Doug PollardAt The Mad Pollies Tea Party
Let them eat moose!
Washington correspondent Harley Dennett reports from the US capital on the mid-term election results
DOUG: Everyone thought things were going to be hunky-dory when President Obama won the election in America, he was the nearest thing to a pro-gay president we had in a very, very long time. He was promising to do thing like repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” etcetera, etcetera. There’s been a whole raft of gay legislation floating about very little of which has actually got anywhere and now, there’s been an election which has probably put the kybosh on most of it – anyway, to get the story from the horse’s mouth so to speak we have on the line, now, our Washington correspondent Harley Dennett. Good morning, Harley.
HARLEY: Good morning, Doug.
DOUG: I gather you’ve been to a ‘Tea Party’?
HARLEY: I spent the night with the Tea Party - - -
DOUG: For those of us here who don’t know what the Tea Party is can you give us a bit of brief background?
HARLEY: The Tea Party is basically, an anti-tax group. They’re a group of really quite conservative Americans, quite similar to the Pauline Hanson crowd - - -
DOUG: Okay.
HARLEY: - - - that have taken over a part of the Republican Party. They’re very enthusiastic, they’re very angry at the government – they basically want no government, no taxes. They’re willing to kick out any incumbent politician who stands in their way and they’ve had a lot of success.
DOUG: Are these the same people who’ve been rushing around, calling for – going on about this health care thing – death panels which will decide who gets to live and who gets to die – and all that sort of stuff, all that kind of extremist - - -
HARLEY: They’re the ones coming up with that language. Sarah Palin, she’s probably their best figure head - - -
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm.
HARLEY: - - - they’re the ones who are coming up with this really incredible, powerful rhetoric that is appealing to American from coast-to-coast and it’s turned out to be quite a powerful force across the American electorate. As we discovered last night - - -
DOUG: Now, they thought or they think that even the Republicans are not right wing enough for them.
HARLEY: - - - yes. They kicked out a fair host of the incumbent Republicans ‘cause most of the incumbent Republicans were there when President Bush was in power and they spent enormous amounts of money going into two wars. So, they’re not happy with them but they still want the Republicans to win; they just want a few less of the current Republicans and they want even more right-wing, Republicans in power.
DOUG: This sounds like the whole thing we went through with Newt Gingrich a while back - - -
HARLEY: The “New Deal - - -”
DOUG: - - - yeah.
HARLEY: Two years into Bill Clinton’s term, the Republicans engineered a comeback into Congress which hadn’t been seen in decades. Before that the Democrats had a stranglehold on Congress and it’s looking a lot like that – but the difference between then and now is that Bill Clinton was very adept at crossing the aisle and Newt Gingrich wasn’t quite so – really, honestly – wasn’t quite as fanatical as the Tea Party. They’re quite a breed unto themselves.
DOUG: M’mm. Obama hasn’t achieved a huge amount despite the fact he’s had a majority in both houses, he hasn’t actually achieved a huge amount for the GLBTI community has he? There’s a raft of legislation floating about which is now probably going to die, can you take us through what that is what you think we’ll not now get through because the Republicans control the House of Representatives.
HARLEY: The one thing he did get through for the GLBT community was the anti-hate crimes law. That’s one thing he did get through. The things he’s not going to get through are quite extensive – m’mm, partner benefits for same-sex (attracted) federal employees. The employment, non-discriminations so that you can’t be fired simply because you’re gay; recognising same-sex partners in immigration cases for obtaining a Green Card. He was going to repeal the Defence Marriage Act, that didn’t get anywhere near on the agenda and not going to, now – the Republicans are in no mood to entertain such thoughts as that. Which effects all the States, that’s the biggest piece of legislation that’s still on the books, that directly harms the gay community and then obviously “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” which was supposed to have happened this year and is looking – m’mm, very, very slim chances now.
DOUG: Some people who have come in for a lot of criticism in various gay campaigning organisations for cutting Obama too much slack and not pushing him hard enough to push these things through while he had those majorities in hand, how’s this going to affect them?
HARLEY: They’re probably looking at themselves pretty hard now, I know that people outside those organisations are calling for a shake-up of them ‘cause they obviously didn’t see this happening. When I was at this Tea Party Patriots – party – on election night, literally across the street the Human Rights Campaign which is the largest LGBT lobby group in America was holding its election night party. So I would occasionally pop over there to see how they were doing and it really wasn’t pretty; their strategy this whole time was to give Obama the time and space to bring about equality, at his own pace. Because we all assumed that with these huge numbers with which he came into power that he would get two terms and he would have a Democratic majority in Congress, for the majority of that - - -
DOUG: M’mm.
HARLEY: - - - any impediment.
DOUG: Counting chickens, ha?
