W. is confident -- if not cocky -- after his big win in South Carolina Saturday |
Compiled By GayToday
Washington, D.C.--The South Carolina Republican Primary may be over,
but the damage inflicted by Gov. George W. Bush's and Senator John McCain's
pandering to the far-right wing of the conservative electorate is
considerable, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said Sunday.
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"Leaders are supposed to unite, not divide," Lobel said. "Yet Governor
Bush demonstrated 'compassionate conservatism' only for the far-right
portion of the electorate.
"And Senator John McCain's so-called 'straight talk'
took on an unfortunate second meaning when he said he disagreed with
what he called the homosexual 'lifestyle.' If this is the best these
candidates have to offer, than it is clear there were no winners to
emerge from South Carolina, except for the politics of defeat, despair
and divisiveness."
During the South Carolina primary campaign, both Bush and McCain
appealed to the conservative electorate's worst elements:
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Bush kicked off his campaign at Bob Jones University, which for
decades banned minority students and to this day bans interracial dating.
Bob Jones University also is anti-GLBT and its founder has spoken out
stridently against people of the Catholic faith.
McCain failed to fire a top South Carolina campaign aide, Richard Quinn,
despite Quinn's editorship of a racist publication called "Southern Partisan."
During his stint as executive editor, which goes back all the way to 1981,
Quinn has attacked Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela;
discounted the evils of slavery and commended those who voted for former
Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
Bush adopted a harder line than he had previously when asked whether
he would appoint anyone who is openly gay or lesbian to his administration.
His response when asked: "An openly known homosexual is somebody who
probably wouldn't share my philosophy." And McCain, while defending a
previous meeting with Log Cabin Republicans, nonetheless said he disagreed
with the homosexual "lifestyle."
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Both Bush and McCain punted when asked whether the Confederate flag -
a symbol of the segregationist era of yesteryear - should fly over
South Carolina's state capitol. Despite the fact that 30 percent of
South Carolina's residents are African-American, each candidate
failed to call for the flag's removal.
Both Bush and McCain campaigned with, or were supported by,
leaders of the far-right wing of the conservative electorate. Bush
garnered the endorsement of Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson,
while McCain stumped the state with Gary Bauer, former director of
the anti-GLBT Family Research Council.
"As the primary campaigns move, at least for few weeks, out of the south
and to the midwest and west, hopefully candidates Bush and McCain will try
to reconcile their responsibilities as leaders with the reality of who
comprises our nation's electorate," Lobel said.
"Perhaps Bush's pandering, in particular, helped him win South Carolina's
Republican Primary. Perhaps it might even win him votes in Michigan and
California. But appealing to our baser instincts is not a formula for winning
in November. And any politician who campaigns in such a fashion, Democrat
or Republican, deserves repudiation at the ballot box."
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