A Hot, Keenly Contested, Scrappy Campaign

Our Graphical History Tour has been revisiting recent history lately, so it must be time to catch up on the news from 100 Augusts ago. 

"So Busy He Didn't Notice Him" by E.R. McTaggart in Vancouver Daily Province, July 26. 1926

On July 18, 1926 the Boston Post printed a letter from Channing H. Cox, a former Governor of Massachusetts, proposing a union of the United States and Canada. The Post lauded the idea, apparently a pet cause of its Financial Editor, Arthur J. Bean, who wrote, "It is of paramount interest to New England, which, as shown by the map, reaches up into Canada like a giant hand of friendship."

The Post editorial barely registered elsewhere in the United States, but was front page news north of the border, where parliamentary elections were underway. The campaign of Conservative Prime Minister Arthur Meighen, heading a minority government that lost a no confidence vote in record time, seized upon the spectre of annexation by the U.S. as a weapon against recently ousted Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

"Summer Studies" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Daily Star, August 10, 1926

King had nothing to do with the Boston Post editorial, but that didn't stop Canada's Tory press from running with the story.

On the campaign trail, King brandished a full-page article in the August 26, 1926 Toronto Telegram, purportedly taken from the Wall Street Journal, headlined "Mackenzie King Pictured as Wall Street's Hero — Financial Interests of U.S. Are Told That King and His Followers Believe Canada Should Be Free of British Influence."

King told his audience, "The article, according to the statement which appears at its head, has been written not in the States but in Canada. I venture to say it was written not very far from the office of the Toronto Telegram itself."

"Welcome the Wanderer" by George Shields in Toronto Evening Telegram, August 6, 1926

Shields's reference to John D. Rockefeller apparently comes from the Wall Street Journal article in question, which, according to the Telegram, identified King as "a graduate of Harvard University and late head of the Rockefeller Foundation."

In 1914, during a stretch when he was out of office, King did in fact come to New York to advise Rockefeller how to resolve a coal miners' strike in Colorado. Rockefeller asked King to stay on as a Standard Oil executive, but King returned to Ontario to resume his career in Canadian politics.

The Telegram article quoted the Journal as saying, "If Mr. King and his party succeed then Great Britain might just as well give up on the idea of a united empire. If, on the other hand, the Conservative Party is successful, it will mean that a Conservative Premier will take his place at the Imperial Conference and that Canada will have assured Great Britain that she has turned her feet toward a closer relationship with the Empire."

"The Axe Is His Way" by George Shields in Toronto Evening Telegram, August 9, 1926

Thomas L. Church was the Conservative candidate running as the incumbent for the Toronto Northwest constituency in the House of Commons. As such, the former Mayor of Toronto was strongly favored by the Telegram, so their cartoonist depicted him touting several of their shared causes as a sturdy platform for the Tories. They included "forcing" Canadian coal into Ontario in place of coal from the U.S.; and stopping Canadian farmers from illegally smuggling grain, oats, and barley to U.S. grain elevators for better prices than they could find domestically; and extending the Tories' longstanding "National Policy" of high protective tariffs.

Church would win this election, after which he threatened to launch a rebel “ginger group” within the party if Meighen were reelected as its chief standard bearer.

"The Anti-English Cry" by George Shields in Toronto Evening Telegram, August 17, 1926

King and the Liberals heaped criticism upon Governor General Baron Byng, who, as the crown's representative, had called upon Meighen to form a government when King had asked him to call for new elections.

The other head in Shields's cartoon is Henri Bourassa, a former Liberal from Quebec recently returned to Parliament as an Independent. Also the publisher of Le Devoir, Bourassa declared his full support of King and accused Byng of playing politics: "He put himself at the service of Mr. Meighen to satisfy either personal rancor or perhaps to serve the Imperial policy, for, after all, the Governor General is an employee of London, responsible for his acts to England and not to Canada.

"Poor Shooting" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Daily Star, August 17, 1926

"That is where the question becomes more grave than the customs inquiry," Bourassa concluded, bringing up the scandal hyped by Meighen's Conservative Party that was the reason for Lord Byng to dismiss Prime Minister King's government in the first place.

According to Sam Hunter's cartoon, the Canadian public agreed that the charges fell short of justifying a change in the government.

