Last night, Democrats lost seats. Those losses have been predicted since January... it's not news. What is news is that Democrats lost seats not for being too progressive -- they lost seats for not being progressive enough. Although some in Washington will undoubtedly try to make the public think that Democrats lost this election cycle because they fought too hard, did too much, and went too far left -- nothing could be further from the truth. Two years ago, we walked in to the ballot booth with hope that bold, progressive leaders would take the mantle and move us forward. Sadly, this Election Day, we walked into the voting booth uninspired.
I remember when I first came out as a lesbian. I was terrified; I grew up in the inequality state of Mississippi, and wasn't sure how my family or my friends would react. I fled to California because my home state was hijacked from me, and I assumed I'd find safe haven within the borders of the Golden State. On the same night I voted for Barack Obama, I watched the rights of a minority get stripped away by a majority. I quickly learned that I can not run from injustice, but we have to organize, stand strong, fight back against the powers that oppose us, and "come out" of a political closet of timidity and fear.
Sadly, Democrats are living in political closets right now. As I knocked doors, phone-banked, and canvassed in one of the most conservative areas of California, I learned again and again how powerful it is to come out and to be courageous. Rest assured, it wasn't easy to have those conversations and to take those actions in the thoroughly red county of Fresno, CA -- but it was absolutely necessary and I don't regret it one bit.
Even as Proposition 8 passed and I was devastated that California voters had labeled same-sex relationships and my family as "less than," I hoped that Barack Obama would step up and live up to what he promised -- that "we are not a straight America or a gay America, we are the United States of America." Sadly, two years later, I still feel very separate and not anywhere close to equal.
Progressives across the country have spent the last two years trying to push the White House and the U.S. Congress toward legislation supported by wide majorities of Americans in order to avoid this moment. We have tried to offer a pathway to avoid disastrous losses in the midterm elections -- inspiring Americans in the same way that we saw happen in 2008. They didn't listen -- choosing, instead, to cling unflinchingly to politics as usual. That's not change we can believe in.
Change is hard. We know that. But every day that we cannot safely hold the hand of the person we love is hard. Every day we face the ends of our careers because of no other reason than discrimination is hard. Every day that we bury our young people, driven to suicide in the face of hopelessness, is hard. Every day we are denied to marry the one that we love is hard. Every day that we watch our partners having to return to their home countries, or having to follow them there ourselves, is hard. Every day that we face bullets on the front-lines in Iraq, not knowing how our partners will be treated by the government should we have to pay the ultimate sacrifice for our country, is hard.
rest at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robin-mcgehee/come-out-of-the-political_b_778123.html
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