Andrew Sullivan declares war on the DNC

Regardless of your opinion of Andrew, he's a player in both liberal and conservative politics. He was the White House's favorite blogger, and putatively their favorite gay. He's now out for blood. Taken in conjunction with the top gay Democratic organization pulling out of the DNC gay fundraiser and excoriating the party, it's not clear who the DNC and the White House have left in the community.

And lest the Democrats take solace in the few public or private gay apologists they have left, their apologists aren't running the show. The people are. The dogs aren't going to be called off, ever, until the party convinces the White House and the Congress that this has to stop, and ultimately, they give us what we want.

Let me quote Andrew's post (and I apologize, I'm just going to quote the entire thing, it's difficult to excerpt and do it justice), then a bit more analysis from me:

One way to get the Obama administration's attention on civil rights is for gay people to stop funding the Democrats. That's all these people care about anyway when it comes to gays: our money. If the Democrats refuse to support us, refuse to support them. This is a start. But we need to get more creative. We need actions to highlight the administration's betrayals, postponements and boilerplate. We need to start confronting the president at his events. We need civil disobedience. We need to tell him we do not want another fricking speech where he tells us he is a fierce advocate for our rights, when that is quite plainly at this point not true. We will not tolerate another Clinton. No invites to these people for dinners or fundraisers. No cheering him at events while he does nothing to follow up on his explicit promises. Of course these things can be done. If anyone high up in the Obama administration or the Pelosi-Reid Congress gave a damn, much would have been done.

We need to swamp Pelosi with phone-calls.

We need to target Reid for his inaction. We have to pressure Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin not to excuse the disdain that the Obama administration is showing toward gay equality, and their cynical use of our votes, money and passion to enforce real and potent discrimination against us and our families. And we have to refuse to attend White House signing ceremonies like yesterday's farce. Really: until they are serious, we should not be coopted and placated with pathetic sops. I am not a Clintonite. I worked my ass off to get this man to power. On many issues, I support him and will continue to do so.

But I am a proud, self-respecting gay man with HIV. And I am not going to take this crap for much longer on civil rights. Fight back. Act Up.

Now, sure, it's possible the White House is loving the headlines - the gays hate us, they might be saying, this brands us as true centrists! Perhaps. Or perhaps it brands the President as so young, naive and malleable that his advisers lead him, and he dutifully follows. If and when that happens, the Sista Souljah will be ours.

I don't look forward to this happening. But I see it happening on the present course the White House and the Democratic party have chosen.

In other news, I did an interview with CBS.com earlier today about the Obama mess.


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