"Doesn't Desire to Be Rescued" by Sam Hunter in Toronto Daily Star, August 28, 1926

Neither did Hunter think Meighen's policy of restoring higher National Policy tariffs on U.S. goods and services from the 1920-21 Conservative-led government was a winning issue for the Tories. The sheet held aloft by Tax Payer reads "The Robb Budget Suits Me!", referring to James Robb ("Baldy" Robb in the Toronto Evening Telegram), Finance Minister in the Mackenzie King cabinet.

"I Was Assured This Was to Be a Hot, Keenly-contested, Scrappy Election Campaign" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Evening Star, August 23, 1926

Ah, well, and zut alors. I suppose it was as difficult to keep Jean Q. Publique interested in politics in the heat of summer. Especially when he had to vote on a new government every couple of months.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Last week's cartoon about radical right-winger Mark Robinson winning the Republican primary for governor in North Carolina overlooked the tandem victory of radical right-winger Michelle Morrow, who unseated incumbent Superintendent of Schools Catherine Truitt in the Tarheel State's Republican primary.

Michele Morrow, a conservative activist who last week upset the incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction in North Carolina’s Republican primary, expressed support in 2020 for the televised execution of former President Barack Obama and suggested killing then-President-elect Joe Biden.

In other comments on social media between 2019 and 2021 reviewed by CNN’s KFile, Morrow made disturbing suggestions about executing prominent Democrats for treason, including Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer and other prominent people such as Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates.

“I prefer a Pay Per View of him in front of the firing squad,” she wrote in a tweet from May 2020, responding to a user sharing a conspiracy theory who suggested sending Obama to prison at Guantanamo Bay. “I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.”

In another post in May 2020, she responded to a fake Time Magazine cover that featured art of Obama in an electric chair asking if he should be executed.

“Death to ALL traitors!!” Morrow responded.

In yet another comment, Morrow suggested in December 2020 killing Biden, who at that time was president-elect, and has said he would ask Americans to wear a mask for 100 days.

“Never. We need to follow the Constitution’s advice and KILL all TRAITORS!!! #JusticeforAmerica,” she wrote.

CNN reached out to Morrow and her campaign multiple times but did not receive a response. Following publication of this story, Morrow defended her previous tweets, claiming Obama committed treason. 

When cartoonists who, like me, are alarmed by seeing the completely unhinged kooks who have taken over the Republican party, are asked why we don't draw more cartoons attacking Democrats, this is why. 

Q Toon: Getting Creative

The Supreme Court happily carved out a right in Creative LLC et al. v. Elenis et al. for Lorie Smith to discriminate against same-sex engaged couples, essentially nullifying a Colorado non-discrimination law.

Ignored by the right-wing justices in the majority were several factors that should have rendered the case moot. Creative LLC had not ever created any wedding announcement web pages. Furthermore, the client whose same-sex wedding announcement web page she had supposedly refused on religious grounds to design is 

• a straight, cisgender man
• in a different-sex marriage
• who never approached Creative LLC to design a web page
• who didn't know someone had done so in his name
• and besides, owns his own web design company in the first place.

Now as someone who considers himself a creative person myself, I can sympathize with not wanting to expend creative energy on a project one disagrees with. I'm not going to accept a commission to draw cartoons for nazis, racists, or antigay bigots.

I can also appreciate that the court's decision is not entirely without precedent. We've had a conservative majority court for decades now, after all. The Supremes have previously ruled that private groups such as the Boy Scouts are free to discriminate against LGBTQ+ children and parents, and so may religious groups. This case extends the right to discriminate against LGBTQ+ persons to businesses offering a public service.

But this case, along with Biden v. Nebraska (in which no student loan lending firm had sued the administration), demonstrates how the current Court is not just conservative, but activist. There was no plaintiff with standing — that is, who had suffered actual damages of some kind. You can't take a case to the Supreme Court just because you don't like a law.

For example, the budget passed by Madison Republicans representing villages and rural communities around the rest of Wisconsin last month allowed the city of Milwaukee to raise sales taxes, but dictated how the tax money must and must not be spent. I might disagree with those restrictions, but I do not live in Milwaukee. I have no standing to challenge the budget law.

Our present activist Supreme Court went out of its way to find a trumped-up case, based entirely on a fiction, and ruled in favor of a plaintiff whose primary reason for starting up her business appears to have been not to operate a business, but to overturn a non-discrimination law she didn't like.

