I have been out of town for the past few days, attending the Right Online conference put on by Americans for Prosperity in Las Vegas, where I met dozens of fantastic conservative voices from blogs and media a like and I will post an article about the conference soon.
One of the most important things that I learned was that, no matter what any one’s personal opinion of my sexuality was, they welcomed me to the conservative movement with open arms. They held no disregard for me nor did they have any wish to restrict my life in any way. These are the people whose voices are heard by the current President and the GOP nominee for President on a daily basis. We are not silent, we make ourselves known, but that does not mean that we become like liberals. Bad mouthing and attacking our fellow conservatives that have disagreements with us. One of the things that was said at the conference was that we need to have each others backs now, because as conservatives (especially those in the New Media) grow as a movement, liberals will see us as an even bigger target and we can’t afford to be tearing each other down.
I regularly call myself a lesbian conservative, but perhaps that should be reversed. I am a conservative lesbian. Especially in this day and age.
If we had a choice between a Democratic candidate who could fix our country and a Republican candidate who could fix our country, then I would consider their stances on social issues before I would consider who I voted for. I care about this country more than I care about myself and I will choose the best president for the country as a whole.
We do not have the luxury of infighting during this election year. Romney must win. Obamacannot win because I fully believe that if Obama has a second term (no matter how that would affect gay marriage or any other gay issue) he would do irreparable damage to this country and I am not willing to allow that to happen.
I will make something else clear. This blog is open to all members of OutRight Patriots to write on. Despite this, the views expressed on this blog do not represent the views of all the members. While I consider Heine911 a friend, I do not hold the same views that she does.
“Gay rights” are pretty far the hell down on my list of priorities for this country, while clearly they still brush the upper tier of Heine911′s list.
At the same time that I respect my difference of opinion with Heine911, I am hugely offended by the treatment that two of the best conservatives that I know, ConservativeCathy and CrisAP, when Heine911 stated that they were frightened by their responsibility as a voter or conservative. I know for a fact that they will both “hold [Mitt Romney's] feet to the fire” and hold him responsible for his actions as a President. Her assertion, in the comments of one of her posts that asking questions of Mitt Romney brought “out legions of flying monkeys shrieking and flinging poop” was not only rude, but incorrect if you looked at the comments of the 2 Romney supporters on the blogs. They responded to her concerns honestly and with evidence in many cases to back up their political beliefs. Heine911′s description of their views would have you believing that they were common liberal trolls on a blog post, which they were not. If anything, they gave more evidence in their comments than Heine911 gave in hers.
However, I don’t want this to become a ‘he said/she said’ set of accusations about who was right or who was wrong in the exchange that occurred over the last few days.
The luxury of infighting and sniping at each other over our slight differences in opinion will come back after we have a President in office who doesn’t seem to be invested in destroying America and it’s interests. It is irresponsible on a huge scale to not do everything in our power to get Obama out of the office and get Romney in the office.
I only want to make it clear that, as one of the founding members of this organization, that conservatives and libertarians of many different views are welcome and I hope that we can stop the sniping and fighting between ourselves…as issues like this are the ones that have typically made me uncomfortable in the liberal gay community. I don’t feel welcome in a group where my beliefs are constantly being belittled and attacked and must be defended at every turn. That is not the intention of this group.
heine911
Mel Maguire
meredithancret
rhderivation
Comments on: "I have no idea what just happened here." (10)
Honestly, I don’t think Lori meant to attack anyone. I think she’s frustrated at the slow forward momentum (which sometimes feels like a slog through raw molasses), which I can understand. I have come across as attacking people before and didn’t realize it until someone pointed it out to me…we’re all a work in progress.
I admit that you are most likely right in this case. I have felt that frustration before as well, but it’s still important to approach fellow conservatives with respect and understand where our differences are and try to bridge that gap. Anger doesn’t change anyone.
What I did was make an assertion — that we must raise our voices to let the powers-that-be (and those who aspire to such power, like Romney) know that we are part of his base if we’re going to vote for him.
I still don’t see why that assertion should be considered anything but encouraging and empowering.
For saying that, I was condescended to, basically called a paranoid and an ignoramus. The subject was changed, and excuses offered as to why we don’t need to rock the boat.
I suggested, in my last post, that perhaps Romney might actually welcome hearing from voters who are not social conservative.
I stand by what I said. If the time has come that our input truly is not welcome to those we elect to serve us in the government, then this has become something other than the United States of America.
