Kaztronic wrote:
Newsflash: the Republicans as a whole are NOT going to get on board - not until Gay Marriage equality is long established, DADT is ended, Gay families can legally adopt and raise children, and the Employee Non-Discrimination Act has been passed and is established law. Until those things happen, and until enough time passes to prove the stances against extending civil rights to the Gay Community were in fact discriminatory and nothing more - they will not get on board. The African-American Civil Rights movement proved this.
Taking the fight to the Republicans is a waste of time. It is those who CLAIM to support Gay Rights, and those who CAN affect change but tepidly advance that need to be pressured to follow through on their potential.
Kaz, While I agree Democrats make many promises on issues like DADT (often simply to attract votes) and have a dismal record of following through whereas Republicans usually make no such commitments, the GOP should never be written off as automatically opposed to ANY bills regarding fundamental fairness and Civil Rights of any kind for any group of Americans. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers should be contacted or to use your term "pressured" on any issue that constituents feel is important to them. To not do so invites failure where it would not have to.
There is more support within the Republican Party than you and many others think especially among traditional Republicans (not tea party types who are clearly not traditional or classic Republicans) for issues like ending DADT, the votes may be there in the future from Republicans when they are really needed but not if they are dismissively scorned as a lost cause and no outreach made to obtain such votes, as there would be no indication there was popular support for such legislation. (Democratic votes wouldn't be there either, if this happened to them).
Also your statement quoted above is simply inaccurate. Republicans were much more supportive of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and all Civil Rights bills for African Americans than Democrats were. If the GOP had opposed instead of supporting such legislation it would have failed.
Snip:
Complete Article at:
Major Features of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
. . . The House of Representatives debated the bill for nine days and rejected nearly one hundred amendments designed to weaken the bill before passing H.R .7152 on February 10, 1964. Of the 420 members who voted, 290 supported the civil rights bill and 130 opposed it. Republicans favored the bill 138 to 34; Democrats supported it 152-96. It is interesting to note that Democrats from northern states voted overwhelmingly for the bill, 141 to 4, while Democrats from southern states voted overwhelmingly against the bill, 92 to 11. A bipartisan coalition of Republicans and northern Democrats was the key to the bill's success. This same arrangement would prove crucial later to the Senate's approval of the bill. . . .
The Republican Party was not so badly split as the Democrats by the civil rights issue. Only one Republican senator participated in the filibuster against the bill. In fact, since 1933, Republicans had a more positive record on civil rights than the Democrats. In the twenty-six major civil rights votes since 1933, a majority of Democrats opposed civil rights legislation in over 80 % of the votes. By contrast, the Republican majority favored civil rights in over 96 % of the votes. . . .
the Senate passed the bill by a 73 to 27 roll call vote. Six Republicans and 21 Democrats held firm and voted against passage. In all, the the 1964 civil rights debate had lasted a total of 83 days, slightly over 730 hours, and had taken up almost 3,000 pages in the Congressional Record.
http://www.congresslink.org/print_basic ... 64text.htm
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