“Like abused spouses who keep returning to their aggressors, gay voters keep handing their votes to the Democrats who abuse them,” opens the public statement from the Libertarian Party, urging Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) voters to leave the barracks of the Democratic Party. “The Libertarian Party wants to break this self-destructive behavior and offers LGBT voters a better alternative,” said the statement.
This comes off of last week’s decision by the U.S. Senate to vote against taking the bill that would repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which doesn’t allow homosexuals to openly serve in the military, to the floor for a debate. Democrats won the vote 56-43 but were still four votes short of what’s required to block a filibuster. However, according to a recent national online survey conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion, 59 percent of the respondents said that gay, lesbians and bisexuals should be allowed to serve in the military. This, according to the Libertarian Party, is the reason why LGBT voters should jump ship immediately.
“The Libertarian Party neither supports nor opposes gay relationships. Libertarians are Black, white, young, old, straight, gay, Christian, atheist, yuppie, hippie, rich, poor, greedy, generous, eccentric and just plain average,” said Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict. “Though their backgrounds and lifestyles are diverse, they are united on the principle of minimum government and maximum freedom.”
Mark Hinkle, chairman of the Libertarian Party, chose to expound further on the reason for the public statement with the AmNews.
“There’s an old quote from Albert Einstein that defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same results,” said Hinkle. “The gay and lesbian community looked to Democrats to repeal laws like ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and they haven’t.”
Hinkle, in case one didn’t understand the first analogy, also compared the LGBT/Democrat relationship to a bad restaurant.
“If you go to the restaurant and you order a hamburger and you get chicken, why would you go back to that restaurant?” asked Hinkle rhetorically. “The Democrats were put in there to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and the Defense of Marriage Act, and clearly they seem incompetent of doing so.”
With Election Day right around the corner and Congress coming down the stretch to recess, some pundits have wondered aloud if the decision by the Democrats and Republicans to refrain from actual work on the Capitol has anything to do with November. Hinkle believes that, but he also believes that both parties are two sides of the same coin.
“I can’t get inside their heads, but it does strike me that they continue to play up this dichotomy where Republicans got their family values situation and they’re trying to stop the power that gays and lesbians are gaining,” said Hinkle. “The Democrats are just pandering to that same audience.”
“They don’t want to solve the problems; they just want to keep that debate going,” Hinkle said.
With a collective mentality of live and let live, Hinkle believes that the Libertarian Party is the right choice for those who want democracy in America. Challenging the status quo, according to Hinkle, would keep both dominant political parties on their toes.
“If you’re really serious about getting rid of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ you have to take your business away from them to a place like the Libertarian Party,” stated Hinkle.
“‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is unequal treatment before the law and if you expect equal treatment from the Republicans and Democrats, you’re expecting something that probably never was and probably never will be.”
The Democratic Party did not respond to any requests from the AmNews.