Can't say I'm surprised. There are still people angry with Andrew Sullivan over his initial support of W after 9-11. When the gay marriage issue came out, he went 180, and became quite unreadable with his single issue writing.

Don't feel too bad about him, he still rakes in thousands of dollars in donation, and still takes August off (in the middle of the political convention season no less).

Hrmmm. I wonder if some of the other gay-conservative bloggers who did openly support Bush are getting the same treatment that Sullivan is?

(Best read, imv (in my view) with window maximized)

Me again. I'll leave ya be fer a bit (and yer site is boggin' down anyhoo)...

Just wanted to note my view(s) of the situation fwiw:

I don't read the biggies much (Atrios, TalkingPoints, InstaPendant...;-), and I especially don't make an exception for Andrew Sullivan. I just don't find it all that interesting, but thaz jes me... Plus I don't wanna get tangled with them nor them with me. Don't want them either mirroring or reverse-mirroring anything I write, besides.

That said:

"Or is the real objection simply to the fact that Sullivan is openly gay but refuses to conform?"

My objection is to turn-coats, but I believe (from some personal experience) that people HATE those THE MOST who are unpredictable.

They can stand "predictable hatreds" coming at them and that's what sets up stereoEchoChambers (tm) (sm) (m'self..;-). Gotta be "fairly" predictable in ones hatreds, with jes SO much "standard deviation" to keep it interesting.

The 180 on Bush made for a large readership, I gather, and ANY publicity I guess...

"What's with the left suddenly declaring open-season on a gay Kerry voter?"

Imo/o (in my opinion/observation), the left took an arse-whuppin' and the best way to ameliorate that?

"Why so soon after the election?"

As I said, plus it helps the process of grieving I imagine, to find scapegoats. "YOU'RE THE REASON we lost an election that EVERYBODY KNEW was IMPOSSIBLE TO LOSE. SOMEHOW it sure appears to have happened (to those not still in denial and looking for recounts) and YOU'RE THE REASON!"

Beats crap outta self-reflection, most times...;-)-;

"Is there an emerging "get the gay conservatives first" strategy?"

I dunno there's 'zactly a strategy, but that said... Just an expansion on the GET CONSERVATIVES AND "KILL THEM DEAD" thaz been in place for 4 years now. Hard to change strategy's, no matter how badly failed they are. (THIS, I know, from trying to change corporate cultures and personal habits, both.) I guess I should add afaik.

"Targeting a high-profile gay Kerry voter like Sullivan certainly lays down the gauntlet, and shows, I think, that whoever is ultimately behind it believes the best defense is a good offense."

There is no "whoever". It's pack mentality, at it's most vicious. Hurt animal and all...)-;

"Another interesting development is that "outing" (once largely the province of rabid gay activists), is now openly encouraged as a standard tactic of the left."

The strategy of this new left is win at whatever cost, and I think that's been a growing phenomena that I'd never noticed before... But then, jes starting to look at political issues past 4 years and going backwards by readings, so I'm not sure when it started. Iow, I'd sure like to think that the Democrats have jes gone stir crazy from the 2000 Election, but the more I read the more I see it as I wuz pretty naive... Dunno.

Sure don't see it ending, which is why I don't see the Demz around, as a Party, much more than 4 to 8 years.

I hadn't been too popular in some semi-circular logical circuits (ie, blogs), lately...;-D

:

"America is in the throes of a culture war, nurtured by groups like the RNC and people like Ken Mehlman. Americans have a right to know which side of the culture war Ken Mehlman is on..."

And if you want a clearer picture of what has been going on which destroyed the old Democratic Party? Again, it probably seems stark to me because I hadn't seen it coming on.

But "you HAVE to be on THIS SIDE of THESE EXACT ISSUES OR YOU ARE DEAD POLITICAL MEAT", these days.

Where I come from (both figuratively and literally coming from Columbus, OH, the largest Gay population per capita in the U.S. (afaik))..

..well, no, you do NOT HAFTA this-that-or-th'other.. or you're gonna be tarred and feathered.

That's a harmful meme that comes from Bi-Coastal Affective Democrats, the "bi-polar-pollsters" which is best symbolized and seen-in-the-practice-of the Deaniacs aournd the globe.. afaik...)-;

It's global, iow...

Oooooops, jes saw an ad for the Libertarian Party, so I see I've already over-stayed my welcome... Excuse me, but since i've written this much i'll go on and preview and post, and back away slowly (withOUT scratchin' my arse, btw, in public..;-)...

First,any deviation from the left's catechism is being set up as heresy these days. I've got leftist friends I've got along with for years by POINTEDLY not discussing politics. Now they want to discuss politics and they want me to tell them they're absolutely right (dissent not tolerated.) It's enough to make me cry in my beer. I'm lonely and I want my friends back.

