The GOP's Wide Stance

Larry Craig's not much of a criminal, but he makes one hell of a hypocrite. The twisted gay-phobia that drives much of the modern Republican Party's so-called "social" agenda has been (once again) unmasked in the right-wing Senator's public bathroom hijinks as just a lever to power, the turning of America's strange relationship with sexual matters to electoral advantage.

A gay Republican Senator from conservative Idaho doesn't fit the formula, so Craig did all the right things. He voted for the Defense of Marriage Act , voted to cut off debate on the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and voted against a bill prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, which failed by one vote in the Senate. He's got the typically perfect anti-gay record of mainstream Republicans everywhere.

That some of those Republicans actually are gay should surprise no one. Principle means nothing to this bunch. It's all about power. And being gay doesn't bring in votes from the faithful. Nor does it engender much loyalty in political friendships. John McCain called for Craig's resignation from the Senate and Mitt Romney ran as fast as he could from Senator Craig, who chaired his campaign in Idaho.

But I find the poses of tolerance most hypocritical - especially from self-described enlightened conservative commentators who occasionally decry the hardest-core views of their right-wing audiences as extreme, even while knowing those same beliefs are at the very core of social conservatism. Such a hypocrite is the popular Hugh Hewitt, who presents the "I have lived among them"  underpinning of his attacks on Senator Craig's behavior. Hold the Purell bottle in ready position and read on:

I spent several years living in working in Boston’s Back Bay and South End neighborhoods.  Both had large gay populations.  I won’t resort to the old clich that many of my best friends are gay, because they’re not (although I do have questions about a few of them – you know who you are).  But spending a lot of time around gays in my neighborhood, at the gym and at work, I got to know the community. Good people.  I think these experiences are partly to credit for why I’m more favorably inclined to the gay agenda than most arch-conservatives.

Behavior like Craig’s confirms the worst and darkest prejudices of people who fear and/or loathe the gay community. Larry Craig is an outlier, and his behavior a disgrace to everyone who has associated or is now associated with him – the Republican Party, conservatives, Mitt Romney, and gay America.  People who care about the gay community should be rushing to condemn Larry Craig and distance themselves from him.  And yet they’d rather score cheap political points.

Yes, "good people." All those queer folk in Boston are. It's well known. Not like those bastards in South Beach or San Francisco or P-town, I can tell ya. How cloying and self-serving and condescending, as if being a straight, white arch-conservative is anything worth bragging about. Thank God, the gays in Boston were kind to Old Man Hewitt, or he might not be so "favorably inclined."

And liberals and libertarians, yes, they're the ones scoring cheap political points by offering lukewarm defenses of Craig's cruising offense. Not the Republicans fleeing from their fellow social conservative, playing up the sexual hatred in this country for votes, whoring themselves for power - and taking a very wide stance indeed on what passes for principle in today's GOP.

UPDATE: I think Glenn Greenwald puts it quite well indeed:

The issue is not that these Traditional Marriage proponents sometimes stray from their own standards. People are imperfect and will inevitably do so. The point is that they apply these supposed "principles" only when it is expedient to do so, only in ways that are politically comfortable, thus revealing the complete inauthenticity of their alleged convictions.

Comments

[Kevin K.]

Tom, thanks.

That's probably the best editorial commentary I've read regarding to the Larry Craig debacle.

[Tom W.]

Thanks Kevin....it's the rank hypocrisy that kills me.

[Tony Alva]

As much of a hypocrite Craig is (and he IS a big one), in the end I feel bad for the guy. I can't imagine what an ordeal it is to pretend to be straight when one is gay and keep the ruse going through a marrige, career, etc... Hell, I'd be relieved to have the burdan of the lies lifted after so long.

I'm not big on outing people who don't want to be outed. I beleive that one has the right to be as private as they feel comfortable with when it comes to things like sexual preferences, but if I were leading a private gay life as a straight person one thing I wouldn't do is be elected to the Senate and vote against homosexual rights. In the end, the old cliche rings true: He wanted to be caught.