Q Toon: The Warm-up Act

I'm starting to find the fascist wing of the GOP a bit tiresome.

I mean, just last week, I drew my cartoon about Florida Requblicans demanding that their colleges and universities surrender the health records of any and all transgender students to the state — the better to round them up someday — and compared them to Nazis hunting out hidden Jews, homosexuals, and Roma.

So this week, some right-wing podcaster delighted the thronglets at the Conservative Political Arian Convention by calling for the Final Solution to transgenderism. What am I supposed to do, draw a second Nazi-themed cartoon in a row?

Mike Godwin should be collecting royalties on all the Nazi comparisons.

Meanwhile, every Requblican-run state in the country is branding transgender citizens as outlaws, criminalizing their health care, and even barring them from public restrooms. And although we have waited in vain for decades now for anything to be done about armed psychopaths shooting up American society, those same legislators are moving lickety split to make cross-dressing a felony.

It's the gateway drag to transgenderism, don'tcha know.

Q Toon: The Great Right North

Here's a lede U.S. conservatives are very unlikely to match any time soon:

Conservatives led the charge in Canada's Parliament to vote to ban conversion therapy for minors.

The Senate voted without any objections on the bill proposed by Conservative Senator Leo Housakos and fast-tracked through all legislative stages December 7. Previously, the House of Commons voted unanimously to pass the bill brought forward by Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole, who has become a proponent of LGBTQ rights since becoming head of the party. O'Toole allowed his party to have a free vote on the issue.

In an unusual occurrence, conservatives voted in agreement with their liberal counterparts.

"The community has been heard," Housakos said in the Senate, reported the Toronto Star.

"It was heard by the House of Commons and we saw the House of Commons do the right thing and pass this piece of legislation unanimously and they did so because they thought it was in the national interest to do so," Housakos continued.

The Senate's passage of the bill requires royal assent from the Governor General or her designate for it to become law, reported the paper.

Assuming that Joe Manchin is not the Governor General of Canada, it looks good for Canada to become the sixth nation to ban conversion therapy, which uses psychological, physical, or spiritual pressure to convert a patient's sexual orientation or gender identity.

20 states and the District of Columbia ban conversion therapy, and there are restrictions in five more. In Wisconsin, for example, while conversion therapy on minors isn't illegal, an executive order by Governor Evers prohibits use of state funds for it. Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, on the other hand, have brought suit in federal court to prevent local governments from enforcing their own bans.

It's mighty difficult to imagine any more than a scattered few U.S. Republicans casting any pro-LGBTQ votes, incurring the vengeful wrath of the right-wing rage machine and the televangelicabal. So let's hear it for the brave and principled conservatives of our neighbor to the north!

Cu-roo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo!

Toon: Mayhem Like Him

Here's a list of U.S. Senators and Congressional Representatives who still stand by Mr. Trump's scurrilous, fantastical electoral conspiracy "theories" even after the riot of Qultists at the Capitol that he and they actively encouraged:

Senate:

Ted Cruz (TX); Josh Hawley (MO); Cindy Hyde-Smith (MS); Cynthia Lummis (WY); John Kennedy (LA); Roger Marshall (KS); Rick Scott (FL); Tommy Tuberville (AL)

House:

