It's time to storm the Republican Firewall.
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| A voice from above. | |
Who knew the Mark Foley scandal would rage on so! And who knew it would give new
life and focus to K Street scandals a la Abramoff. Dispeptic faces of GOP House
leaders denying knowledge of Foley filth segued perfectly into
might-have-been-majority-leader Bob Ney's guilty plea to Abramoff bribery.
Sure, Ken Mellman's closet is still sealed, but how about those U2 tickets in
exchange for Abramoff dirty work? And Denny Hastert and his chief-of-staff still
get to bunk together in their DC apartment, but their careers are all but
finished. Every day brings more excitement: blogs post nasty, gay tid-bits about
Idaho Senator (R) Larry Craig the same day Feds go after fellow-homophobe
Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. (R) Curt Weldon for K Street chicanery and the Fundies
promise to stay home because Condi dared appoint a Gay to an AIDS post.
The winds are with us at last!
Or are they? With every mention of scandal or Iraq, GOPers point to their
nearly sacred Firewall: freshly gerrymandered congressional districts combined
with slick get-out-the-vote marketing making them virtually loss proof (not to
mention their control of local voting apparatuses, including deployment of of
unauditable voting machines, in most key districts).
This Firewall has certainly earned its place on the altar. It's become a
Rovian cliche that Dems go into voting day cocky and confident with news of
favorable polls -- only to appear the next morning like a sooty, sad-faced Wile
E. Coyote holding the remains of TNT intended for a rabbit.
Enter Matthew Shepard. Or more accurately enter the Matthew Shepard
Foundation under the tireless leadership of his mother, Judy. With the simple
message of "hate stole Mathhew's right to vote eight years ago; don't waste
your vote on November 7th," the Foundation has launched a nation-wide
get-out-the-vote campaign for LGTB voters.
"If my son Matthew were alive today, I know he would tell you to
REGISTER and to VOTE, reminding you that 'if you don't vote, you can't
bitch,'" Ms. Shepard proclaims on the campaign's Web site, www.matthewshepard.org/Vote.
Can a non-partisan push like this really have an effect? Remember, us fags
and dykes vote 75% Democratic. (Don' ask about the 25%.) And our 4% of the pie
makes us larger than the Jewish or Asian vote.
Isn't it overly dramatic -- maudlin even -- to invoke the poor boy's image
for yet another cause celebre? Perhaps. But the stakes don't get much higher
than this election. And what more poignant image to counter the shabby, flabby
hypocrisy of the Foley-Hastert-Mellman-Craig-Delay-etc.-set than a boy who died
not for hiding or covering-up but for being honest.
We hope every card-carrying L, G, T or B on November 7 will exercise (while
we still can) that most fundamental right to remove tyrants from power -- and
that they will get like-minded friends and family to do the same. Whether or not
you need Matthew Shepard's voice from above guiding you, if enough of us get to
the polls, we'll give the Republicans and their Firewall a new meaning for
"flaming."
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