Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site bbnccv.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!mhuxn!ihnp4!bbnccv!sdyer 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 {decvax,linus,ima,ihnp4}!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbnccv.ARPA