Florida Agenda

By MATTHEW TSIEN, BROWARD REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

President Obama created a stir last month when he reiterated that, while he doesn’t support gay marriage, he still struggles with the issue. He said his views are “constantly evolving.”

In the Republican Party, the fracture over issues concerning homosexual individuals revealed itself more clearly in the vote for repeal of the 17 year old “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy that prevented gays from serving openly in the military.

Of the eight Republican senators who voted for repeal, five are among the youngest in the upper chamber – and they’re not all moderates. They are rather right-wing and the type of Republicans that the gay press and their activist class reflexively demonized as ultra-homophobic nut-jobs.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Ala., John Ensign of Mormon, Nev., and Richard Burr of Dixie N. C., — yes, that’s Jesse Helm’s North Carolina – maintain relatively conservative voting records. They are 53, 52 and 55, respectively.

Their colleagues, Mark Kirk and Scott Brown, have been lumped into the more moderate wing of the party, but they, too, are some of the youngest GOP senators. Both are 51. Yet, as far as “gay issues” go, the GOP might be more generational in their views.

Nearly all young service members supported the repeal of DADT because it simply doesn’t matter to them what anyone’s sexual orientation is – as long as you can live within the military Code of Conduct – and many happen to know and are friends with gay people.

In terms of the recent Senate vote, as we know, most U.S. senators are old and many of the Republicans are from a generation that are clinging to old-school thoughts of a time long ago. However, Republicans under the age of 60 tend to be more inclusive, even if they are rightfully labeled “conservative” in their voting records on other non-gay issues.

In fact, looking beyond the rigidly leftwing gay world, many people, including centrist and GOP Gays, would argue that conservatives and Republicans in general aren’t any different than anyone else in America.

Republicans, over the past number of years, have seen more and more gay people feeling free to come out and to live their lives openly and honestly, within the very ranks of Republican culture, such as traditional families, churches, Fortune 500 companies, Republican think-tanks and other Republican Party activities.

For that reason the younger generations of Republicans are becoming increasingly familiar with issues affecting homosexual Americans. Generally, older generations don’t have that same experience of having as many contemporaries who are openly gay.

Yet the solidly right-wing Republican North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr rationalized inspirationally his decision to support the repeal of DADT in generational terms:

“Given the generational transition that has taken place in our nation, I feel that this policy is outdated and repeal is inevitable,” he said.

Post-vote, there is more evidence that gay issues may continue to show fractures and changes within the GOP: several prominent conservative groups have announced that they will boycott the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the country, the Conservative Political Action Committee Convention, in Washington this February, due to gay Republicans hosting their own hospitality reception suite and a membership sign-up booth for gays leaning decidedly to the right.

It will be inspiring and exciting to see if some of the potential GOP presidential contenders who will speak at this famous right-wing conclave might express more inclusion toward gays in their activist Army. After all, several of the big names being thrown about as the next Republican president are under the age of 60. And that includes right-wing divas Sarah Palin, and Michelle Bachmann, the queens of the Tea Party movement; and also irreverent, but fiscally conservative, Republicans like the Govs.

Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Chris Christie of New Jersey, and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.

ELECTION DEBATE CONTINUES …

While Matthew Tsien and Peter Ryskewecz have every right to place an ad in this newspaper urging Floridians to “Dare To Be Different” and vote Republican on November 2, given the slate of Republican candidates in this election cycle, a more apt title for this ad directed to gay people or anyone concerned with human rights might be “Dare To Be Stupid.”

Marco Rubio never saw a gay issue he supported. Rick Scott thinks gays should be banned from adopting, AND foster parenting.

The Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Dan Gelber, would accept the court ruling ending the Florida gay adoption ban. Republican Pam Bondi said she would appeal it to the Florida Supreme Court.

Democratic Congressman Ron Klein voted to end the military ban on out gays. Republican Allen West doesn’t think gays belong in the military at all, closeted or otherwise.

For most self-respecting gay men and women, LGBT rights are not the only issue we vote on, but they ARE a part of the mix. Messrs. Tsien and Ryskewecz fail to understand this.

MARC PAIGE

It is assumed that all Gays are Democrat voters except for a very few who are super rich. I am neither; but I am a Gay Republican business woman who recognizes that finally a greater number of gays and lesbians know that the GLBT political class and the Obama Democrats will say anything to scare us into the voter’s booth determined that we pull the Democrat lever.

“No funding for AIDS!” “No marriage equality!” “Rampant homophobia…”… goes the mantra. But most of it is a big lie and just because I am a lesbian does not mean I have to live a life of relentless left-wing lies. AIDS funding does not disappear with GOP majorities, and at least half of Republicans believe in civil unions. In fact, the lead attorney in overturning California’s Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage is also an out-spoken movement conservative.

