As we inch ever closer to election day Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis stares into the long dark night of a probable double digit loss to her opponent Gregg Abbot (as one poll group reports, “The probability that Abbott will beat Davis is 98%“). Fear, especially fear of defeat, leads people to take desperate and strange chances but well, her latest charges against her opponent are… hard to describe;
The best thing that can be said about accusing a man in an interracial marriage of being against interracial marriage is… at least it isn’t talking about sex toys.
Welcome to the final two weeks #TXGOV http://t.co/PPjt0sWcWH—
Aaron Blake (@AaronBlakeWP) October 20, 2014
What’s so egregious about all this pandering (beyond the insertion of “dildo” into the public discourse*) is that there are provocative and interesting philosophical issues that could be brought up here. The entire archaic issue of anti-miscegenation laws was originally broached by San Antonio Express-News reporter Peggy Fikac explicitly as a way of exploring Abbott’s stance on the Texas state ban on Gay Marriage.
Now, I don’t favor the interpretation that Loving v Virginia (the Supreme Court case that struck down the laws against mixed race marriages) is directly applicable to the gay marriage debate, but it’s very clear that a number of people such as reporter Ms. Fikac do feel it is, what with her article being titled “Echo of past in ban on gay marriage?”. A quick perusal of the wikipedia page for Loving shows that the case has been repeatedly brought up either supporting or being distinguished from the analysis of gay marriage.
So with the interview about gay marriage, the commentary about gay marriage, the entire reason sex toys came up* at all is related to enforcing state bans on gay marriage, naturally Wendy Davis… accused Abbott of being soft on miscegenation. Apparently Wendy Davis thinks that actually following the chain of reasoning is too much for her voters, no matter how frequently the idea of gay-marriage is no different from miscegenation is discussed or laid out. But then again, maybe not…
Maybe she is afraid of telling the truth to her voters: accusing Abbott of being soft on miscegenation may be nonsensical, but it avoids pointing out that liberals like Davis view gay marriage as the continuation of the march of Civil Rights. Which is a comparison that no small proportion of African-Americans find deeply offensive;
“To state that marriage redefinition is in any way similar to the civil rights movement is intellectually empty, dishonest and manufactured,” says minister Stacy Swimp, founder of Revive Alive Missional Ministry. “When has anyone from the LGBT demographic ever been publicly lynched, specifically excluded from moving into neighborhoods, prohibited from sitting on a jury and denied the right to sue others because of their sexual preferences?”
Pastor James Crowder, of St. Galilee Baptist Church and president of the Westside Minister’s Alliance, also weighed in on the narrative of sexual orientation being a civil right.
“Judge Friedman is sanctioning the staging of a false story,” Crowder says. “On stage are many actors who pretend that redefining traditional marriage is as valid as blacks fighting against the carnage of chattel slavery and the humiliation of Jim Crow. Never have I been so insulted. The curtain must be pulled down on this play of disinformation.”
Then again, to imagine that the subterfuge of pointing to anti-miscegenation laws will actually distract these voters from the habit of treating gay rights as the newest version of Civil rights… well, she’d have to think that her voters were pretty stupid not to be able to connect those dots.
Then again, when a candidate launches an attack on a man in a wheelchair with an ad that prominently features a wheelchair… maybe it’s just projection.
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