Obama Can't Talk About Gay or Trans Folks With Conviction

[Wessexman]

I don't even grant users of judicial activism as a term any level of respect or historical context. It's VASTLY used in the United States by individuals who not only have no understanding of the differences between a pure Democracy and a Democratic Republic but a deeply flawed concept of what the Judicial branch's powers are. It's like they don't know what checks and balances is.

I am VERY much for gay marriage and I hope for the opportunity in the future here in California to volunteer for work on that front depending on how the appeals go for the Prop 8 trial.

If by judicial activism you mean a proper position of originalism and strict construction then that doesn't either have to unreasoned or rabidly democratic. One can certainly find it expressed historically in the US by many diverse figures.

Checks and balances can be used and set up in various ways, it is certainly a valid idea of judiciary that they not be able to widely reinterpret laws and constitutional clauses. Indeed in Britain if a court ruled something illegal or unconstitutional parliament could simply overrule this by changing the law.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

But what if doing the right thing here means doing the wrong thing there? Critics are standing by to attack him from all sides. Obama really should stick to the platform that got him into the White House instead of trying to be universally likable.

Sorry, Smoke. :sorry1:

Repealing DADT and DOMA were both part of Obama's pre-election platform.

 

[Sunstone]

I think what this article says in passing about Obama is spot on and explains a lot.

How Radical Christian Conservatives May Succeed in Destroying Democracy | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I wouldn't say he hasn't done anything. He become the first president to appoint a transwoman for any position.

Obama is already trying to please everybody and it's costing him. There's only so much you can ask from one man.

I think too many people set the bar for Obama unrealistically high, which means it could only fall harder. Considering the alternative, I don't think Obama has done that bad of a job. But he is a man and not the messiah, and it takes time to get things done. Just look at how much time getting the health care bill through took.
Or he might have just given up. No matter what he does there is backlash to it. People complained when he said he supported the Ground Zero Mosque's constitutional right to be built, they complained when he had a beer with the one professor that was arrested and the cop who arrested him, PETA even complained about Biden serving hot dogs to the troops at Colbert's troop show.

 

[Smoke]

I wouldn't say he hasn't done anything. He become the first president to appoint a transwoman for any position.

And that benefits the average transgender person how?

I think too many people set the bar for Obama unrealistically high, which means it could only fall harder. Considering the alternative, I don't think Obama has done that bad of a job. But he is a man and not the messiah, and it takes time to get things done. Just look at how much time getting the health care bill through took.

As far as LGBT issues go, it's not just that he's slow. He's mostly been working against us.

 

[Smoke]

I think what this article says in passing about Obama is spot on and explains a lot.

How Radical Christian Conservatives May Succeed in Destroying Democracy | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet

All ideological, theological and political debates with the representatives of the corporate state, including the feckless and weak Barack Obama, are useless. They cannot be reached. They do not want a dialogue. They care nothing for real reform or participatory democracy. They use the tricks and mirages of public relations to mask a steadily growing assault on our civil liberties, our inability to make a living and the loss of basic services from education to health care. Our gutless liberal class placates the enemies of democracy, hoping desperately to remain part of the ruling elite, rather than resist. And, in many ways, liberals, because they serve as a cover for these corporate extremists, are our greatest traitors. ...

The tragedy is that liberals and secularists, like Obama, are not viewed as competitors by the corporate forces that hold power, but as contaminates that must be eliminated. They have sought to work with forces that will never be placated. They have abandoned the most basic values of the liberal class to play a game that in the end will mean their political and cultural extinction.
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I think you're right.

 

[Wessexman]

I think what this article says in passing about Obama is spot on and explains a lot.

How Radical Christian Conservatives May Succeed in Destroying Democracy | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet

Can I just say that is an article with an astounding amount of misconceptions.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

And that benefits the average transgender person how?

It's a very progressive idea, as unemployment has pretty much always been an issue with the trans community. Including the transgender community in ENDA wasn't looking good, but Obama employed a transwoman. That was actually seen as a pretty significant even in the trans community.

 

[Smoke]

It's a very progressive idea, as unemployment has pretty much always been an issue with the trans community. Including the transgender community in ENDA wasn't looking good, but Obama employed a transwoman. That was actually seen as a pretty significant even in the trans community.

What would actually be pretty significant would be passing an inclusive ENDA.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

What would actually be pretty significant would be passing an inclusive ENDA.

It would be, but hiring Amanda Simpson was breaking the ground, and is the first step to making it more socially acceptable to hire a transsexual.

 

[Smoke]

It would be, but hiring Amanda Simpson was breaking the ground, and is the first step to making it more socially acceptable to hire a transsexual.

How many people outside the LGBT community are even aware of it? I'm sorry, but even it she were on the front page of every newspaper in the country, it's not real progress. It's tokenism. I'm not saying Amanda Simpson isn't eminently qualified for her job; I'm saying giving one transwoman a job is not a policy of non-discrimination, much less an Employment Non-Discrimination Act. When William Henry Hastie became the first black federal judge, that was a good thing, but it didn't change the fact that most black people in the South still couldn't vote or ride in the same railroad car as white people.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

When William Henry Hastie became the first black federal judge, that was a good thing, but it didn't change the fact that most black people in the South still couldn't vote or ride in the same railroad car as white people.

It's good in the same since. It may not immediately change anything, many people might not be aware of it, but even still baby steps are better than none at all as it helps to pave the way for others.