Patrick Murphy, Conservatism And Don't Ask, Don't Tell-- Is There Ever Such a Thing As a Good Blue Dog?

Short answer: no. Longer answer: some Blue Dogs are better than others. In fact, some are MUCH better. If you missed this OpEd in yesterday's Washington Post you might not be aware that the battle to end the discriminatory Don't Ask Don't Tell military policy in Congress is being led by Pennsylvania Blue Dog-- and Iraq War vet-- Patrick Murphy. Patrick's district includes New Hope, a pretty gay area. His overall congressional voting record has been fairly abysmal since he first won office in 2006-- the 202nd "most progressive" Democrat in the House. In terms of the Pennsylvania delegation only proto-Republicans-- and fellow Blue Dogs-- Chris Carney and Jason Altmire vote more frequently with the GOP than Murphy.

However, Murphy has endeared himself to one segment of the progressive coalition-- gays-- by getting out front on this important issue. Today he sent out a fundraising mailer to his supporters reminding them of his role and recommending everyone check out his excellent Let Them Serve website. Patrick's newsletter mentions that "After adding 13 new co-sponsors, we are now up to 163, but we need 218." He doesn't mention that when the House passed the Matthew Shepard anti-hate crimes bill-- which he supported-- the only Democrats opposing it were 15 rabid homophobic Blue Dog colleagues of his who joined every single Republican voting that day in opposition.There has been some hope that because Murphy is himself a Blue Dog who votes so badly on most things he could lure some of the other Blue Dogs into supporting the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. The 15 anti-gay Blue Dog Democrats are Dan Boren (OK), Chris Carney (PA), Travis Childers (MS), Joe Donnelly (IN), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Parker Griffith (AL), Baron Hill (IN), Frank Kratovil (MD), Mike McIntyre (NC), Walt Minnick (ID), Heath Shuler (NC), Gene Taylor (MS), Charlie Melancon (LA), Lincoln Davis (TN) and Mike Ross (AR). Patrick hasn't made any progress with any of them yet-- at least none that is public.

Also opposing the abolition of DADT are the 5 best known Republican closet queens and congressional gay hypocrites, David Dreier (R-CA), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Aaron Schock (R-IL) and Adrian Smith (R-NE).

Obviously not everyone in Pennsylvania agrees with Murphy on this issue. Many, in fact, are as a viciously anti-gay-- to the point of suspicious hysteria-- as Republican homophobes Charlie Dent, Jim Gerlach (an old pal of GOP child molester Mark Foley) and the rest of the Republicans in the Pennsylvania congressional delegation plus, of course, anti-gay fanatic Chris Carney. Today WCSH in Lewiston, Maine reports that a conservative group in Pennsylvania, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, is up in Maine campaigning against marriage equality. The name of the group immediately reminded me of Mike Lux's brilliant new book The Progressive Revolution-- How The Best In America Came To Be. The Pennsylvanians say "gay marriage is harmful to society because children do not have a mother and father. They also claim that marriages performed at City Hall, without God present, are not really marriages. However the group is not arguing that issue while in Maine."

Their arguments are next to identical to the kinds of arguments Lux points out in his book that conservatives have made since they first argued against the Declaration of Independence. In fact, conservatives have been on the wrong side of every crucial argument that has uplifted America right from the beginning. Had we listened to their siren songs of the status quo which emphasize "adhering to tradition, empowering elites, and championing individualism" over public purpose, this is what would be missing from American history today, each of which was opposed by conservatives as hysterically as they are opposing gay equality today:

* The American Revolution

* The Bill of Rights

* Universal white male suffrage

* Public education

* The emancipation of the slaves

* The national park system

* Food safety

* The breakup of monopolies

* The Homestead Act

* Land grant universities

* Rural electrification

* Women's suffrage

*The abolition of child labor

* The eight-hour workday

* The minimum wage

* Civil rights for minorities and women

* Voting rights for minorities and the poor

* Cleaning up our air, our water, and toxic dump sites

* Consumer product safety

*Medicare and Medicaid

The battle between reactionaries and progressives is ongoing. The arguments are largely unchanging. It's nice that Patrick Murphy is on the right side of history in this case. It remains to be seen if he can bring some of his Blue Dogs cronies over with him.