Thanks to Ace, I just finished reading dear Richard Miniter’s explanation at Forbes.com of “Why the Democratic Party is doomed,” and I recommend reading the whole thing, whether or not his headline fills you with hope or despair. It was transformational for me because it was the first time I saw the Democrats as a coalition of economic groups rather than social groups (or, to conservatives, identity grievance groups). It’s an extremely insightful and handy overview.

BTW, I’m not sure I would ever have seen the distinction between the economic and social groups among the Democrats if I hadn’t gotten used to Republicans making distinctions between fiscal and social conservatives.

Two points that dear Richard makes particularly amuse me. The first is the degree to which the Democrats’ war on free enterprise via the Cerberus of over-regulation, over-taxation and unsustainable union benefits is now biting them in the ass (boldfacing mine):

This crisis comes at a very bad time for Democrats. Their coalition is either dying off or going broke.

Unions. Private sector union membership has declined from 52% of the American workforce in the 1950s to 7% today. As large-scale manufacturing and the Fortune 500 shed jobs, the prospect for increasing unionization rates diminishes. There is no likely scenario in which private-sector unions grow by a significant amount; indeed they will likely continue their slow, steady march into the mists of history.

Who could have predicted that driving good manufacturing jobs out of America would be bad for the very unions that donated to the party that sent their jobs overseas? Besides conservatives, I mean.

The second point is pure ROFLMAO because, for some reason, hardcore, ahem, entrepreneurs really like free enterprise and won’t donate to the party that wants to kill it (boldfacing mine):

Porn Industry. Usually overlooked by analysts, this lucrative industry is a small but important source of campaign cash for Democrats. But the Internet is gutting it. XXX theatres, a fixture of the 1970s are long gone, and the DVD side of the business is dying too. As a 2009 Conde Nast Portfolio magazine article shows, YouPorn.com and other porn sites now offer hours of video content online for free, squeezing Larry Flint’s Hustler, Hugh Hefner’s Playboy and their many print rivals. The underground cultural force of these publications is shrinking with their revenues. While porn is here to stay, the Internet has empowered anyone to put up a website and collect revenue from ads or pay-per-view — underpricing the Goliaths that write campaign checks. As for Democrats, organizing tens of thousands of small-business porn stars will prove a difficult and low-margin proposition.

In contrast I think these entrepreneurs would fit right into the big tent of the Tea Party and conservativism. What do you think their booth at CPAC will look like?

P.S.

Alternatively, what do you think planned economy porn will look like?

Updated, 10/12/09: I just added part 2 of Julian Bond’s speech. There’s still no posting on YouTube of Michelle Clunie’s speech. Also, welcome dear PUMAs from Stray Dogs that Amble In: Part IV — the dismissal of the hundreds of thousands of participants in yesterday’s National Equality March as the “Internet left fringe” by a White House official has angered the PUMAsphere, as well. See my comment on that below. And welcome dear readers from The Other McCain; Stacy observes — without gloating or rancor — “White House pimp-slaps gay-rights movement? That’s gonna leave a mark!” And read his wedding post, too [update, 10/13/09: the post has been deleted -- it's a shame because it had so many lovely photos of the bride]  — Stacy is really just a big old girl when it comes to weddings and with his love of weddings and match-making, I do believe he may come around to supporting homosexual marriage equality just so he can make more matches and attend more weddings!

Updated, 10/12/09: I have added Michelle Clunie’s speech. And welcome, readers of dear Little Miss Attila — I share her love of the Jefferson Airplane.

Cynthia Nixon (actress, “Sex and the City”):

Julian Bond, part one:

Julian Bond, part two:

Lt. Dan Choi:

Lady GaGa — she totally won my heart with this speech:

Michelle Clunie (actress, “Queer as Folk”):

The cast of “Hair” singing “Let the Sunshine In”:

It was really a perfect October day — clear blue skies, temperature around 70 — to get together with my friend, Genius Artist DC, and a couple hundred thousand of, well, mostly strangers, to yell at the White House/President Obama and Capitol Building/Congress that the time to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) and pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is right this instant.

