Ban Gays As Teachers in Public Schools! Obama Failed Where Reagan Led

[ksimons]

Run time: 01:01 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIVpCJ6l3vQ   Posted on YouTube: October 30, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: November 10, 2008 By DU Member: ksimons Views on DU: 986

 

Little bit of history - putting your mouth where your belief system lies, even when an election at stake.

Reagan opposed the ballot initiative sponsored by religious conservatives that would have barred homosexuals from teaching in the public schools. The timing is significant because he was then preparing to run for president, a race in which he would need the support of conservatives and moderates very uncomfortable with homosexual teachers. As Lou Cannon (Reagan biographer) puts it, Reagan was “well aware that there were those who wanted him to duck the issue” but nevertheless “chose to state his convictions.”

For a time the ballot measure was ahead in public-opinion polls, with about 61% of voters supporting it while 31% opposed it – a week before the election. Then former-governor Ronald Reagan a week before the election announced his opposition, and the anticipated landslide for the initiative became a landslide against the initiative, losing even in Orange County, in the largest shift of public opinion ever recorded within such a short time frame. Sponsors blamed Reagan for the defeat.

Words matter. I have never blamed any one constituency but have pointed to the top of the ticket for its core belief and oft repeated line of being against gay marriage which is the 'Yes on 8' mantra and Obama's actual words were used in Robocalls to voters across California. And somehow we are to believe a dramatic increase in Obama voters is going to run counter to something that the candidate expounds himself? Logic?

If a REPUBLICAN, as Reagan did in 1978, can stand against his party for the truth, why can't a Democrat stand WITH his party for the truth. Where was Barack Obama in the 2008 vote on Prop 8 - he may as well have posted a 'YES ON 8' link on his website. He and Joe Biden were as 'YES on 8' in their views as anyone, and if true to their spoken beliefs, would have likely voted 'Yes on 8' themselves, even if they condemned the divisive tone of ads. Or are we to believe they were they both simply lying about being against gay marriage.

Words matter?

We cannot blame any constituency over another. We cannot blame those who put money into their beliefs and pushed for Prop 8. The fact is our candidate was against gay marriage, his voters showed up, and they voted FOR him - and voted WITH him on this very issue.

And yes, facts do irritate. No doubt posts below will be angry because facts do that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briggs_Initiative

[Chulanowa]

1. Barack Obama is Governor of California?

[mopinko]

2. high school?

[CAG]

3. Hell, yeah!!! Start the impeachment proceedings NOW!

:-) :sarcasm:

[Goat or Panic]

4. Make of this what you will...

http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2008/11/obama-and-propo.html


"Immediately after the measure qualified for the ballot in June, the Illinois senator wrote a wide-ranging letter to San Francisco's Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club in which he said he opposed "the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California constitution" and similar moves in other states.

"Since then, however, Obama has not made any bold pronouncements or urged supporters to specifically vote no on 8. "It's been frustrating," says one gay Obama supporter and fundraiser."

Obama did answer a question about it on MTV on Saturday: "I think it's unnecessary. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that's not what America's about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don't contract them."

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. OMG, I am sick of the divisive tone of these posts. The first response

was to blame blacks as a group, and now to attack the first black President Elect. I'm hearing so much more about Prop 8 since it failed, than I ever heard before the vote. Perhaps some of this spiteful and divisive energy could have been better used in outreach? To lay the blame at the feet of Obama, in what is a "state matter", just doesn't cut it.

[donheld]

6. Just how the hell is Obama fail?

[JI7]

7. your subject line is a lie, Obama opposed 8 and is not Gov of California

[ksimons]

8. Reagan hadn't been Gov for 3 years. He spoke out because he believed it it was right.

Reagan spoke out 3 years after leaving as Governor - even when it risked alienating his conservative Republican support for a Presidential run - when the easiest thing to do was to sit back and let it play out. He did not NEED to speak out. That is the key. He was about to run for President for the Republican party - when this would hurt him significantly. He could sit silently and save face.

The point is Barack Obama does not believe gays should marry. I don't understand the question about why Prop 8 went the way it did. Why would we think that a big turnout for his supporters should not reflect that belief system in the election? That is the reality. Blame cannot be put on the feet of various constituencies.

Just today, speaking on CNN's "Late Edition" Sunday, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger expressed disappointment at Proposition 8's passage.

"It is unfortunate," Schwarzenegger said. "But it is not the end because I think this will go back into the courts. ... It's the same as in the 1948 case when blacks and whites were not allowed to marry. This falls into the same category."

And this from a man who may be trying to run for Senator when it would be easier to be silent on the issue to gain support from his Republican base.