[quote=zk]
Winning elections does not mean that you know what you’re doing. Unless your only goal is winning elections. Which is exactly the problem with republicans. They’re not interested in running the country, they’re interested in winning elections. And why are they winning elections, even if they can’t govern? Two main reasons, in my opinion: Gerrymandering of districts, and the right-wing noise machine’s brilliant manipulation of the emotions of millions Americans. Americans who are, thanks to that manipulation, far angrier and more fearful than they need to be, but whose concocted fear and anger play right into republicans’ hands.[/quote]
I don’t think Democrats or Republicans do a significantly better job of governing. Most of the progress made on LGBT rights has been through the Judicial system. CA did vote to ban gay marriage when Obama was initially elected in 2008. Prop 8 got Yes votes from nearly 80% of the black vote which also voted almost exclusively for Obama. Different issues matter for different people. It’s interesting that a minority group would vote for Obama in an belief that he would progress on their agenda but vote against another group of minorities in the LGBT community..
The last major piece of federal legislation that came from an all controlled executive and congress was Obamacare by the democrats. I don’t think even the supporters of Obamacare think that it is a really good piece of successful legislation as it stands now. Everybody wants to make changes to it. Even Obama himself is postponing that negative/bad parts of the law, so certainly it isn’t perfect as it stands now. Maybe it’s a step towards the progressive single payer dream, but wouldn’t have been a lot more successful governing if you actually went down that path from the get go.