We need a dramatic reduction in the federal government. The Post Office is technologically obsolete. The Commerce Department and Small Business Administration create neither jobs nor business; they are merely edifices of pretentiousness. The Health and Human Services Department is already duplicated at the state and local level. The Department of Education in Washington, D.C. has no student contact while its only real interest is in keeping inferior performing teachers employed in order to get their union dues, which are aimed at running class warfare ads during campaign time.

I want a country that is driven by ethical, democratic capitalism and puts people back to work. Our federal and state governments are out of control and run by greedy public-sector employee unions. Our government has tens of billions of dollars of unfunded pension obligations for which we, the taxpayer are liable. The career politicians have bankrupt Social Security and Medicare to the point where the government is the equivalent to 200 Enrons.

When all the votes are counted, we are going to find out that a lot of Gays and Lesbians became politically mature, wised up and voted Republican.

– D. A. ROBERTSON

To read the diatribe of “former Democrat”, you might believe that the economic history of the U.S. extends back only to January 20, 2009 (the day that President Obama was inaugurated.)

The fact is (Glen Beck notwithstanding) that the U.S. economy was under the policies and oversight of Republican Congressional control from 1995 to 2009, and the Presidency also was controlled by Republicans from 2001 to 2009.

Federal taxes are now the same rates as during the Bush years. And, deficits? Despite the fact of a budget surplus at the end of the Clinton presidency, and at least six Bush years of (artificially) booming economy, the Republican Congress and President always turned in annual deficits of several hundred $$Billion…and that was in good economic times!

Bailouts? Those were largely initiated by Bush, and his Goldman Sachs Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen, to the tune of $700 Billion…all cheerfully funded and added to the deficit (lent back to us!) by the heirs of Mao Tse Tung of modern day China! (Take a look in the mirror, next time you shop at Wal-Mart, if you are looking for someone to blame for 10% unemployment in the U.S.! Try to find something at Wal-Mart that is not made in China!)

The shameful $150 Billion dollar bailout of AIG, by President Bush, ended up largely in the pockets of fat cat hedge funds and banks, and Wall Streeters, as payouts, after AIG stupidly “insured” the value of junk bonds, (which were magically rated AAA by Moody’s et al.) Our Bush-era economic system was raped and pillaged over and over, without a single kiss…no flowers…and obviously no respect the next day…since the same cast of characters wants yet another chance to stick it to us.

Mr. Former Democrat is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts. A huge herd of elephants roamed this country for most of the past ten years, and left massive dung piles everywhere. And, who is left to clean up the mess, and who is to be blamed for the lingering stench? Mr. Former has invented his own facts on that.

– FRED REISSNER

“FORMER DEMOCRAT” – REVISITED

Well-stated, Peter Ryskewecz. You are not alone in the gay wilderness bemoaning the dangerous and financially destructive Omaba policies. Couldn’t have written it better myself. - Tim Martin

The letter in your last edition from an ex-Democrat is not very circumspect and full of untruthful statements and innuendoes. In fact, it is more of a rant than a discussion of fact.

To start with, Europe is not socialist. I lived in Switzerland, Germany, and Norway for twenty-five years. Those are three countries that treat their Gay and Lesbian citizens much better than our country treats us. Yes, I had national health care and it was wonderful. I was able to concentrate on my job and studies and not worry about my insurance. The same holds for pensions, which will benefit me even though I have now moved home to the USA. When I am 65, I will start to draw pension payments in Euros.

It is about time that Americans stop bashing Europe, a continent that is one of our strongest allies. I watch French and German news on PBS and these slurs do not go unheard there. Europeans are frustrated as to why so many Americans disdain them. If the writer thinks that the United States can stand alone, he should reflect on the fact that we make up a little less than 5% of the total world population. In short, we need friends.

The writer claims that our president has raised his taxes. This is not true. There has been no rise in federal taxes. What is being proposed is that the taxes that the very rich pay should return to the level that they were at a decade ago. That would raise taxes on those earning over $250,000 a year, about what I earn in five years as a college professor. The writer bemoans Florida’s situation. I must remind him that we have had a Republican governor and a majority in the state legislature in Tallahassee for almost 12 years. It is hardly the fault of the Democrats (which I am not). In my field, education, the state has continuously cut funding since the Republicans came into office. The stimulus saved my job and I am grateful for that.

If it is true that the Republican Party is so Gay-friendly, why do most of their politicians vote against us and our needs? Just last week the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell bill’s being eliminated was stopped by a clear partisan vote with the Republicans voting en bloc to retain it.