Robert Aderholt (AL); Rick Allen (GA); Jodey Arrington (TX); ; Brian Babin (TX); ; Jim Baird (IN); Jim Banks (IN); Cliff Bentz (OR); Jack Bergman (MI); Stephanie Bice (OK); Andy Biggs (AZ); Dan Bishop (NC); Lauren Boebert (CO); Mike Bost (IL); Mo Brooks (AL); Ted Budd (NC); Tim Burchett (TN); Michael Burgess (TX); Ken Calvert (CA); Kat Cammack (FL); Jerry Carl (AL); Buddy Carter (GA); John Carter (TX); Madison Cawthorn (NC); Steve Chabot (OH); Ben Cline (VA); Michael Cloud (TX); Andrew Clyde (GA); Tom Cole (OK); Rick Crawford (AR); Warren Davidson (OH); Scott DesJarlais (TN); Mario Diaz-Balart (FL); Byron Donalds (FL); Jeff Duncan (SC); Neal Dunn (FL); Ron Estes (KS); Pat Fallon (TX); Michelle Fischbach (MN); Scott Fitzgerald (WI); Chuck Fleischmann (TN); Virginia Foxx (NC); Scott Franklin (FL); Russ Fulcher (ID); Matt Gaetz (FL); Mike Garcia (CA); Bob Gibbs (OH); Carlos Gimenez (FL); Louie Goober Gohmert (TX); Bob Good (VA); Lance Gooden (TX); Paul Gosar (AZ); Garret Graves (LA); Sam Graves (MO); Mark Green (TN); Marjorie Greene (GA); Morgan Griffith (VA); Michael Guest (MS); Jim Hagedorn (MN); Andy Harris (MD); Diana Harshbarger (TN); Vicky Hartzler (MO); Kevin Hern (OK); Yvette Herrell (NM); Jody Hice (GA); Clay Higgins (LA); Richard Hudson (NC); Darrell Issa (CA); Ronny Jackson (TX); Chris Jacobs (NY); Mike Johnson (LA); Bill Johnson (OH); Jim Jordan (OH); John Joyce (PA); Fred Keller (PA); Trent Kelly (MS); Mike Kelly (PA); David Kustoff (TN); Doug LaMalfa (CA); Doug Lamborn (CO); Jacob LaTurner (KS); Debbie Lesko (AZ); Billy Long (MO); Barry Loudermilk (GA); Frank Lucas (OK); Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO); Nicole Malliotakis (NY); Tracey Mann (KS); Brian Mast (FL); Kevin McCarthy (CA); Lisa McClain (MI); Daniel Meuser (PA); Mary Miller (IL); Carol Miller (WV); Alex Mooney (WV); Barry Moore (AL); Markwayne Mullin (OK); Gregory Murphy (NC); Troy Nehls (TX); Ralph Norman (SC); Devin Nunes (CA); Jay Obernolte (CA); Burgess Owens (UT); Steven Palazzo (MS); Gary Palmer (AL); Greg Pence (IN); Scott Perry (PA); August Pfluger (TX); Bill Posey (FL); Guy Reschenthaler (PA); Tom Rice (SC); Mike Rogers (AL); Hal Rogers (KY); John Rose (TN); Matt Rosendale (MT); David Rouzer (NC); John Rutherford (FL); Steve Scalise (LA); David Schweikert (AZ); Pete Sessions (TX); Jason Smith (MO); Adrian Smith (NE); Lloyd Smucker (PA); Elise Stefanik (NY); Greg Steube (FL); Chris Stewart (UT); Glenn Thompson (PA); Tom Tiffany (WI); William Timmons (SC); Jefferson Van Drew (NJ); Beth Van Duyne (TX); Tim Walberg (MI); Jackie Walorski (IN); Randy Weber (TX); Daniel Webster (FL); Roger Williams (TX); Joe Wilson (SC); Rob Wittman (VA); Ron Wright (TX); Lee Zeldin (NY)

 

This Week's Sneak Peek

This has nothing to do with This Week's Sneak Peek, but have you noticed how time and time again, Trumpsters say that a primary reason that they support Donald Trump is because "he sticks it to the liberals"?

GREENE: What draws you to him? Like, if you were to talk about why you were going to cast a vote...

MARY JEAN: Well, he's a New Yorker. And he pisses people off, like, to no end. And...

GREENE: And you like that?

MARY JEAN: Yeah. I find him hysterical. My husband and I would sit here and laugh at him. They don't get his jokes. And people, like, go, oh, he said this. No. He was joking. It's like he kind of goes - he has a crassness about him that I kind of like, being a New Jersey girl (laughter). So I kind of like that.

In eight years of the Obama presidency, did you ever once hear anyone talk about how great it was to have a president who "sticks it to" conservatives? No. Barack Obama actually tried to get along with them. He came to office in a time of national crisis and named three Republicans to his cabinet (only to have Republicans decide that bipartisan cooperation was bad for the party).

You can buy "Make Liberals Cry Again" bumper stickers for your car, and a wide variety of "Fuck Liberals" t-shirts. You can even ruin the family Christmas with "Trump-Pence Snowflake Gift Wrap." And in case you want to argue that it's all harmless fun, the kid accused of murdering protesters in Kenosha is said to enjoy "Triggering the Libs." This time, he used an AR-15.

Trump l'oeilists drove through a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, Oregon last night, spewing pepper spray at peaceful protesters. Can you imagine the uproar if liberals had driven through the "Reopen" rallies doing that back in May? 