Second, the left is going to ditch gays. Watch me if they don't. They simply can't accept that ANYONE can POSSIBLY not like their economic/war agenda, so the reason they were rejected was clearly all those "pervs" in their midst. Watch. Gay marriage is being made a scapegoat for their loss and rank and file will become more or less openly homophobic before 08. Of course, before, most of what the democratic party offered the gay voter was lip service (no pun intended.) Now they won't even do that. Or perhaps, with Kerry nuance they'll continue the lip service AND the homophobic behavior. With BDS all is possible...

Eric,

Awesome thinking. I am a gay guy living here in the Belly of the Beast in SF. I am one of 15% of SF Republicans, and of the 23% of gays nation-wide who voted for Bush.

I am pro-tolerance on contentious moral issues which I firmly believe need to be resolved over time by legislative processes. I hope we will eventually evolve as a nation to legal recognition of gay marriage. On all other issues I am basically a Wall Street Journal editorial page Republican.

As for sound strategy and effective tactics toward the goal of gay marriage, the judicial imposition route pursued by the gay Politburo has back-fired and set back an evolutionary process that probably would have arrived at the goal quicker.

I cannot find words strong enough to express my disgust with these so-called "progressive" gay totalitarians. I spit on their contention that simply because I am gay I belong on their progressive plantation.

They despise people like me and Andrew Sullivan the way and for the same reasons that they despise Condi Rice, Colin Powell, and J.C. Watts. We all give the lie to their arrogance, oppression, and utter lack of human decency.

They must neutralize all of us. Who is next? Boi from Troy?

It is not so much that they are enraged and blame us for losing. No, they are intensely terrified that we are bit by bit winning, as election by election more blacks and gays vote Republican. We are the ones willing to fight the good fight without vilifying our opponents in the party and in the nation.

If you want to help, hit those donation buttons on the blogs of all the most excellent gay conservatives and Republicans. The least we can do is to fund their bandwidth costs for the coming battles.

Michael in SF:

Good for you. Fight the good fight.

I think Portia is right. Homosexuals, the scapegoats of a certain quadrant of the Right ("evil Godless depraved perverts!, they're corrupting OUR CHILDREN!"), are now to be the scapegoats of much of the Left ("YOU cost us THE ELECTION!"). Last time, it was Trotsky, i.e., Nader. Now, it will be the _sexual_ deviationists who must be purged from the Party.

The various "oppressed groups" (homosexuals, women, Negroes, Jews, workers, etc.) that seem to make up "the Left" -- are any of them truly integral?, essential?, to what Leftism is?

Native Americans -- the very first Americans? When do we hear about these Americans any more except on certain ritual occasions? Are they integral to the Left?

Jews? Jews were once almost entirely on the Left of most spectrums. Jews have been disproportionately predominant in most intellectual movements in the modern West, from Marxism to Freudianism to Objectivism, but definitely so within the Left. That was one of the favorite smears of anti-Semites on the Right, that Jews were Communists.

Today, however, anti-Semitism is found mostly on the Left, increasingly so and ever more virulently, and Israel is hated more than any other nation, save the United States itself.

Homosexuals? We're seeing how Leftists regard Andrew Sullivan, even after he voted for Kerry. Any homosexual who deviates from the Party Line in any way, whether it be Sullivan, the Boi from Troi, the Gay Patriot, Tammy Bruce, Camille Paglia, Jeff Soyer, Eric Scheie, will draw their hatred. Homosexuals will be dropped like a hot potato by the Party whenever they get in the way of what is politically convenient, whenever they seem to be too controversial or unpopular, whenever it takes any courage to stand by them.

The Communists "outed" homosexuals who opposed them back in the 1950s, from Roy Cohn to Whittaker Chambers. Homosexuals have been persecuted in all Communist regimes, from Russia to China to Cuba to North Korea. Homosexuals are persecuted in all the Muslim countries the Left appeases today, from Palestine to Iran to the Sudan to Saudi Arabia.

Women? Women are also abjectly subordinated in every one of those Muslim countries, more so than ever in the West. Misogyny on the Left is evident whenever a strong woman emerges on the Right, e.e., Ayn Rand, Margaret Thatcher, Ann Coulter, Camille Paglia.

Negroes? Again, as long as they toe the Party Line they are accepted. But the moment they deviate, e.g., Clarence Thomas, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Thomas Sowell, Manning Johnson, George Schuyler, Perry Smaw -- then they become "niggers". "Workers of the World Unite -- For a WHITE South Africa!", was a Communist slogan in the 1920s.

Workers? The poor? For the last 30 years at least, blue-collar workers have been vilified as "know-nothing" "hard hats", "Archie Bunkers", "racist, sexist bigots", etc., by the "limousine liberals". Thomas Sowell has abundantly documented how Leftist policies hurt the poor.

So -- who's left on the Left? Or, what's left of the Left? Anything left of the Left today but a nihilistic drive toward entropy? Hmmm....