As an independent I do not feel that I am in any way being coerced in my vote. In fact, I find the get out the vote efforts in the Gay community to be rather insipid and weak. I have the impression that few of my friends actually vote. Inasmuch, I see little pressure by either party to get my vote. - Robb Kvasnak, Ed. D.

“What will we learn from this year’s elections?” Not all Gays believe that they can not support and integrate today’s GOP. There are two Gay GOP Clubs in South Florida, and both are attended by many of the high-profile, even religious, conservative Republican candidates.

The GOP is definitely changing regarding Gays. In California, the victorious lead lawyer, Ted Olsen (Google him), in charge of overturning Proposition 8, which denies same-sex marriage, is a conservative Republican. He represented George Bush in Bush v. Gore before the Supreme Court in a 2000 decision that decided that election. A few months ago this “right-winger” won a monumental victory for Gays and for “marriage equality”! Not surprising then, that many Gays will quietly vote Republican this November.

Frankly, Gay Republicans have it right: The gay press and political class are not very honest with the GLBT community and want us to remain forever paranoid of exaggerated GOP homophobia. Yet roughly half or more of Republicans now support “civil unions”, and support GLBT non-discrimination in the work place. Today’s GOP routinely welcomes Gays into their Big Tent in every major metropolitan area in this country.

And, yes, many Gays want repeal of much of Obamacare, resent being in a position where half of their federal taxes go simply to marginally pay the interest on the $1,300,000,000 national debt, and don’t believe the new Democratic Party line that Obama saved us from a Depression. Most gays only want more employers and reasonably secure jobs to return to Florida, not more people on food stamps in record numbers.

Obama has hopelessly mismanaged the bad situation of “Big Government a la George W. Bush,” only to worsen it with even more “Goliath Size Government”. He borrowed $800 billion from the Chinese, $700 billion from the Japanese, and $400 billion from the Saudis; and yet unemployment has doubled since the Democrats have run the Congress.

Now Obama admits, to the New York Times, that he blew it and is guilty of “perverse pride” in his economic and health care policy decisions (his words). The only thing Obama has done right is to keep the Bush time-table to pull back in Iraq and to bring at least half of the combat troops home. Bottom line: While most Gays will continue, reflexively, to vote Democratic in this election, we will learn that an increasing, elucidated block of Gays will vote Republican; even if some, in the Gay press and in the Gay political establishment, will disparage it and will not acknowledge it. -  Matthew Tsien, Broward Republican Executive Committee

by MATTHEW TSIEN

President Barack Obama is chipping away at his long list of promises to gay voters but has yet to win the enthusiastic backing of the reliably Democratic voting bloc.

The Obama White House has accomplished more than any other on gay rights, yet has drawn sharp criticism from an unexpected constituency: the same gay activists who backed the president’s election campaign. Instead of the sweeping change gays and lesbians had sought, a piece-by-piece approach has been the administration’s favored strategy, drawing neither serious fire from conservatives nor lavish praise from activists.

Last week the Labor Department announced that it would order businesses to extend unpaid leave for gay workers to care for newborns or loved ones.

This move, coming less than five months before November’s congressional elections, seems likely to incite conservatives and Republicans who stood in lockstep against the Obama administration’s earlier efforts to repeal a ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. It also appears likely to be popular with loyal Democrats and organized labor.

Nevertheless, some gay activists, who long ago stopped giving Obama the benefit of a doubt, will continue not to be satisfied.

Many Washington-based activists believe that gays need far more comprehensive and bolder legislation to achieve the goals these small, mostly symbolic

and marginal piecemeal efforts attempt to achieve.

The little things to which the White House pays attention and claims, “to be making so much progress” does not translate into a sense of progress outside of Washington.

Mr. Obama had a long list of accomplishments to tout during last week’s Pride Day meetings with gay and lesbian organizations at the White House, but their reach is limited.

For instance, Obama signed a hate crimes bill into law, expanded benefits for partners of State Department employees and ended the ban on HIV-positive persons from visiting the United States. He referenced families with “two fathers” in his Father’s Day proclamation in June and devoted 38 words of his State of the Union address to repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the ban on gays serving openly in the military. But there remains reason for frustration.

Obama’s campaign pledged to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” yet that goal remains years away. His Justice Department invoked incest in a legal brief defending the traditional definition of marriage, prompting some gay donors last year to boycott the Democratic National Committee. And just last week, a committee at his Health and Human Services Department recommended the nation retain its policy barring gay men from donating blood.

Some of Obama’s gay allies say the small-bore changes are the best activists can hope for despite Democrats controlling the White House, the Senate and the House.

