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Edited on Wed Aug-29-07 07:42 PM by NanceGreggs
When it comes to the Republican viewpoint on any issue involving personal behavior, there is one commandment that outweighs all others: Thou shalt not get caught.
In other words, thou shalt not deliberately cause a chink in the Family Values armor that has protected the GOP’s ability to grab the Fundie vote, the moms-for-morality vote, the manly-man vote – and doing so carries swift punishment, being immediate shunning by the righteous Republicans, and a quick trip to the underside of an oncoming bus.
The fact that people like Vitter can count on continuing support from their party lies not in the sin committed, but in the fact that it is one that is easily glossed-over with a declaration of go and sin no more. And, more importantly, it is not THE SIN that, according to the GOP, cannot be forgiven: homosexuality, or even a hint thereof.
Of course there are exceptions to the Rule, like Ted Haggard, whose evil ways can be overlooked with a simple PR statement that his homosexuality has been CURED! - a statement that is eagerly accepted by those who appreciate the fact that he represents votes being delivered to Republicans, and money being delivered to GOP coffers. Include in this mix the Log Cabin Republicans, who you’ll never see openly disparaged by the GOP powers-that-be, simply because they represent committed campaign workers and gays lined up to vote Republican on election day.
Larry Craig’s sin was not an alleged seeking out of a homosexual encounter; it was in pleading guilty to same. He put himself in a position where his behavior could not be dismissed as a wrongful, politically-motivated accusation without merit, nor did he leave himself open to coming forward to say, “I have sinned, but I will ask the Lord’s forgiveness and seek rehabilitation.”
Craig’s sin was getting caught in a position where his actions were unspinnable as something other than what they actually were. His sin was in not leaving enough room for doubt – via a not guilty plea, and cries of outrage that he’d been set-up by political opponents – so that his behavior could be proferred to the public as yet another example of the Liberal bias of the media intent on bringing a good man down.
Anyone with common sense knows that the Republican party has its share of gay elected representatives, gay constituents, and gay supporters. Knowing these facts, even among Republicans, is one thing; publicly acknowledging such facts is, in the GOP playbook, tantamount to treason – because such things must remain hidden from those whose votes might be forfeit should the truth be known.
As we Democrats know, being a Republican – if your lifestyle, beliefs, or personal moral code differs in any way from the accepted norm – is a dark and lonely place.
More specifically, the Republican party is not, in and of itself, a place that hypocrites are inevitably drawn to; it is merely a place where hypocrisy is often the only tool available to be accepted, to be considered of value – in short, to survive.
And that is the shame of it all. The shame lies not in the hypocrisy, but in the fact that hypocrisy is deemed more acceptable than loving in the way God designed each of us, heterosexual and homosexual, to express our love for each other.
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