Racism, sexism, homophobia? Let's race 'em and pick a winner!

Can we stop the contest of "which form of hateful prejudice and discrimination is most damaging/endemic?" There comes a time when, on the continuum of "bad," distinctions exist between some very bad behaviors yet focusing on them serves almost no useful function. Why? Because they all deserve the harshest contempt, and there is no need -whatsoever- to just focus on one to the exclusion of the others. We can keep -all- of them in mind quite easily, and attention given to one does not require attention taken away from another. Therefore finding out which is "worse" is an academic exercise and serves little actual purpose. Prioritizing one over the other is always an injustice, and always presents a false exclusivity of choice that simply doesn't exist.

"But -we're- not bigots! It's the rest of the country that is racist/sexist/homophobic! That touches on electability." It does, but could you live with yourself for exchanging so much morality for supposed strategic gain? And how accurate are these doomsday predictions of bigotry making people it targets unelectable? There's near-universal discrimination against ugly, but that hasn't stopped Denny Hastert, Tom DeLay, John Cornyn or Dick Cheney from achieving high positions of power. It also -empowers- the very force we find so nasty--it must be confronted as often and as publicly as possible, not resignedly acknowledged and accomodated. No respectable woman says to herself "Oh well, there's sexism out there in the business world, therefore I should give up my aspirations and defer to their prejudice, because there is a chance I might fail." Nonsense! In almost all cases, such bigotry can be overcome by determination and ability--and we should endeavor to do so as much as possible until such extreme efforts are no longer necessary.

It's similar with equal rights for gays. I have often heard the argument gays need to sit down and shut up while they are passed over time and again by the platform, because the right thing to do (equal rights) is unpopular. It is unpopular, but the election and the political debate in general shouldn't -hinge- on such an issue to begin with. The GOP's economic policies are by and large extremely unpopular, so they avoid making the debate about those issues. In their case, they are shielding unpopular -wrong- policies from being the major issue of a campaign. We should shield our unpopular -just- policies from the same elevation in the debate. So long as we make the campaign about our popular and just policies, we can win even while fully supporting gay marriage. I believe the issue of Obama's race or Hillary's gender can be made irrelevant in the same way--if it doesn't rule the debate, if it isn't the issue that matters most to voters, it won't have the extreme negative electoral impact people imagine.

That's why the GOP endeavor to make "morality" and "security" the most important issues during a campaign--they have staked out facile positions on each that are popular, if completely wrong. This hides their completely unpopular economic agenda quite well. We can do the same thing in protecting our unpopular yet just policies. And we should.

How else do you explain the condescending attitude that Kucinich is treated with?

Hej, Slováci, ešte naša
slovenská reč žije,
Dokiaľ naše verné srdce
za náš národ bije.

Žije, žije, duch slovenský,
bude žiť na veky,
Hrom a peklo, márne vaše
proti nám sú vzteky!

Jazyka dar sveril nám Boh,
Boh náš hromovládny,
Nesmie nám ho teda vyrvať
na tom svete žiadny;

I nechže je koľko ľudí,
toľko čertov v svete;
Boh je s nami: kto proti nám,
toho parom zmetie.

I nechže sa aj nad nami
hrozná búrka vznesie,
Skala puká, dub sa láme
a zem nech sa trasie;

My stojíme stále pevne,
ako múry hradné
Čierna zem pohltí toho,
kto odstúpi zradne!

:-)

Admittedly, I get very emotional about homophobia in a political campaign...hell, homophobia in general. Neither homophobia nor racism or sexism has any place in our society. But you make some very good points. Thank you.

In a way that would never be possible with racism or sexism, that is. So that's an example of a distinction wherein homophobia is a more serious problem. But they are certainly all serious enough in their own unique ways.