who decided to stand against two fantastic provisions that a majority of Americans support:
According to polling, 70 percent of Americans support the DREAM Act and 75 percent of Americans support fully repealing DADT. The 42 senators who filibustered the bill, on the other hand, represent only 36 percent of the American population. Thanks to senate procedure, a small minority can easily obstruct the will of the vast majority of the public.
Granted, I'm not in love with Harry Reid—and that seems to be the Kos majority opinion—but my disapproval of him isn't at the expense of my sanity. I know who the villains are: Republicans who don't want to see social progress and will block this so Democrats don't have certain victories leading up to November. When not a single Republican votes for this bill, apparently the ire should be directed at Harry Reid? And voting for Sharron Angle in retribution—the candidate who said she'd refuse campaign money from campaigns that support gay rights (though not really following through), the candidate who wants to make gay adoption illegal and allow clergy to support candidates, the candidate who voted against a state ENDA, a bill to stop harassment in schools, and a bill to end discrimination in public accommodations—is supposed to teach US WHAT? That you're wholly misguided? The thought process of voting Republican to express disapproval with a far saner Democrat is rendered more ridiculous by his appeal to human dignity and human lives. Because when I think about improving the stakes of human lives and dignity... I think Sharron Angle.
I remember this post well, which was made shortly after McCain took on Palin:
Yes, McCain made a decision that revealed many appalling things about him. In the end, his final concern is not national security. No one who cares about national security would pick as vice-president someone who knows nothing about it as his replacement. No one who cares about this country's safety would gamble the security of the world on a total unknown because she polled well with the Christianist base. No person who truly believed that the surge was integral to this country's national security would pick as his veep candidate a woman who, so far as we can tell anything, opposed it at the time.
McCain has demonstrated in the last two months that he does not have the character to be president of the United States. And that is why it is more important than ever to ensure that Barack Obama is the next president. The alternative is now unthinkable. And McCain - no one else - has proved it.
Allow me to retort with perspective.
No one who cares about gay rights would vote for Sharron Angle to be the next Senator of Nevada. No one who cares about unfucking our disgusting, cynical, partisan Washington kabuki dance would vote for someone whose mission is to serve is an accelerant for this problem. No one who cares about the lives and dignity of American citizens would vote for a Republican in a petty attempt to express disapproval with a far saner candidate. Period.
Edit: HT to Mike S for more info on Angle's anti-gay stances.