By Dr. Scott Lively
It looks as if the Tea Party might have saved America from the socialists, but it‘s too soon to tell if it has saved us from the homosexualists. The election results were very encouraging relative to the conservative slate of issues as a whole, but only slightly encouraging regarding the “gay” agenda.
Most hopeful was the removal of three Iowa Supreme Court judges who were responsible for creating “gay” marriage in that state. Although their corrupt ruling stands, and legislative action will be required to reverse it (a distinct possibility in the current political climate), this was nevertheless a major victory for the pro-family movement. Leftist judicial activism has been the “gays‘” ace-in-the-hole all across the nation, but now the spectre of voter backlash will likely influence future decisions by judges. . In Maine, 22 state legislators who had voted for “gay” marriage were also removed from office and replaced with pro-family Republicans.
Next most hopeful was the dramatic shift in power from pro-abortion to pro-life forces in both the national and state-level offices. While (disturbingly) not every pro-life politician is necessarily pro-family, most of them are, and we can expect to see greater resistance to pro-”gay” initiatives and policies at every level of government, even if it may be too soon to expect pro-active pro-family policies to be advanced. Keep an eye on Kansas, especially, which has in recent years become ground-zero in pro-life efforts to shut down the abortion industry, and has just experienced a nearly complete shift of power into the hands of pro-lifers.
Here’s an excerpt from Jack Cashill’s editorial “Rinos on the Run” at World Net Daily:
“Coming into the election, Democrats held the office of Kansas governor, secretary of state, lieutenant governor and attorney general. In Johnson County, an affluent Kansas City suburb, Democrats held the congressional seat and six seats in the state house. At the end of the night, of all the above, Democrats had retained one seat in the Kansas state house [with high margins of victory up to 70% for the R‘s]. “
In Tennessee, the pro-lifers enjoyed a nearly clean sweep in both state houses and gained a new pro-life governor as well. Life Site News, quotes a statement from Congressman Chris Smith on pro-life changes to Congress where voters “replaced 38 pro-abortion Members with pro-life Members and replaced 14 unreliable Members with reliable pro-life Representatives. Of the 93 Members of the Freshman Class at least 77 are committed to defending the unborn. January will mark the beginning of the arguably most pro-life House ever.”
Also beneficial to conservatives (in my view) was the retention of power by the Democrats in California, and Harry Reid in the U.S. Senate. While Reid’s defeat would have been a great symbolic victory, it is better that he (especially in his damaged condition) remains in place to provide a clear contrast to the conservatives over the next two years. If Nancy Pelosi prevails in her attempt to retaining power on the Dem side in the House, she will serve this end even more effectively.
By retaining the Senate in the control of his own party, Obama will have to own a substantial part of the blame for the gridlock that is likely to occur and will have much less opportunity to “pull a Clinton” by re-branding himself as a moderate (even if he was inclined to do so, which I strongly doubt). His leftist voter base has actually been strengthened by the political demise of so many “moderates” and they will turn the heat up, not down on Obama to push their agenda, with the willing cooperation of Pelosi and, to a lesser extent, Reid.
I predict that President Obama, given his narcissistic tendencies and sincere believe in socialist ideology, will actually move left and begin to try to persuade the general public to the rest of his leftist views in the same manner that he “sold” health care, remaining incapable of hearing public disagreement but only the yea-sayers of his progressive base.
California, already $140-160 billion in the red due to liberal policies, may be the most important element of the national mix. Its hope of a federal bailout has been (I should hope) firmly dashed by the change in U.S. House leadership, which means California far left politicians now own lock, stock and barrel, the fiscal and moral debacle that the Golden State has produced. “Governor Moonbeam” is back at the wheel, and the “gay” dominated, overwhelmingly Democratic-controlled legislature has just won through ballot initiative the power to pass state budgets by simple majority vote, doing away with the 2/3 majority requirement that had previously tied their hands.
There remains a 2/3 requirement for tax and fee increases but the Democrats are just short of a super-majority in both chambers of the legislature, and Republican legislators, under intense pressure to raise revenues, will not be able to invoke the Tea Party revolution as justification for intransigence since the movement was soundly defeated in their state.
Watch California pull a Massachusetts and jack already astronomical state fees and taxes through the roof, creating a fleeing stampede of businesses and wealthy individuals to other states, further exacerbating the imbalance of givers to takers and speeding the spiral of decline. How does this impact the pro-family issue? I think the entire leftist slate of issues will be showcased in failure as one package over the next few years as California becomes a cautionary tale to the entire world. (Heads up, conservative media!)