HARLEY: Yeah – it failed, badly. The people who head-up those organisations now, were in lock-step – it’s a bad term to call them but they’ve become known as ‘gay inch’, the gay crowd that has a lot of money. Brings in an enormous number of donations that get pumped in to Democratic candidates, they’re running their campaigns – they hold black-tie events and last year – last year? Yeah. Last year they got President Obama to come and give a speech at their annual dinner which is certainly an incredible step forward for White House recognition of the gay and lesbian community. But it didn’t amount to anything and if the softy-softly approach didn’t amount to anything then – there’s a different group of activists saying direct action is needed, call the president to account. Make him fulfil his promises. I think we’re going to see a lot more of that since that appears to be the only option left.
DOUG: We were talking about all the bad things as part of the fallout from that for the gay community but there is a bright side as well, isn’t there Harley?
HARLEY: There’re quite a few wins and they’re important ones although, they’re not necessarily – they’re important mostly for where the gay and lesbian community lives but they’re not across the board, they’re quite localised. More gay and lesbian candidates than ever before ran than ever before and more won, than ever before. But this was mostly restricted to the East and West Coast particularly California and New York. As most people can guess that’s where the LGBT community - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
HARLEY: - - - mostly lives. There are also equality-supporting governors and senators elected in both those States so we’re going to see some progress in both those States toward getting marriage equality brought-up through the legislative process. Which frankly, is overdue in those States - - -
DOUG: It’s interesting to see Jerry Brown got up in California – now, there’s a name conjured from the mists of history.
HARLEY: 30-years ago he was governor and for him to come back at this time certainly is interesting and also, oddly, considering he beat a former C.E.O. of eBay who spent US$140m I believe, on her campaign - - -
DOUG: Ouch.
HARLEY: - - - of her own money. M’mm - - -
DOUG: That’s a lot of money.
HARLEY: - - - it is.
DOUG: It goes to show you can’t always buy elections.
HARLEY: You can almost - - -
DOUG: [laughs]
HARLEY: - - - buy elections; very few cases, where the person who spends the least money wins. Very few cases.
DOUG: Okay, what other wins did we have?
HARLEY: We had a few really important ones outside of the liberal heartlands. The Mayor of Lexington Kentucky, the new in-coming mayor is a gay man. Although he doesn’t make gay issues – like, the forefront of his campaign it’s incredible that Kentucky of all places would be electing gay people, now. Considering that’s also the home of the Tea Party where Rand Paul was running for senator, it’s not the most gay friendly part of the country. So we’re seeing more gains like that around the country and that’s changing the make-up of politics ‘cause it used to be that gays and atheists were the only groups that could not get elected in this country - - -
DOUG: Yes and now - - -
HARLEY: - - - Catholics and [indistinct] opened it up to Jews - - -
DOUG: (and)Now we can - - -
HARLEY: But never the gays and atheists but now, that’s slowly starting to calm down.
DOUG: There were some losses though – I mean, there was a big backlash in Iowa against the judges who legalised gay marriage, there – wasn’t there?
HARLEY: Three of those judges in the Iowa Supreme Court were up for re-election and we can debate the logic of having judges go up for re-election - - -
DOUG: [laughs] That’s America for you, yeah.
HARLEY: But it’s normal over here. It’s not normal for judges to get tossed out after a controversial decision - - -
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm.
HARLEY: - - - that’s quite rare. The National Organisation for Marriage which is an anti-gay group pumped millions of dollars into Iowa to get rid of those judges and it worked. Because no-one spends money on judicial, bench campaigns. It’s just unheard of – so they did and they won – and they got rid of those judges so it makes the other judges in the other States be a little bit cautious about that. Similarly, Maine – their in-coming governor has pledged to repeal the State’s Human Rights Act. Maine was one of the States that for a while had legalised same-sex marriage so we’ve seen some back-steps in some places as well – a bit of give-and-take but mostly, it’s moving forward. Oh, I shouldn’t use that phrase - - -
DOUG: [laughs] Yes, I think we’ve banned that from all elections. I noticed a few American politicians had started using it and it made me shudder – oh well, never mind.
HARLEY: The Democrats made it their campaign and today, Obama, used it again. Over-and-over again - - -
DOUG: Oh, God.
HARLEY: - - - sick of it by now. Obama was asked about – m’mm, a couple of gay issues during his presentation post-election [indistinct] today and he said that – you know, these things should be bi-partisan. We should be moving to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell - - -”
DOUG: Ugh.
HARLEY: - - - he never really addressed the fact that he can’t get it done with Republicans.
DOUG: No.
HARLEY: So - - -
DOUG: Harley, we’re going to have to leave it there. It doesn’t look too good for the future but you never know. Bill Clinton pulled it out of the fire, let’s see if Obama - - -
HARLEY: Yes.
DOUG: - - - can do the same thing; Harley, thanks very much for joining us this morning.
HARLEY: It’s a pleasure, Doug.
DOUG: That was Harley Dennett, live from Washington D.C.
