There is an old story about two businessmen who take a quarrel to the village Rabbi. He listens to the first man’s side, and says "You are right." The second man then gives his version of the argument, and again the Rabbi says "You are right." At that point, an onlooker protests "They can’t both be right!" to which the Rabbi responds "Ah yes. You also are right."
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Conservative Flavors
Personally, I’m not a fan of labels like conservative and liberal. In this era of talk radio, ‘fair and balanced’ television and other venues for political invective, the terms have become accusations rather than descriptions?a substitute for analysis used by voters too lazy to figure out whether they agree with a candidate’s positions. It’s easier just to vote for the guy wearing the appropriate label.
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Log Cabin Republicans
A few months ago, I got an email from Toledo, Ohio. Someone in Log Cabin Republicans had read, ‘What?s a Nice Republican Girl Like Me Doing in the ACLU,’ and wanted me to speak to their chapter. I explained that I would be happy to speak, but that I was no longer Republican.
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When Government Plays Ball
The question is not whether we would like to keep the Colts. Most of us would. I?m an example: I don?t care for sports. I would rather visit my dentist than go to a Colts game (and I really don?t like visiting the dentist!). I?m well aware that the measurable economic impact of major league football is somewhere between miniscule and nonexistent. But I would still like to keep the Colts in Indianapolis. I think there is probably a public relations benefit to being a ?major league? city, and I like the civic pride that is generated when the team is winning. All things being equal, I?d build the Colts a stadium. But all things aren?t equal.
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Gay Wedgings
Allow me to suggest that the real threat to the Republic is not gay weddings. It is gay wedgings–the use of homophobia to create a partisan "wedge issue." Simply put, a wedge issue is the deliberate politicization of a highly charged emotional conflict over social values, intended to drive a wedge between voters and a particular party or candidate. Gun control,especially in the south,can be a wedge issue. ("Those fancy-pants liberals’ll pry this gun out of my cold dead hands..") Vouchers become a wedge issue when the term is used as code for "let’s get your kids out of those classes where they have to sit alongside black children."
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