I suppose it might have gotten them to wear masks, though.

This "stick it to liberals" is by no means unique to Donald Trump. Here in Wisconsin, we remember back in the 1990's when Republican Governor Tommy Thompson campaigned for the five-county stadium surtax by telling folks outside the southeast corner of the state that the surtax was an opportunity to "stick it to 'em" in Milwaukee.

And the folks in Red Wisconsin ate it up.

But at least Thompson later apologized for his "poor choice of words."

Trump could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue ― by mistake ― and he still would never apologize for it.

And now he's bringing his crass ass here to Kenosha tomorrow to see how his pissing people off can boost his presidential campaign. God help us.

QToon: Balls and Strikes

"Judges are like umpires.... I will decide every case based on the record, according to the rule of law, without fear or favor, to the best of my ability, and I will remember that it’s my job to call balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat." —John Roberts, at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing, September 12, 2005

Brian Brown, the president of the antigay National Organization for Marriage and World Congress of Families, recently tweeted a photo of himself and and leaders of the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith posing with Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito.

Since the Supremes have taken up three LGBTQ+ rights cases this year, a liberal advocacy group, Take Back the Court, is demanding that Kavanaugh and Alito recuse themselves from them.

The Supreme Court has become deeply politicized in recent years, thanks to a series of rulings like Shelby County v. Holder, Citizens United, and Rucho v. Common Cause that have undermined basic tenets of our democracy for partisan advantage. The successful and unprecedented efforts by political branches to manipulate the size of the court for partisan purposes and your behavior, Justice Kavanaugh, during your confirmation hearings, have only deepened concerns about the politicization of the court. Your decision to meet privately with an activist who has filed amicus briefs with the court in three pending cases seems to confirm the worst fears of his critics.

The public letter from Take Back the Court director Aaron Belkin concludes:

The credibility and impartiality of the current Supreme Court is in tatters. Posing for photographs with the president of an advocacy organization that has filed briefs in matters pending before the court makes a mockery of Chief Justice Roberts’ assertion that a judge’s role is to impartially call balls and strikes. If you refuse to recuse yourselves, this incident will further illustrate the urgent need for structural reform of the Supreme Court in order to restore a Court that understands its role is to protect individual rights and our democracy.

Brown's NOM has filed amicus briefs in the cases before the Court, urging the Justices to rule that employers have every right to discriminate against LGBTQ+ employees, applicants, and customers. Given how nominees to the Court these days bend themselves into human pretzels trying to avoid answering any question that might someday be relevant to a matter before the Court, it is at least curious that Kavanaugh and Alito would choose to grant such an ex parte photo op.

Recusals of Supreme Court Justices are not so uncommon as you might think. Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from dozens of cases — 28 in her first year on the Court — because as Solicitor General, she had been counsel in some of the litigation of those cases. Sandra Day O’Connor removed herself from cases regarding telecommunications firms because of stocks she owned. Clarence Thomas recused himself from United States v. Virginia because his son was enrolled at The Virginia Military Institute.

Whether and how Thomas's wife's work as a conservative activist impacts his supposed judicial impartiality is a whole other issue; in his three decades on the Court, he hasn't recused himself from any LGBTQ+ cases to my knowledge.

After all, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, and for that matter Neil Gorsuch and John Roberts were put on the Court to be conservative judicial activists. The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy has been determined to load state and federal courts with their loyal soldiers since Nixon was president, such as Lawrence VanDyke, whom I drew about last week.

If they recused themselves from every liberal v. conservative case, they wouldn't be doing the job they were trained, groomed, and hired to do.

Toon: To Have and To Hold

Here's a take on Donald Joffrey Trump's flag-hugging that isn't rated R for sexual content.

Truer Words

Yes, friends, he said this.

And they cheered.

Q Toon: That's Entertainment

This week's cartoon takes us back a few years. And away from the usual preoccupation with LGBT issues of marriage equality, gays in the military, etc.

In Mr. Limbaugh's latest attempt at an apology for calling Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute whose sexual activities he would like to see posted on YouTube, he claimed to have accidentally departed from lofty conservative standards and become as bad as those lefty liberals:

 "This is the mistake I made: In fighting them on this issue last week, I became like them. Against my own instincts, against my own knowledge, against everything that I know to be right and wrong, I descended to their level when I used those two words to describe Sandra Fluke. That was my error. I became like them."

