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From: sdyer@bbnccv.UUCP (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: Gay fostercare ban: more news
Message-ID: <91@bbnccv.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 30-Jun-85 16:38:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: bbnccv.91
Posted: Sun Jun 30 16:38:50 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Jul-85 07:50:54 EDT
References: <1470@bbncca.ARPA> <2429@mit-hermes.ARPA>
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 32

John Purbrick's analysis of Dukakis' motivations is on the nose,
though it is clear that the "new" Dukakis has succumbed to the
political equivalent of homosexual panic.  What we see here
is decidedly NOT a subtle way to help gay rights by ensuring
his own reelection, but a desperate Machiavellian manoever
designed to garner imaginary anti-gay votes which might otherwise
go towards Ed King.  It is not at all clear to me that Dukakis'
move was the only one possible, even considering the
political realities of the situation.  It should be pointed
out too, that the second Dukakis administration has not been
marked by any particular largesse towards the gay community
which helped to elect him.  That is, a return to the King
administration would at least be a return to a known quantity
(buffoonery and croneyism) rather than the politics of expedience.
Gay rights certainly did not advance during the King administration,
but they have been similarly stalled during Dukakis II.

What is such an outrage here, one that explains the kind of
reaction heard from both gays, single parents and most people
of the liberal persuasion, is that it was perpetrated by that
paragon of liberalism himself, fresh from a stint at the Kennedy
School at Harvard, licking his wounds and learning that principle
is never so important as getting reelected.  Dukakis' entire
second term has been marked by "playing it safe", leaving his
henchmen to do any dirtywork, and abandoning the kind of moral
and ethical incisiveness which characterized his first term.
Politics as usual, perhaps, but the better liberals do it better,
and manage to keep a set of diverse interests satisfied.
-- 
/Steve Dyer
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