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Back in January, I wrote a piece titled "This isn't leadership" in a fair amount of anger. The subject was LGBT organizational leaders and donors who, in the face of severe Pentagon pushback on Don't Ask, Don't Tell and White House demurring on the issue, along with inaction or setbacks on a number of other issues, got together and wrung their hands over what to do (which became public, to boot). One of my central points is that you have to get out there in the media and push back, hard, or what happens around you will define the debate and the conventional wisdom on political strategy.
Via VLaszlo in Quick Hits, there's an article in Politico with labor union leaders trashing Democrats over the Becker nomination, Employee Free Choice Act, TSA unionization, trade agreements, merit pay, on and on. The biggest lesson that stands out for me, and should stand out for the LGBT community, is this:
Union leaders warn that the Democrats' lackluster performance in power is sapping the morale of activists going into the midterm elections.
"Right now if we don't get positive changes to the agenda, we're going to have a hard time getting members out to work," said United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard, in an interview.
"There's no use pretending any longer."
The biggest threat, of course, is apathy from a Democratic constituency that has a history of mobilizing for elections.
"You're just not going to be able to go to our membership in the November elections and say, 'Come on, let's do it again. Look at what the Democratic administration has done for us!'" Gage said. "People are going to say, 'Huh? What have the Democrats done for us?'"
This is exactly what I called for in my piece, and exactly what LGBT advocates should be doing. Conventional wisdom has always been that LGBT rights is among the issues that hurt Democrats and progressives in the elections, and should generally be avoided, or prioritized way down the list. After Scott Brown's election, to me, that has only become more true, with "We need to do jobs! Jobs jobs jobs!" becoming the drumbeat from the White House, "Democratic strategists" and any number of members of Congress. Part of that, to many, is that "controversial" issues (read: LGBT issues) should be put off.
Legislative action, much less success, on any number of LGBT issues including Don't Ask, Don't Tell, is far from certain, and our side needs to be lighting a fire under the White House and Congress, and warning of apathy from LGBT voters, or the Newsweek prediction from December will come true.
Labor gets it. LGBT leaders: take a cue from our allies and follow their lead.
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