I have embedded above the speakers I enjoyed the most: Julian Bond, Cynthia Nixon (“Sex in the City”), Lt. Dan Choi, Lady GaGa and the cast of “Hair” singing “Let the Sunshine In.” I’ll update this or post the video of Michelle Clunie (“Queer as Folk”) when it’s available.

I’m so glad I attended both the Tea Party march on 9/12 and the National Equality March on 10/11. What I know from living in both those worlds is that I need to figure out how to explain why the speakers at both events only make sense to people who already agree with them, which is not very helpful when your goal is to persuade. And I must learn how to fill in the gaps and be able to translate between Right-ese and Left-ese. Gays are one of the groups that is self-reliant enough and embraces goals that are idealistic enough — marriage, military service and working for a living instead of figuring out how to poach the fruits of someone else’s labor — to make them the natural constituency of conservatism. I covet them for the Right and I am trying to figure out how to attract them in droves. (The other two groups that would prosper more on the Right than the Left are women and Jews.)

Several of the speakers at the National Equality Rally, which followed the march, called Obama on his refusal to set deadlines for the repeal of DOMA and DADT and the passage of ENDA, but then they all completely blew their opportunity to empower their listeners by telling them to go back to their home districts and work there. Work is the LAST thing we should be doing! What the speakers should have done is told everyone there to go on strike immediately and completely stop working for the Democrats and donating to them until the legislation gays need for equality has been signed into law by Obama before the break for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Because I’m thinking that will help Obama shift his priorities.

Until today I thought that the obstacle to Obama’s delivering on his promises of equality for the lesbian and gay community was the strength of his allegiance to groups on the Left that hate gays: black preachers and their church members, illegal immigrants and Muslims.

Now I think that’s just a part of it. That’s because today I realized that the real reason Obama does not support any of the initiatives for homosexual equality must be that homosexual equality will not contribute to the destruction of the U.S. as a capitalist democratic republic. If it did, rest assured Obama would defy his gay-hating constituencies.

Genius Artist DC hadn’t planned on marching until we spoke yesterday because he is recovering from a leg infection and needed a wheelchair to participate. Well, I have a wheelchair and hadn’t wanted to go alone, so we attended together! After we arrived at the Capitol Building, I was able to wheel him to a fence where we had a clear view of the stage. When I turned around to look at the others there with us in the National Equality March, the marchers appeared to me to be mostly in their 20′s. The last big gay rights march in D.C. was in 2000, so this march introduced a new generation of lesbians and gays to political activism. (Margaret and I marched in the 1987 and 1993 Gay Pride marches in D.C., but missed the one in 2000; I didn’t have the strength then  because my sleep apnea was so advanced and a trip like that would have involved lifting her at least 18 times.)

In contrast to the crowd at the National Equality March, the Tea Party marchers seemed to me to be mostly aged 40 to 70′s and included far more people who needed electric three-wheel scooters or some kind of wheelchair for their mobility. Don’t get me wrong — it’s impressive how many people with jobs ‘n’ stuff came to the Tea Party in D.C.

For both marches, the real benefit that the marchers take away is that they were among tens of thousands of like-minded people with the result that they will never feel alone again — a great brain and nervous system has formed, and a heart, and in today’s Internet age, with the capacity to communicate in so many ways — e-mail, blogs, videos, text messages, Facebook — their connections to one another will flourish mightily.

Update, 10/12/2009: John Aravosis reports that a White House official called us an “Internet Left fringe.” Yo, Obama! Way to piss off your base, dude! (H/T Memeorandum.) Here’s the video:

Update, 10/12/2009: Dear SYD from Stray Dogs that Amble In: Part IV links this post in her survey of PUMA bloggers who support the cause of homosexual equality and are angered that we were all dismissed yesterday by an official in the Obama White House as an “Internet left fringe.” Nobody knows how dirty Obama plays better than the PUMAsphere. I thought of them a few minutes ago when I was serving my father his lunch and saw the crawl on CNN announce the Hillary Clinton says she will not run for president again. Hah! thought I — Obama your god is a jealous god and thou shalt have no other gods before him! What a weakling! Why do you suppose Secretary Clinton would even bring this up? I figure Obama wants to keep the field clear of all the worthier Democratic contenders for the election in 2012, since right now is when prospective rivals should be examining precinct maps and brushing their hats to prepare them to be tossed into the ring.

