Should people who won't vote for the Democratic Nominee be allowed in DU? [View All]

[Onlooker]

There is a reasonably large segment of this community that is not committed to seeing a Democratic President. They are committed to seeing only a Democratic President if that person satisfies their private litmus test.

These people appreciate their issues (such as Iraq or corporate corruption), but fail to appreciate there are issues of equal or even greater importance to other people. Take, for example, the gay community. Most gays live in fairly enlightened areas, where there is little or no threat. But, the fact is when gays choose where to live and where to vacation, they are limited, for political and safety reasons, to places where that are reasonably tolerant. When they choose where to work, they have to be mindful that discrimination against gays (including employment and housing) is still legal in most states. Further, the federal government does not regard crimes against gays as serious as crimes against blacks or women, for instance. There is no such thing as a federal hate crime for the people who killed Matthew Shepard, and Wyoming doesn't consider murdering someone because they are gay a hate crime. In all but a few states, a gay spouse may not have rights to his deceased partner's estate and may not be allowed to visit his partner in the hospital if the patient's parents object. And even in most enlightened areas, gays are reluctant to kiss or hold hands, which underscores that equality is still not here.

A Republican President will kill any chance for federal hate crimes laws to include gays. A President McCain or a President Romney will not promote anti-discrimination legislation or enlightened education for children. They will further stack the Supreme Court with right-wing ideologues who are clearly as activist as any of the liberals before them. A Republican President will absolutely maintain Don't Ask Don't Tell, and may even crack down further.

A Republican President will not hurt just gays. There are major issues on racial profiling, abortion, immigration rights, religion, and so on that could dearly affect many different groups of minorities.

There is no excuse for not voting for the Democratic nominee, and I think we should ostracize those who feel otherwise. We should ignore them or even hijack their threads. Or perhaps they should not be allowed in DU. Just as this site excludes Freepers, it should exclude those who through their inaction are willing to defeat our ideals and who through their words try to suppress Democratic turnout.