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View Full Version : Senator Hagel Says G.O.P. Has Lost Its Way



uscitizen
08-21-2006, 03:01 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Hagel-Republicans.html

IHateGovernment
08-21-2006, 03:04 PM
Been saying the same for years. Resurrect Barry Goldwater.

FUCK THE POLICE
08-21-2006, 03:46 PM
If Barry Goldwater had been elected we'd already have gays in the military. What an ironically sad day for progressives whenever he lost.

OrnotBitwise
08-21-2006, 03:58 PM
If Barry Goldwater had been elected we'd already have gays in the military. What an ironically sad day for progressives whenever he lost.
Not to be a pedant or anything but we do have gays in the military. Lots of 'em. They just can't admit it in public.

:flagsal:

Cypress
08-21-2006, 04:07 PM
If Barry Goldwater had been elected we'd already have gays in the military. What an ironically sad day for progressives whenever he lost.

No way. First, Goldwater mellowed with time, and became more progressive. He didn't really start advocating gay rights until the 1990s. He actually supported federal anti-discrimination legislation in the 1990s, something he would have found abhorant in the 1960s when he ran for Prez (recall, he was against federal civil rights and voting rights legislation in the 1960s).

And honestly, I think goldwater died a democrat - or at least an independent centrist. He hated the religious right wing: in 1992 he backed a Democrat for Congress over a Christian conservative Republican, and had been applying the full force of his cantankerous personality to frequent denunciations of the religious right and occasional defenses of Bill Clinton – calling a press conference recently to urge Republican critics of Whitewater to "get off his back and let him be president." *


So, at the time he "might" have been president, in the 1960s there was not a chance in hell he would have pulled a Truman, and let gays in the military. Being gay was thought of as a mental illness 40 years ago.


* http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/may98/goldwater072894.htm

IHateGovernment
08-21-2006, 04:12 PM
(recall, he was against federal civil rights and voting rights legislation in the 1960s).

Goldwater's record on civil rights was consistent though. He supported the civil rights acts that applied to the federal government. Goldwater was primarily opposed to the civil rights acts the he felt unconstitutionally curtailed the prerogative of the states.

Cypress
08-21-2006, 04:19 PM
(recall, he was against federal civil rights and voting rights legislation in the 1960s).

Goldwater's record on civil rights was consistent though. He supported the civil rights acts that applied to the federal government. Goldwater was primarily opposed to the civil rights acts the he felt unconstitutionally curtailed the prerogative of the states.

I think Goldwaters heart and intentions were pure. But, my point is he changed and mellowed over time. He was against federal discrimination legislation in the 1960s, but for it (pertaining to gays) in the 1990s. I think he died a Democrat. Or, a progressive libertarian, at least.

IHateGovernment
08-21-2006, 04:24 PM
A progressive libertarian more likely. I tend to have a goldwater approach to many political issues.

Damocles
08-21-2006, 04:52 PM
Been saying the same for years. Resurrect Barry Goldwater.

You and I both... BTW you don't have to resurrect him, his grandson is running.