Conscientious conservatives must be relieved to know that Mr. Limbaugh was in no way emulating the elevated likes of Ann Coulter, or Andrew Breitbart of sainted memory. Nope, it was only a momentary lapse into liberalism. Liberanazilism, even. Sexually demeaning personal attacks are so unlike him!

Columnist Molly Ivins reported (Arizona Republic 10/17/1993) this incident from Limbaugh's TV show—"Here is a Limbaugh joke: Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat. Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is a White House dog?" And he puts up a picture of [13-year-old] Chelsea Clinton.

"Some of these babes, I'm telling you, like the sexual harassment crowd. They're out there protesting what they actually wish would happen to them sometimes." [Reported by Media Matters, 4/26/04]

One may at least take solace in the fact that Mr. Limbaugh is merely an entertainer, as many in the conservative movement have pointed out, and not a leader whom Republican politicians cross at their peril.

The Lingering Effects of the Bush Tax Rates

After all, Obama has been in charge of the economy for over two years. Remember how he put an end to all of G.W. Bush's tax policies, unfunded wars, and Medicare Part D as soon as he sat down in the Oval Office?

This Week's Toon: Boycotting CPAC

The Conservative Political Action Cabal (CPAC) gathers for its annual convention this week without several of its prominent members. Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, Liberty Council, National Organization for Marriage, and other group have objected that one of the conference's sponsors is GOProud, the far-right, but still quite gay, Republican group.

Now it turns out that it's not just an anti-gay thing, however.

Who would believe that organizer Grover Norquist (of "drown the federal government in a bathtub" fame) has ties to Muslim Brotherhood? Who would believe that a panel on freedom of religion is being co-sponsored by (shudder!) an Islamic group? That's too much for many in the conservative - libertarian - tea partisan - Southern Baptistocracy alliance to bear, and even more are streaming to the exits.

How's that Biggy Tenty thing workin' out for ya?

What GOProud Stands For, Part II

In yesterday's blog post, I made an offhand remark in an attempt to describe what sort of LGBT activists GOProud are:

GOProud advocates that gay and lesbian couples deserve tax cuts just like everybody else, and that gays and lesbians who want to serve in the military have a right to purchase glocks at gun shows.

Today, Pam's House Blend reports that GOProud has unveiled its legislative agenda for 2011. Aside from the explanation of their views of "Defending Our Constitution" and a couple other LGBT concerns which they try to piggyback onto major conservative issues, their agenda is nearly indistinguishable from that of the Republican Right's most virulent homophobes.

1 – TAX REFORM
– We support replacing the current tax code with the Fair Tax. Until then, we support death tax repeal; domestic partner tax equity; cuts in the capital gains and corporate tax rates to jump start our economy and create jobs; and a fairer, flatter and substantially simpler tax code.

2 – HEALTHCARE REFORM
– Free market healthcare reform. Allow for the purchase of insurance across state lines - expanding access to domestic partner benefits; emphasizing individual ownership of healthcare insurance – such a shift would prevent discriminatory practices by an employer or the government.

3 – SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM
– The only way to permanent solvency in the Social Security system is through the creation of inheritable personal savings accounts. Personal savings accounts would give gay and lesbian couples the same opportunity to leave their accounts to their spouse as their straight counterparts.

4 – RESPECTING THE PROPER ROLE OF THE JUDICIARY

5 – HOLDING THE LINE ON SPENDING
– Standing up for all tax payers against wasteful and unnecessary spending to protect future generations from the mounting federal debt.

6 – FIGHTING GLOBAL EXTREMISTS
– Standing strong against radical regimes that refuse to recognize the basic human rights of gays and lesbians, women and religious minorities.

7 – DEFENDING OUR CONSTITUTION
– Opposing any anti-gay federal marriage amendment. Marriage should be a question for the states. A federal constitutional amendment on marriage would be an unprecedented federal power grab from the states.

8 – ENCOURAGING COMMUNITY ENTREPRENEURSHIP
– Package of free market reforms to encourage and support small businesses and entrepreneurship. Such reforms would create jobs for all Americans – including gay Americans.

9 – REVITALIZING OUR COMMUNITIES
– A package of urban related reforms; expanding historic tax preservation credits; support for school choice.

10 – DEFENDING OUR COMMUNITY
– Protecting 2nd amendment rights.