Where was I? Oh, yes, do read SYD’s post — here is a delicious sample:

Yesterday, Not Your Sweetie covered the schadenfreude over at the Sullivan and Aravosis blogs. Cry us a river, boiz. Wah-wah. And next time you decide to choose a candie date, do a little research into his/her voting (and marching) history.

Many PUMAs reported on the Nobel Peace Prize farce over the weekend. As did the Log Cabin Republicans. Who can blame them? I have a few more things to say about that, myself. Probably tomorrow.

For today tho… I want to recognize the millions of Americans that are being discriminated against because of who they love. I think they deserve our support…. even if some of them did lose our respect during the 2008 Democratic Primaries.

Update, 10/13/2009: Welcome, readers from Villainous Company, you have quite the spirited discussion going on over there.

To thank the constituency that put him over the top in the 2008 race for U.S. Senator in Minnesota.

H/T Cuban Diva BFF.

Washington at Valley Forge, painting by Edward P. Moran, Library of Congress.

Baron von Steuben training the troops of Gen. George Washington at Valley Forge, 1777. Painting by Augustus G. Heaton, U.S. Archives, 111-SC-83897.

It is Memorial Day and I do wish to honor all the members of our armed services, living and dead. But I am going to have to start insisting on having me all of that equality they talked about today that every other citizen has, and, frankly, practically every illegal alien, too.

I attend Memorial Day services because I play bassoon in the Bel Air Community Band, one of the largest and best community bands in the U.S. We play for the Memorial Day services held in Bel Air, Maryland, because we are patriotic. Many of our members have served in the armed forces, including our conductor, Scott Sharnetzka. Some are currently serving — Aberdeen Proving Ground is nearby.

In the past four years or so since I’ve played with the band on Memorial Day, the talks have been very moving — including a Marine sergeant who lost an arm and both legs in Viet Nam, and last year a father reading a letter from a fallen son. The Air Force National Guard general who spoke this year will be leaving for Afghanistan in a couple of months.

But thanks to Carrie Prejean touting as one of her credentials for speaking against marriage equality for lesbians and gays the fact — I assume she’s telling the truth — that one of her grandfathers fought in World War II in the Battle of the Bulge, I found myself listening to the speeches today about liberty and American values and getting angry. One of my ancestors — an I-don’t-know-how-many-greats-grandfather — spent the winter in the Revolutionary Army under Gen. George Washington at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. (There was no battle with the British at Valley Forge, but it was a turning point of the Revolutionary War simply because enough of an army stayed with Washington to keep the war for independence going.) Grandma said he was so hungry that when he caught a frog and it got away before he could cook it, he cried. Why does the service of MY ancestor not count? Where is MY equality? Why is it legal to deny me marriage equality, a job, a home or the right to enjoy a public accommodation, such as a restaurant or store, for the BEING crime of being homosexual? Why does MY equality vary from state to state, even county to county or city to city?

One of the answers is that our military’s policy of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” goes a LONG way toward perpetuating inequality for lesbians and gays. It gives our inequality a rationale — we do not have equality because we haven’t paid for it with our service. Never mind that foreigners are allowed to serve in our military as THEIR path to FULL citizenship.

I don’t know my family’s military service history between the Revolutionary War and World War II. During World War II, I think both my mother’s brothers who were old enough were in the Army. I know Uncle Herbert was — I have photos of him in uniform. Both of my father’s brothers were in the military in World War II — his brother Donald was a Flying Tiger in China. (Yes, the same Flying Tigers as the John Wayne film.) His brother Paul was in the Army — oh, and I think Uncle Paul was gay. My parents met in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, separating uranium for the Manhattan Project. (My father is nuclear physicist Hubert P. Yockey.) My mother’s father and one of her sisters worked there, too.

So — why doesn’t MY family’s service count toward MY equality as a homosexual?

