Move Left, Stay Queer

So, this is how Jon characterizes the liberal response to his Rally to Restore Sanity.

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When I moved from South Carolina to California in 2009, I registered as a Democrat for the first time. On election day I seriously began reconsidering that choice. Not out of disillusionment or anger with the Democratic Party, but because the California ballot has a lot of Green on it and I don’t see my Democratic Senators or Congressman getting primaried from the left. That doesn’t mean I would vote straight Green in the general or not vote for Obama in 2012. It does mean that if Democrats want my vote, they’re going to have to ask for it.

Three days after the election, and now I’m starting to get angry. Not with the Democratic Party, but the Democratic voters who are blaming the left for Democratic losses. I’m not going to get into why the left isn’t to blame. My point is if Democratic centrists are actually going to be abusive and scapegoat the left for their losses, I see no benefit in coalescing with them. I’m not going to campaign with them and I’m not going to help them. If Democratic centrists think they can do this without the left, then by all means do it. But then centrists can’t blame the left when they lose if they don’t want to coalesce with the left.

Being part of the LGBT population, I know a thing or two about uneasy coalitions. Trust me, it doesn’t help you to throw your allies under the bus. If you’re a centrist that’s more willing to compromise with the right than with the left, that means you’re leaning right.

If pulling Democrats to the left means staying Green until they come around to compromising with the left more than the right, then that’s what I’ll do. Don’t bother with the “Republicans are worse” bit. I’ve already been through worse.

Centrists are not above left and right, they are simply in between. And they can absolutely be as hostile, shouty and unwilling to compromise as anyone else. They’ll scream “THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS THAN GAY RIGHTS!” Or in other words, jobs for straight people are more important than jobs for gay people. If we’re so unimportant, then one would assume our votes are unimportant too.