I admit to having gotten angry. But it is not “conservative” to attack commenters for daring to sugest that the power in this country belongs to The People, or that we have a right to exercise that power by making our voices heard. I never said it was inevitable that the FMA would pass — or that Mitt Romney had any particular attachment to it. I suggested there was something fundamentally wrong with it, and that we needed to be vigilant about this sort of proposed amendment and to speak out against it.
It sounds, to many libertarians, as if Romney is already becoming something of an idol to some Republicans. libertarians tend to be suspicious of that sort of reaction to power. I’m very glad we are.
What happened over the weekend was that two conservatives clashed with a libertarian. I am beginning to wonder whether I care to use the name “conservative” at all. The reaction to a mere suggestion that American citizens have a right to speak out to their candidates does not seem to be a very conservative one.
“Nothing bad will happen. We can trust our leaders. You are ignorant and paranoid for suggesting otherwise” is not conservative.
It was not a reaction to your assertion that we should speak out (both of the people who spoke out are very outspoken, one has published a book on conservatism) it was a reaction to your concerns about Mitt Romney, first and foremost.
I feel you went to far and that you began attacking them, in a very over the top liberal manner (such as referring to them as “legions of flying monkeys flinging poo” I mean…really Lori?) and that if you are going to make those sorts of rude arguments and putdowns on this page you will scare off potential members of the group because, as I said, most conservatives already get attacked in groups of friends, they won’t want to join a group where they will be attacked and have to constantly defend themselves.
It’s a matter of how you approach the issue, not whether you should approach it.
I would also offer another perspective on the idea that liberals will gleefully delight in our clashes with each other. Liberals lie and pretend that conservatives all think alike — and that we all think like social conservatives. I know a great many liberals, especially gay ones, and that view is far more prominent among them than is the view that it’s entertaining to watch us fight each other.
We do need to have each others’ backs. We also need to honestly confront social conservatives who claim to be the sole voice of the Right. That claim seems to be one that liberals want to believe — and that they promulgate. The assertion that we don’t all think alike, and that our movement is broad and resilient enough to encompass both social conservative and libertarian views, is one the Left needs to be exposed to.
Why do liberals regard libertarians as such a threat they don’t like admitting that we exist? They certainly don’t mind admitting that social conservatives exist. That says something highly illustrative right there.
Libertarians deserve better than to be treated as skunks at the garden party because we tell the truth about differences that do exist on the Right. They are there, and they need to be hashed out. It is not a matter of “not having each other’s backs” because some of us do so.
In response to Meredith, as the system isn’t giving me the option of hitting “reply” –
Agreed. I got a little over-the-top in my comeback. Most libertarians are so alienated from conservatives at this point that they won’t even join a group that has the word “conservative” in it, which is why it’s a good thing we chose Out Right Patriots as the name of ours.
If more libertarians show up here, be warned — there will be more heated discussions. Even if I hold my tongue when I’m called “paranoid” and “naive,” not everyone will. We will need to discuss further what the parameters will be on commentary and on the bloggers’ response to comments.
“Why do you bother?” is what some of my libertarian friends have asked me about the fact that I continue to discuss issues with conservatives at all. They use words like “sellout” to describe people who would even consider voting for Romney. There’s still a wide divide between conservatives and liberals on the matter of how citizens ought to deal with those in power.
You’re trying to bring in more conservatives, and I’m trying to bring in more libertarians. In the larger conservative movement, those two factions are about to have a very messy and acrimonious divorce. Most conservatives — like you, and like your friends — are simply caught in the middle. But it’s coming, and we all need to think about how we’re going to deal with it.
There — there’s the “Reply” button, so I’ll reply to myself.
It sounds as if I’m being self-contradictory when I say the Right is broad and resilient enough to encompass both libertarians and social cons and then I say these two are about to divorce. It doesn’t mean that individuals who are socially conservative cannot coexist in the same movement with those who are libertarian. What it does mean is that the central goals of these two groups — concerning government — are totally at-odds with each other.
Either we want small government or we want big government. We can’t only have big government that does the things we want, while having small government in all other ways. “Conservative” big government is the intensive care unit of Leftist liberalism; it keeps it on life-support in periods when it’s less popular, so it can come back — like Frankenstein — when the public forgets its past failures.
What I did was make an assertion — that we must raise our voices to let the powers-that-be (and those who aspire to such power, like Romney) know that we are part of his base if we’re going to vote for him.
At the risk of further offending anyone – I just want to say that I never understood that point from any previous statements of yours and I was only trying to convey that there are far more egregious issues at this time. So again I apologize that I did not understand what point your were making.
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