After some of the more unreliable Alabama blogs recently propagated rumors that a state official - a Republican state official - is gay they frequently defended their rumor mongering by proclaiming that, if true, the claims would be a sign of hypocrisy.  You see, this official has made statements in the past that were certainly not gay friendly.  Therefore, he was deemed a hypocrite, although the rumors have been neither confirmed nor denied as of yet.  Being a hypocrite apparantly gives some people considerable motivation to shout loudly about your lack of consistency.  Or does it?

I’ve found that it isn’t purely hypocrisy that sets these individuals (and by these individuals I’m referring to leftist Democrats) off.  It is a specific subset of hypocritical behavior pertaining to homosexual activity involving (or even allegedly involving) Republicans that really excites them.  For example, when it was widely reported that the high priest of the global warmitarian movement, Al Gore, used 232 times more power than the average home there was a deafening silence from left wing Democrats.  Why?  That was a prime example of rank hypocrisy.  Gore has made millions lecturing us about how our excessive energy usage is going to destroy the planet, but he doesn’t feel that he should restrict his own energy consumption.  Try finding examples of liberals deriding 2003 Cesar Chavez award winner Nancy Pelosi for using non-union labor to harvest grapes at her vineyard.  Anything you might find (there were no posts at Daily Kos) certainly will not be written with the same zeal as with an allegedly gay Republican story.

So why the infatuation with connecting Republicans with homosexuality?  I find the obsession and propensity to broadly disseminate any allegations is at odds with their (liberal Democrats) belief structure.  I say this because they clearly aren’t interested strictly because of hypocrisy.  Otherwise there would be more consistency.  No, they particularly enjoy the gay Republican stories because they like to use them as an opportunity to rid themselves of political adversaries by playing on bigotry against gay people.

As a parallel, consider the recent U.S. Senate campaign of Harold Ford, Jr.  During the campaign an ad was ran against Ford that included a white, faux Playboy Playmate.  The ad was lambasted by liberals who said that it played on racial fears.  Merely insinuating an interracial relationship, the logic follows, is tantamount to bigotry since some in the target audience might harbor latent (or even overt) prejudices.

In the case of “outing” gay Republicans liberals are using basically the same tactic.  Their target audience is not fellow liberals, but rather Republican voters who may harbor prejudices against gay people.  By “outing” a Republican they can erode his support and make the position vulnerable to Democrat takeover.  The problem is that this method requires the same stoking of fears that they found so objectionable when Republicans were the ones accused of engaging in such tactics.  The Democrats aren’t “outing” Republicans to enhance acceptance of gays, which is one of their stated political goals, they are stirring up a fervor of anti-gay sentiment for polticial gain.

Liberals like to mask their tactic by proclaiming that they are just pointing out hypocrisy.  If that were the case we would expect them to point out all hypocrisy with similar glee.  The sad fact is that they are perpetuating anti-gay feelings in order to vanquish political opponents.

Personally, I also enjoy pointing out hypocrisy and I admit that anti-gay people who get caught in gay scandals presents an easy target that I have not shied away from (when the facts support it).  But without a measure of consistency ones motives come into question.

Aside: I’m watching The Birdcage on AMC as I type this post - entirely by coincidence.  One of my favorite movies that also deals with homosexuality and amusing political hypocrisy.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 10:04 am and is filed under Social Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.