Perhaps the reason why these policy changes are important is because Gay Democrats do not have ironclad LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) majorities in either house of Congress. People wrongly assume that having large Democratic majorities in Congress means that gay-oriented legislative goals will be met. That’s not the case.

Gay constituents are hardly the only members of the Democratic bloc to come up disappointed with this White House . Environmental groups groan as a comprehensive climate bill has languished on the Hill. Organized labor saw its signature legislation, which would make it easier for workers to form unions, go nowhere without the White House’s backing. And women’s groups were in open revolt during the debate over the health care overhaul because of anti-abortion provisions.

It’s small consolation for gay rights activists.

A Gallup poll last month found 70 percent of American favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. That same poll, however, included a reminder: 53 percent opposed legalizing gay marriage. Among that opposition to same-sex marriage are three out of five Black and Hispanic voters — minority groups that gays would like to consider their natural allies, but a voting bloc that is decisively against gay marriage.

National Guard needs to be deployed to secure border

MATTHEW VERITAS TSIEN

America is in dire need of all the “legal” immigrants it can get to reinvigorate its ailing economy, but the most pressing issue is how to stop “illegal immigration” into our country. We are just a few weeks removed from the passage of the controversial Arizona immigration bill that sparked riots throughout Arizona and protests across the country. However, what most of the critics of the law conveniently ignore is the fact that it primarily restates the need for the enforcement of existing Federal law.

It is imperative that all states adopt a similar bill that enables state law enforcement agencies to proactively interdict persons who enter into this country illegally. We’ve seen the rioting in Arizona, where thousands of these illegal immigrants and their supporters are shown assaulting innocent civilians and police officers by throwing rocks, bottles and whatever they can find that can be used as a projectile. Why should any sympathy be shown for people who have such contempt for the rule of law here in America — specifically, immigration laws that are in place in almost every country in the world, including Mexico?

For those of you that are curious, here’s Mexico’s current immigration law: if you are arrested in Mexico and found to be there illegally, you face a fine and up to two years in jail. If you re-enter the country illegally and are caught again, you face up to 10 years in jail. By the way, the police will ask for your ID in Mexico.

Our federal immigration law states that non-citizens must carry their Visa or their green card with them at all times or face a fine or arrest. Taking all of these facts into consideration, on what basis do Mexicans or Americans have to protest this law? Zip, zero, nada.

To reiterate, this novel idea is a states’ rights issue. As we have seen before in past national disasters and public riots, state governors have the sole power to activate the National Guard and command them to protect the citizens of their respective states.

With 2010 set to be one of the most important elections in our nation’s history, it will be interesting to see how many other states will follow Arizona’s lead in passing a bill that will mandate the enforcement of Federal law to address the issue of illegal immigration to curtail the subsequent problems that non-enforcement has caused for well over two decades. Critics of the bill are also concerned that racial profiling of Hispanics is a relevant issue that will lead to violations of human rights. First of all, criminal profiling is necessary to help protect the rights of all U.S. Citizens both at home and abroad.

And yes, criminal profiling takes into consideration who one is, and where somebody is from, for example, their race and nationality. It has proven to be a successful tool used against Islamic extremists in the global war on terror. But who you are is also part of a larger criminal profile that also takes into consideration what you are doing and what a criminal’s likely motives and mindset are.

These bills are necessary to protect the lives of Americans of all color, including the lives of gay people. In fact, polling shows that all American minority groups – - including Hispanics — support the Arizona law to curtail illegal immigration. Along with Democrats, they strongly disagree that Arizona can somehow be compared to the former apartheid nation of South Africa or the civil rights marchers of the 1960′s in Montgomery, Alabama.

These bills are crucial to fighting radical Islamic Jihadists as well as interdicting the flow of contraband and crime that occurs everyday because of our porous borders. The drug war that ravaged Mexico over these past several years, has made its way to the streets of Arizona and other states.

In California alone, tens of thousands of Illegal immigrants who committed crimes have ended up in the jail system. — a great drain on the already bankrupt state budget.

Border state Governors need to deploy their National Guard elements with all of their capabilities, immediately, while other measures are put into place. National Guardsmen have to report one weekend a month and commit to two weeks out of the year for drilling and briefing purposes. Instead of reporting to a military installation, these soldiers can be deployed to the border to enforce federal law and protect the country they swore to protect upon enlisting into the armed forces.

As far as legal immigration goes, former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich may have one the best proposals. The U.S. should increase their quota for Asian immigrants who would bring capital and a proven entrepreneurial spirit to our troubled economy. Just look at Canada where Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal are teeming with jobs because of the massive influx of legal Asian immigrants, while nearby Detroit and Buffalo are wrecked with high taxes, horrible unemployment, broken state budgets and abandoned factories.