In what could be called one of the strangest races in a while has yet the opportunity to be a huge upset with perhaps the greatest opportunity for the Democratic Party and they disavow their strongest candidate.
Mark Clayton has won the democratic nomination by obtaining 30 percent of the vote and nearly 50,000 votes and the Democratic Party tosses him because he happens to be rooted in his faith that states that marriage is between one man and one woman. This is getting extremely hard to believe.
One party, any party, but this time happens to be the Democratic Party throwing away 50,000 legitimate citizens votes, calling for a new election to get “the right man” in office is probably the saddest statement I have heard in a long time.
I will dare say that not everyone in the Democratic Party is gay or believes in same sex marriage. Then I will further that statement and say I can dare say that not everyone in the Democratic Party agrees with Forrester and Bilbo that if you happen to believe that when anyone marries they would marry the same sex. I can also say with great certainty the majority or at least a great percentage of Democrats are married to the opposite sex and perhaps all or most within leadership positions married the opposite. Its about personal choice as long as you dont say it?
Does this make them complicit with the hate groups of which they associate Mr Clayton of being involved in? Just because they “discriminated” against gay people and married the opposite sex, doesn’t that qualify them as a “hater” too?
Mr Clayton made a very strong and interesting statement at a recent press conference where he was rebutting his disemboweling, I mean disavowing where he made the following statement and it’s from memory but it went something like this, referring to the TN constitution, “doesn’t this make the state of Tennessee a hate group because the state of Tennessee has it in their state constitution that they believe marriage is between a man and a woman? What a profound statement. Let’s take that to another level! Does going to church make you a part of a hate group? Does getting married to the opposite sex in a church make you part of a hate group ? Is the Church of God a hate group? The Baptist convention? Mormons? Latter Day Saints? Being a Christian in most churches? Is Jesus Christ himself the hate group leader? You can tell how distorted and listless our society has become when you contemplate the preceding questions and scenarios. We label everything hate that doesn’t meet someone else’s views of how we see things, doesn’t that make us all haters? If I personally believe that you can marry anyone they want yet my church and state says I should marry the opposite sex does that mean I hate myself?
Who died and left any party with enough power that they can feel they can negate tens of thousands of votes by clearly likeminded voters? Who became the self appointed ethics guru that says unless you vote for gay rights or non gay rights for that matter that you can all of a sudden tell me my vote doesnt count. If I like a man or a woman, my vote should count and if a large percentage as in Mr Mark Claytons case vote for and happen to stand behind a candidate that doesn’t believe the way you believe or the way that you think they should vote should have no bearing on whether my vote is legitimate or not. My vote that wa cast is mine and you can’t take that simple fact away.
Have you heard of the recent “Chick fil A” phenomenon? All parties can learn something from this. The message was loud and strong, ” I can and will cast my vote for any issue or candidate that I darn well please and you or a paid lobbyist or activist within a devisive group are not going to tell me what to do because you happen to have a strong viewpoint of how you want your world to look. I have a choice and I can still make it as long as America remains free. So take your own narrow minded ethical sliding scale of what you feel America should look like and stuff it where the sun don’t shine.”
I personally think you should have a choice in who you choose to be your mate, just as Mark Clayton has done and stated and as well as Mr Forrester and Bilbo. The conflict comes when you wanna say I am wrong when I do make up my own mind and choose! See the double standard here? I like it as long as it’s my viewpoint or your wish?
All that said to say this! The Democratic Party is bypassing the greatest opportunity to win the US Senate seat in a long time. Personally, and according to his voting record, Bob Corker is just as much, if not more of a Democrat as he is a Republican and that goes for Lamar Alexander too. But they are all Americans which gives us a choice to vote for who we want despite the parties perceived notion that they know how you should vote.
The Democratic Party had an excellent opportunity to capitalize on a large block of grassroots voters on both sides of the aisles that are attempting to let their parties know we still have a choice regardless of what lobbyist is blowing in your ear to make your leg tingle. We vote for who we want in office and we don’t want you to interfere with that process.
The Democratic party would be so much stronger and influential in this area if it listened to it’s constituency and at least acknowledged. Not everyone is anti gay or gay for that matter. There are still a great deal of people who just believe the way they believe and they don’t want you forcing your agenda and creating an environment of choosing your ethical standard over my own beliefs. We need to restore the party of old! The party my grandpa was proud to wear! One that was respectful of people and if we differed, we agreed to differ yet realize we were going to the same place!
http://www.claytonforus.com/#!home/mainPage
The Democratic Party released this statement in response to Clayton’s press conference.
“We are committed to reforms that makes candidate vetting more proactive and more transparent so that we can prevent candidates who are not Democrats from ever getting on the Democratic ballot in the future,” said TNDP Executive Committee member Jim Bilbo
“We have already begun our review of the process that failed us this year and nearly failed us in the past, and we pledge to fix it,” Bilbo said. “We owe it to Democratic supporters, candidates and volunteers to enact reforms so that extreme candidates who don’t represent our core Democratic, middle class values may never take advantage of our open elections again.”
http://mobile.newschannel5.com/wap/news/text.jsp?targetUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.newschannel5.com%2fstory%2f19219910%2fdisavowed-candidate-clayton-challenges-democratic-party
Clayton gets grilled again by local press and within gis own party!
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/aug/08/tn-democrats-may-be-stuck-with-clayton/
Truth be known, polish this guy a little, give him his voice back and he could win you a US Senate seat. Stripping him of legitimate votes and replacing it with your own ethical bias and narrow-mindedness just lost you the seat. The grassroots within the Democratic party stopped growing when a few elitist are left calling the shots for a vast majority of constituents. Sounds to me new leadership is needed to listen to the people that are loudly saying “I like this guy!”
Again, just my opinion and we all know what opinions are like? Right?
Bradley County News Network 