And — since we have a far-left Democrat in the White House who promised to end “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” AND Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate, NOW really seems like the time for the legislation to remove this policy of inequality. It’s time for liberal gays and lesbians to give Obama a deadline for repealing “Don’t ask, don’t tell” because enough lesbian and gay pioneers like me have settled in Fiscal Conservative Land that they really do have a place to go now when Democrats don’t keep their promises.

Memorial Day seems like the right time to remember that fighting for equality is a virtue and that fighting for the right to serve in your nation’s military is patriotic and shows the willingness to pay the price of equality in full measure. It is time to repeal “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” It is time for homosexuals to have equality.

Update, 5/27: Becky, the lesbian libertarian at Just a Girl in Short Shorts Talking About Whatever, also has some worthwhile observations about “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and a pertinent video — plus, she has hot illustrations, while the closest I have ever come to heat here is a nude Bea Arthur portrait staid enough to be handing in the Tate Gallery.

Here’s the thing about getting gay marriage legalized — it makes a LOT more sense for me to engage conservatives on the issue than liberal Democrats because I only have to educate conservatives about the “gay” part of the issue and joyfully, that work not only stays done, but actually begins to multiply itself virally through their social networks. I know this because I started doing this kind of education around 1973 when I was 20.

HOWEVER — I have decided with liberals and Democrats, it is completely futile to discuss gay marriage because they absolutely cannot comprehend WHY it is so utterly, passionately, life-or-death, heaven-or-hell important for us to have the right to marry legally NOW, if not sooner — for us, for them, for the children, for a strong nation and a better world now and forever.

The reason is that liberals and Democrats are so wishy-washy on marriage itself that every day is like weaving a Penelope’s web in their minds on what marriage means and every night that work is undone and we start at square one the next day ad infinitem.

So it totally doesn’t matter at all about how accepting liberals and Democrats are of us as lesbians and gays. As long as they don’t get the importance of marriage, they will never move the muscles and expend the political capital to make gay marriage happen.

Worse than that, my perception is that the Democratic Party has turned evil towards lesbians and gays. They have so successfully demonized conservatives and Republicans that they are now functioning like a cult, one of the traits of which is to terrorize members about leaving the fold. And, to continue the cult analogy, they are mercilessly and shamelessly exploiting lesbians and gays for money and labor with the promise that some day, some far off and ever-receding day, gay marriage will be important enough for them to reciprocate with the effort required to make it happen. Which they could do this week with just a couple of amendments to the omnibus spending bill, if they really wanted. Which they don’t. And never will.

After all, when you have total control of an industrious, educated and prosperous minority who are completely your bitches and will do anything you say and wait and hope FOREVER nourished by promises alone while they hold the door for less-deserving minorities, most of whom hate them and want them dead, to thunder past them, each and every one of whom has more rights than they do the instant their ass is over the border and regardless of any crime they have committed, including murder and treason, why would you give those slaves their freedom by delivering on their issues? Well, the Democrats won’t now, won’t ever.

Unlike liberal Democrats, conservatives now are talkable on the subject of gay marriage because they cherish marriage and therefore can grasp at an emotional level beyond words why we hunger for it so and must have it or die.

Unlike liberal Democrats, conservatives now are talkable on the subject of gay marriage regarding how it affects how people are taxed and whether permitting it can enable more people to create wealth and jobs and cost society less when they fall on bad times because they grasp that that is intellectually consistent with the tenets of conservatism.

And for me, the beauty of putting in the time and love, and, probably, sometimes tears, into going right into the belly of the beast to have it out with conservatives over gay marriage is that I believe that words have meaning to them and are connected to actions and that they are the ones who will make gay marriage happen, and be glad to do it, Nixon-to-China-style, because once you get something done with them, by golly, it stays done.

In the meantime, my liberal Democrat lesbian and gay friends, here is music to wait for your Democrat savior to come through for you, from Puccini’s opera, Madame Butterfly, which is apt on so many levels:

“Un bel di vedremo, ” (“One beautiful day we shall see”) Italian lyrics with English translation here:

André Rieu, “The Humming Chorus,” from Madame Butterfly: