Election Day Turnout; Don't Count Out McCain; More on Transgenders and ENDA ...Aug. 05‚ 2008To the editor: The subject is Randy Shaw's interesting article (August 4, 2008) in which he discussed the likely very heavy turnout in the November election. We will definitely need to predict in advance how many ballots will be needed, including a safety factor. Define the "throughput capacity" of a polling place as the number of voters it can handle per time period, perhaps voters per hour. A key issue is whether or not the throughput capacity is sufficient, relative to the demand presented by the voters. Optical-scan technology does well in this respect, while touch-screen machines do poorly. Op-scan machines cost less, because we need fewer ot them. Please see my article, "Standing in Line To Vote, and Why We Shouldn't Have To": www.tinyurl.com/2p932t Thomas L. Jones, PhD Silver Spring, MD On The Matter of John McCain... For the last few months, I have seen many letters, articles, and web postings saying in no uncertain terms how Democrat Barack Obama will win the upcoming Presidential election this November, and also how his Republican opponent, John McCain, has no chance at all. A respected progressive activist even put such an opinion at the masthead of a previous Beyond Chron article. At present, Senator Obama gives all the appearance that the election has already been decided four months before the fact. Indeed, during his recent trip to Europe and the Middle East, the Democratic candidate did all he could to give the impression of being a head of state. But this way of thinking is an invitation to disaster, for in politics, as in war, it is the height of folly to underestimate one's opponent. And indeed, it is a dangerous thing to dismiss Senator McCain as a viable opponent. A few facts about the Republican nominee need to be told here. First, politics has long been a part of John McCain's life. When he was a young Midshipman and Student Naval Aviator, his father, Admiral John Sydney McCain senior, was Congressional liaison officer for the Navy Department, where he earned the moniker "Mr. Sea Power." It was here that the Admiral's son first made the acquaintance of many members of Congress. Soon after his return from Vietnam, then Captain McCain served in this very same position, where he made many friendships which continue to the present day, so a political neophyte he is not. In fact, it was this experience that made McCain decide to pursue a political career, so much as to turn down an appointment to the rank of Rear Admiral. In Congress and later in the Senate, he did not hesitate to cross the aisle on many issues, and has a long history of making alliances with Democratic legislators. It's because of this that John McCain earned a reputation as being the "Maverick", which, by the way, was also his favorite TV show. In a recent Washington Post column, political writer David Broder stated the following: "Arizona's Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, who sees her home-state senator at close range, said, "He is not to be underestimated." An Obama supporter, Napolitano said that McCain is "a gifted campaigner with a great life story. When everything seemed to go wrong for him last year, I told people, 'Never write John McCain off.' " The fact that Senator McCain came from behind to win this year's Republican primary, after having been all but ignored by the nation's political establishment, is something that must be taken into account. Being the underdog is a situation he knows very well, and is an environment that he thrives in. His life experiences as a Vietnam POW, a legislator, and a previous Presidential candidate give McCain vast experience in dealing with the stresses and subtleties of campaigning. For example, during his public appearances, Obama tends not to engage in question and answer sessions with the public. McCain, on the other hand, steps right into the crowd and debates people face to face, much to the chagrin of the Secret Service. And to those who would say that John McCain is Bush III, I offer the following anecdote. On the occasion of Bush giving his formal endorsement to the Republican nominee at the White House, the President was forced to wait 15 minutes for Senator McCain to arrive. Speaking as a former military officer myself, it is the very height of disrespect to keep one's Commander in Chief waiting. In effect, McCain gave the Dubya the draft-dodger a proverbial back of his hand. At this point, I will state for the record that I will not vote for John McCain this November. His unwavering support of the twin disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan, along with supporting NAFTA, nuclear power, resuming offshore oil drilling, and his opposition to reproductive choice and medical marijuana, make it impossible for me to support him. I will also say that I make this decision with a great deal of sadness and regret, for in spite of all this, I still respect this man for the sacrifices both he and his family have made in their service to our country. On a personal note, four years ago I had the unique opportunity to debate Senator McCain on the air when he appeared on KPFA during a book tour. We agreed on some things and disagreed on Iraq and Afghanistan, but at both the beginning and the end of our conversation, he thanked me for my military service. This compliment is something I've always remembered, because, in this one instance, I sensed a genuine sincerity in his words. I'll finish here by mentioning something that was told to me a number of years ago by some friends from Australia. In the land down under, they have term called "Tall Poppy", which describes someone who's come up fast and high above everyone else, but whose backside is way up in the air for all to see, just waiting to be kicked. Senator Obama is now in this very same position, for while he receives almost adoring news coverage, he at the same time is under a proverbial public microscope. There is a great danger in this, for while the media can quickly build someone up; they can just as easily tear them down. And having way too much overconfidence can indeed destroy you, just ask the Captain of the Titanic. Sincerely, John F. Davies Berkeley, California To the Editor: The task before queers as respects ENDA is legislative. But the approach being taken by those who insist on holding back LGB rights until transgender folks can find the votes looks much more like an emotional salve more appropriate to the therapist's couch than the halls of Congress. Unable to argue on the merits of my critique of the Democratic Caucus and United ENDA, Hale Thompson elects to go ad hominem, by attacking me and my motives instead of the substance of my comments. And Thompsons' arguments are like a discussion with a therapist than a proactive plan for legislative victory. What is insular and privileged here is the insistance by more comfortable LGBT living in the progressive coastal enclaves that the rights of lesbians, gays and bisexuals in the flyover to employment protections are expendable even though there are the votes at hand to secure those rights. The critical mass for federal rights for trans folks is simply not at hand. Those rights don't appear to even be close at hand. Therefore, nobody is being thrown under the bus. Trans folks don't have the political equivalent of the bus fare yet and that bus is not coming. They will not be at hand until the political work is done to secure the votes needed to pass legislation. If someone can pull a rabbit out of a hat, then wonderful. If not, there will be more busses coming. There is no evidence that adopting protections for LGB will in any way prevent T from following suit once they've secured the political support, as there are historical models that support the success of that approach and none that I know of that support "all or nothing." Protesting the HRC is not historic--we protested the HRC's stodginess back in 2000--only an easy, ego salving, feel-good distraction from the difficult political work ahead. It seems that transgender activists are still where LGB were 20 years ago during our Queer Nation phase. And during that time, the last major piece of civil rights legislation came to pass, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Did Queer Nation throw a hissy fit that ADA did not include protections for LGBT? Of course not. We welcomed any advance in civil rights even if it did not cover all of us. It is interesting that Thompson mentions same sex marriage. My understanding is that transgender legal advocates made a somewhat expedient and divisive argument in court that runs counter to the demands for kumbiya solidarity today. The argument was that since transgender people had reconciled their physical nature with their identified gender, that they were entitled to opposite sex marriage rights in spite of similar genetic gender. This carried the day, trans folks got to marry, and that was done while LGB were not entitled to marriage at all. Talk about kicking allies in the gonads! Where was the solidarity then? I don't hold doing what was required to win against them but point it out as given their current position, it is an example of hypocrisy enshrined in the black letter of the law. The fact that transgender people face employment discrimination even in San Francisco where they enjoy protections, indicates that something else is probably going on there. The notion that national protections would do what local protections have not requires substantiation. My read is that a campaign to promote universal access to transgender-specific health care, both physical and mental, will do as much to solve the employment problem as ENDA. I more than imagine the psychological anguish people must feel knowing that mental self identity is at odds with physical characteristics and how that might impact someone's labor market viability and what it must be like to lack access to health care. Many LGB have faced psychological issues in reconciling our desire to live normative with society's remnant hostility. No, what's happening here is that transgender people are going to have to deal with the difficult fact that many individuals whose support is required wince and cringe when they think about transgender rights because they think first of gender reassignment surgery because they falsely assume that all transgendered people wish to cut off genatalia. Many winced decades ago at the thought of gay male sex. As they say, it hurts at first when it goes in, but after a while you get used to it and eventually come to enjoy it. Mainstream America is used to LGB, they don't quite enjoy all of us yet, but as far as transgender people go, it still hurts them. Continued visibility in the community and a coordinated program of lobbying to identify those lacking votes in Congress is the only thing that matters now. And as you all focus on protesting to the exclusion of legislation, tens of millions of LGB in the flyover are waiting for job protections, no matter how meager. The reason to settle for ENDA lite now is because that is all we can get now. Why should we take admonishments to hold fast on principle from an officer in the Harvey Milk Club, which recently formed a unity pact with the conservative Alice B. Toklas Club, or from organized labor which routinely leaves working people in the lurch? Politics is all about compromise and getting what you can when you can while the window is open before it closes. If this window closes unexpectedly, then the wait could go on for decades. Marc Salomon San Francisco You can submit letters to the editor by clicking on this link: feedback@beyondchron.org or by writing to: Beyond Chron 126 Hyde Street San Francisco, CA 94102 415-771-9850 (phone) |