The homosexual movement did suffer some setbacks in the election beyond the firing of the Iowa judges. Staunch pro-homosexual legislators Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Rep. Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania were unseated, for example, but in Rhode Island David Cicilline, was elected as the fourth openly “gay” member of the U.S. House, joining fellow Democrats Jared Polis of Colorado, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Barney Frank of Massachusetts. Given last Tuesday’s changes, the House may be the least dangerous place for these radicals to reside, and their hopes of achieving policy victories are greatly dimmed on several issues, most especially the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (which outgoing Representative Murphy had volunteered to spearhead according to CNS News).
Considering the tidal wave that the election represented, however, very little of the homosexual agenda was eliminated from the cultural landscape. Nowhere but Iowa (to my knowledge) was the “gay” agenda prominent in any campaign, except for Carl Paladino’s unsuccessful race against Andrew Cuomo in (despite a rightward shift this election) still very liberal New York State. And the pro-family gains we’ve looked at in this article are not policy gains, but personnel ones.
The Paladino situation is instructive as to the reason the homosexuals have emerged largely unscathed (so far) from the cultural backlash. In a speech to Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, Paladino said "I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don't want them brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option -- it isn't." An undelivered but publicly released portion of his written speech also stated "There is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual" and being homosexual "is not how God created us." These perfectly reasonable comments kick-started the homosexualist “outrage machine” and within just a few hours Paladino was being pummeled in the local and national media as if he had denied the Holocaust or called President Obama the “n-word.”
He then made the mistake that killed his credibility as a candidate. He completely reversed himself on the issue and in an interview on the Today Show, insisted that he was not only not “anti-gay” but that he would "absolutely" recruit gays to work in his administration. "You name it. Wherever their expertise may be, we'll put them in our government." He was tried by fire and consumed.
Having been on the receiving end of similar media histrionics, I know it is very hard to resist the urge to cut and run from the wall of flames that appears ready to consume you. There are no greater masters of psychological intimidation than the sorcerer-journalists of the Fourth Estate. My personal hair-thin victory in standing fast (and subsequent marginalization) is also an object lesson that one cannot emerge unsinged from the inferno. However, standing fast on the truth and facts of the pro-family position is the only way to stop the homosexual juggernaut and restore a God-honoring family-centered society.
Can we yet do it? Two things could tip the balance in our favor. First, a campaign by pro-family activist leaders to train Tea Party activists in the fundamentals of the pro-family perspective. We need a very concise, professionally-prepared primer for leaders on the facts and logic of why every thinking person should oppose the legitimization of homosexuality in society, as well as a single page of documented bullet points for a general audience that outline our case. These should be distributed by the hundreds of thousands in a cooperative campaign, sent by all of the pro-family organizations to their member lists, with instructions to hand-deliver and explain them to Tea Party activists and candidates.
This is not to suggest that activists and candidates should lead with the “gay” issue in the current cultural climate in which several elements of the homosexual agenda have gained majority support, but whenever the subject is raised, clear articulation of pro-family reasoning as an implicit premise of conservative logic could undo years of unchallenged propaganda by the homosexualists.
The second thing is to urge the Tea Party to expand the scope of its reform efforts to the media. Now that Tea Partiers have experienced media bias first hand, and seen its destructive effect in political contests, that shouldn’t be a hard sell. With so much of the so-called main stream media on the ropes financially there has never been a better time to organize business people and other advertisers to demand long-needed changes in media companies, such as a fair representation of conservatives in decision-making and journalistic positions, and enforceable public standards for journalistic integrity on controversial issues. It’s in all of our best interests for this to occur.
At present there are almost no champions of the pro-family position in public life willing to take any firmer stand than “marriage should be one man and one woman,” and even that opinion is frequently offered with apologies and dissembling. There are, shamefully, very few people in the country today who can articulate our views cogently and unapologetically, and fewer still who are willing to try, given the power of the media to punish them for it.
And this is why it remains an open question as to whether the Tea Party will save us from the homosexualists. We can improve our prospects, but only if we act quickly to make our common interests a component of their reform agenda in the next two years.
Dr. Scott Lively is an attorney and President of Defend the Family International, which equips pro-family advocates around the world to promote and defend the natural family, marriage and family values. He is also the author of Redeeming the Rainbow: A Christian Response to the “Gay” Agenda, which may be downloaded in PDF format without charge at www.defendthefamily.com.
This article may be freely republished and distributed with attribution.
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