at last, some good political news

[miriam_e]

The tables are turning for Bush and his hateful mob.

I get regular email from the Human Rights Campaign in USA, who are largely concerned with GLBT rights. Here is a part of their latest mailout:

Tonight we saw a stunning victory for fair-minded politicians and GLBT equality...and a stinging rebuke of anti-GLBT politics in this country.

Here's what we know so far:

* A fair-minded majority has swept into the House of Representatives. With victories for strong pro-equality candidates like Florida's Ron Klein and Arizona's Gabby Giffords, we now have the most fair-minded Congress in history.

* We are on the verge of a historic victory for equality in Arizona where a discriminatory constitutional amendment could be defeated. The American people are tired of attempts to undermine equality for political gain. We'll be keeping a close eye on the results of this initiative in Arizona.

* With defeats for some of the most anti-gay voices such as John Hostettler, Rick Santorum and others, the era of gay bashing as a political tactic is coming to an end. Out of the 228 candidates HRC endorsed, we've seen 204 of those candidates win with only 11 losses, and 13 races still undecided.

Comments

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

Our elections next year are going to be very interesting, especially following this pleasant result...

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I hope so... though I find myself wondering...

They have the technology now to steal any election they want. The electronic voting machines let them make any result appear that they choose. So why did they let this one go? Perhaps it doesn't matter to them. Perhaps they are using the pendulum to gain momentum -- let it swing this way so that when it swings back it will be so much stronger and much easier to hide a corrupt result.

Or am I just being pessimistic?

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

You can't swing something too far without drawing excessive scrutiny. The groundswell against the Republicans was probably too great to hide.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

From what I've been hearing it has been pretty massive. Even a lot of the republicans have become sick of Bush and his scary theocratic power-politics.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Without being a wet blanket, and assuming your are Australian, a prediction:

The Libs in the next two years will roll NSW, WA, the NT and the Commonwealth elections.

I don't know enough about Tasmania and Victoria, but I suspect Tas will fall.

South Australia and Queensland are too close to call - if I had to guess.

NSW and WA Labor are stuffed (two ministers in two states in one day - one for kiddie fucking, the other for WA Inc II?).

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

State politics doesn't interest me all that much, but the "neatest" (not necessarily most probable) situation is that the current state-federal situation will flip: instead of State Labor holding all the states and Federal Libs holding federal, Labor will hold federal and State Libs will hold the states.

Probably won't happen though. The outcome of the Senate, however, is going to be the most interesting thing to watch come election time.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

See, Statewise I went from the WA Inc era to the Court Era... to the current...
I fear state politics.

Also, being in WA, I know that should the Libs get in we'll get uranium mining and exorts to China and India.

If you ask me to guess, I expect the Libs to hold the Senate next term.
I can't call the Reps, but I expect it will be a Howard/Costello win.

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

If they hold the House, it's going to be with a reduced majority. I don't think they're going to go on with the numbers they have now.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Takes but one seat to govern in the House, and I am pesimistic.

The Democracts are spent, Labor pointless, and the Greens lack a rallying point.

Australian's don't care about Iraq or uranium... I'm not even sure if they care about interest rates.

Again, I am pesimistic by nature.

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

I don't think the Democrats are dead quite yet. Though I must say, I am a member of the Democrats ;)

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I considered joining the Dems... and didn't.