DownWithTyranny!: What Happens When A Democrat Savagely Attacks LGBT Equality? Steve Israel Recruits Him To Run For Congress

Later this month early voting starts on North Carolina's proposed homophobic Amendment One. And May 8 is election day, the same day that North Carolina goes to the polls to select candidates in primaries across the state. Democratic candidates, of course, are opposing the amendment. Republicans are mixed. Last week a couple of big-name Republicans, Richard Vinroot and Robert Orr, joined Tea Party Congresswoman Renee Ellmers in publicly denouncing the amendment.

In an interview with the Charlotte Observer, Vinroot, the former mayor of Charlotte and Republican nominee for governor, reinforced his opposition to Amendment One in his response to comments made by amendment proponent and House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg), who told North Carolina State University students this week that the amendment would likely be repealed.

“My reaction, was, ‘My gosh, the legislature wants us to put something in the Constitution that the leader of our party-- the speaker of the House-- doesn’t think will stand the test of time for more than a decade,’ ” Vinroot told the Observer. “I can’t imagine amending the Constitution for something he believes is that tenuous.”

Orr, a former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice, expressed his own concerns to the Observer about the necessity for Amendment One's constitutional rewrite, saying “Any provision that has to be put into the ‘miscellaneous’ section of the constitution immediately raises questions about whether it should be in the state constitution,” he said. “It’s probably not a provision that ought to be in."

Earlier I mentioned that Democrats are opposing the amendment. I should have qualified that. In the most western part of the state, NC-11, there's a dedicated homophobe and bully running who is telling audiences to vote for it. That's Heath Shuler's chief-of-staff, Hayden Rogers. When Shuler looked at polling and realized he would lose this time, he announced his retirement and started negotiating for a job with some of K Street's most corrupt and sleaziest lobbyist firms. "Ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel immediately recruited Rogers, a Shuler doppelgänger. Like Shuler he's fanatically anti-Choice, promises to vote with the Republicans in their War Against Women (and on most substantive issues facing Congress) and is virulently anti-LGBT. He's opposing progressive icon Cecil Bothwell-- but, being a typical conservative coward, refuses to debate him. Read Cecil's stand on Amendment One and you'll understand why a simpering Blue Dog like Hayden Rogers has avoided the first two debates and has already announced he's "unavailable" for the next four. (Do North Carolina Democrats want to elect a coward who doesn't have the balls to stand up like a man and defend and explain his own positions?)

"Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly have decided to put one of their favorite wedge issues on the state primary ballot, May 8. The proposed amendment to our state constitution is wrong on multiple levels. It denies equal rights under the law, a mainstay of America's democracy since the beginning. It is so poorly worded that it is likely to cause real harm to women, to unmarried couples with children, to seniors living together, in addition to its stated goal of preventing same sex marriage.

"Such an amendment will very likely impede our state's business recruitment, since forward-looking companies across the country are changing with the times and need to be able to recruit the best and brightest employees regardless of gender or sexual orientation. It will undo the efforts we have made in Asheville and other cities across the state to provide health care benefits to all of our employees. And it would add to our state constitution a provision that is almost certain to be overturned in the U.S. Supreme Court, as other lawsuits already underway work up through our federal court system. It would therefore demand expensive litigation at a time when our financial troubles are forcing cuts in schools, environmental protection, public safety and more.

"Let's not permit the GOP to divert our attention from the real issues facing our community, our state and our nation. We need a jobs program that puts people to work now, meaningful support for education, and legislation that protects Medicare and Social Security. I urge my fellow citizens to step up, get out the vote, and turn back the tide of divisiveness and fear mongering unleashed by the GOP. It is time to stand up for freedom and love."

Cecil Bothwell is on Blue America's slate of homophobe extinguishers this cycle, and if you can, please consider helping him beat Shuler and Shuler II. Last week civil liberties attorney Glenn Greenwald explained why he's backing three congressional candidates, one of whom is Cecil Bothwell:

As a City Councilman, Bothwell has been pushing for the de-militarization of the local police force, and “proposed a sweeping civil-liberties resolution that would include clauses against racial profiling, surveillance of political advocacy groups and helping federal officials in immigration enforcement.” He also advocates subjecting America’s political and military leaders to the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction.

He unequivocally supports an “end to the war on drugs,” arguing right on his campaign website: “Prohibition has failed and failed again for more than a century. Our drug war has destroyed lives, destroyed families, wrecked communities, increased crime and increased the quantity and availability of the drugs it supposedly intends to eliminate. I concur with the international panel on drug policy which has just submitted a report to the United Nations recommending an end to the global war on drugs.”

His views on Israel are as brave and commendable as any Congressional candidate in a long time who has a real chance of winning. Again, right on his own website, he vows that he “will not accept donations from AIPAC or any other organization lobbying for any other nation’s interest.” Then again, it’s highly unlikely he would receive any such donations, given his stated position on U.S. policy toward Israel:

We need to make our aid to Israel contingent on ending expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied territory, recognition of Palestine as a nation, and provision of adequate water to the Palestinian state. (The Six-Day War was principally a water grab.) We must sharply curb our military support for Israel as well. As I mentioned in an answer above, “the peace process” is a meaningless euphemism. As long as Israel is heavily dependent on U.S. aid, we have the leverage and the right to demand a swift resolution of Israeli/Palestinian issues. Obviously, we have not done so to date, or this question would be irrelevant.

He advocates that “we could do with far fewer bases for actual defense”; argues that “mostly we maintain foreign bases to project our influence, i.e. to impose our will on others”; and predicts an imperial collapse for the U.S. similar to the Roman and British empires if we do not significantly curtail our imperial aggression. The top of his website features a moving clock counting the cost of U.S. wars since 2001.

...Bothwell has been a leader in advocating for the rights of same-sex couples, but an anti-gay-marriage referendum placed on the ballot in North Carolina, on the day the Democratic primary will be held, threatens to bring out many social conservatives who would vote against him. That, along with the fact that Bothwell refuses to “accept corporate or corporate PAC donations,” means his campaign needs as much support as possible. He can win, and I am confident that his record and positions speak for themselves and will lead many readers here to want to support him.