I loved Bath so much that I came very close to pursuing a graduate degree at University of Bath a few years back just so I could spend some time studying there. I remember getting off the train and seeing punters on the river and a boys’ choir singing in the square as people played cricket nearby and thinking my god this cannot possibly get more English.
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There should be more BB threads on how awesome Bath is rather than rehashing the latest Trump atrocities. Also more hedgehogs.
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a.k.a. “fart bubble.”
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I was just there as an American tourist, and sort of entranced by its loveliness. U Bath courted me pretty heavily for its design grad program, but in the end I was put off by the courses they were offering. For a graduate program in graphic design, the big selling point at the time was “if you’re a scrapbooker, you’ll be right at home!”
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Sadly, the anarchists usually got put against a wall and shot by the Stalinists long before they got taken to the gulags. There was too much chance of them gaining support from disillusioned communists at the gulags.
But back to LGBT conservatives.
My belief is that they aren’t doing any good by loyally voting Republican. Their party’s LGBT policies are at least 50 years behind the UK conservative party, for example, and only going backwards. Young conservatives are more LGBT positive? That’s great, but we are looking at 20-50 years before they have enough power to change the party assuming that the Christian Right declines at the same time. I don’t think that waiting that long and being a second class citizen until things improve is healthy or a good idea.
They want to change the Republican Party sooner? Maybe they should be voting Libertarian? Start doing that at the local and state level, try to persuade family and friends to vote for them too, get the right wing democrats on your side and make the Republicans fear for the loss of votes. Make them change by saying “I will not vote Democrat, but I’m certainly not voting for you until you change”. That is how you will change them, not by being nice to politicians who will ignore you in favour of the anti-LGBT vote.
The threat of removing the Republicans power is the best tool they have to change them. They have to stop being scared of it.
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I’ve lived in New York for about 10 years (moved here for my LES-born wife) and when we finally went to the Statue of Liberty, I was pretty blown away. But then I grew up in Bath (,Maine…one of the 100 best little cities in America!)
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outside “help” is not always needed
(not directly meant as reply, but I needed a reason to post this twitter exchange)
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Ah, so YOU’RE “the establishment”! 
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IMHO the biggest screw up of the Republican party in the last 50 years, and this was predicted by Barry Goldwater, was having the Evangelicals some how infiltrate the Republican power base. There needs to be a purge.
I agree with you - a LOT of people should vote libertarian. Unfortunately the Libertarian party I think is waaay to radical for most people. I didn’t understand some of the libertarian hate until I realize I was a moderate and there were others who were much more hard-lined and crazy, for lack of a better word.
BUT - that point is moot right now. For several reasons 3rd party candidates are not very viable. Especially in bigger races. I really, really wish we had a weighted voting system like Australia which would allow people to vote FOR someone like a 3rd party candidate, rather than against one of the big two.
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I feel like someone should make some Twitter and Facebook accounts called The Left Wing, Illegal Immigrants, Obamacare, Feminazis, and Muslim People, and let the Trump folks scream at empty robots for awhile.
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Ugh, those assholes. Have an opinion on something, dammit! Quit equivocating.
I used to think of Libertarian as socially liberal, economically conservative, but that’s really just the Democratic Party platform.
So far as I can tell, the Libertarian party seems to stand for stopping the federal government from preventing the state governments from being really socially conservative.
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Yes. AND from preventing state governments from preventing billionaires from plundering and privatizing public services.
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I agree. I don’t like the Libertarian party, but we are talking about people who refuse to vote for a Democrat because their economic policies are supposedly too “left wing”. Under those circumstances the Libertarian party is the lesser of two evils.
We aren’t going to get them to vote for Bernie, but maybe we can get them to stop supporting Republicans who do shit like the North Carolina Bathroom Bill (which in my opinion is the opposite of what small government is claimed to be).
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That’s the deal with any label, there is a gamut of views that fall under that umbrella.
My stance is for more of achieving a balance between regulating/not regulating something, as well as spending for social programs. While hard line libertarians claim taxation is theft, which I disagree with 100%.
ETA - and just like many conservatives/liberals don’t view many Republican/Democrat politicians as true conservatives/liberals - the Libertarian Party doesn’t reflect the views of all who claim to be libertarians.
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Except this hasn’t been a forward trajectory. The Republican party, back before it was so reactionary, was much more inclusive of feminism. For example, during the 1970s about a quarter to a third of the people involved in the various pro-feminist concerns, such as trying to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed, were card-carrying Republicans. In fact, at the time the largest political organization in the country was also the largest women’s organization – the National Federation of Republican Women – and the President and other officers of that organization were key players in trying to get the ERA passed, promoting International Women’s Year, and even part of the founding of UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women). Phyllis Schlafly was on the outside, an extremist who did not have the support of mainstream Republicans. Now, she’s virtually canonized by the party, and all of her abhorrent beliefs about women and LGBTQ people are the bedrock of this new iteration of the party.
So, will it get better for women and LGBTQs over time? Maybe. But maybe it’ll keep getting worse, instead.
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Um, I mean, I always mix them up on purpose – it’s a tactic.
Or a strategy.
This is an oft-repeated bit of propaganda: they are all the same–no point in voting. If you think they are all the same, fucking vote in the primary and pick a different candidate! If there is no different candidate, run yourself. And also go meet these supposed sociopaths (the ones that are your representatives) and see. It’s really not that simple, and trying to make it that simple is actively harmful to democracy.
This time this has been happening with Bernie Sanders. And his supporters get insulted and belittled by the mainstream politicians and their supporters who do nothing to attempt to appeal to them.
What are the odds that the mainstream democrats play the blame game in November rather than recognise that they fucked up big time and alienated a large chunk of voters?
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