Why are Republicans so obsessed with drag queens right now?

[Joe Republic]

Uh, lol, ok then.  I'll keep that hilarious double standard in mind next time I engage with you.

[DaleCooper]

Uh, lol, ok then.  I'll keep that hilarious double standard in mind next time I engage with you.

How is it a double standard?

[Joe Republic]

  Seriously?

When the right initiates a new culture war frontline, you want the left to sit back and essentially surrender the narrative entirely.  When the left initiates a new culture war, you want them to be exterminated.

[DaleCooper]

I didn't say anything about surrendering the narrative. (If anything, stooping to the right's level and engaging with it on their terms is surrendering the narrative to the right.) I said that the left needs to stop fighting losing battles at the expense of being able to win elections. Wokeness is another one of those losing battles, and since it's a much worse issue for them even than the children's drag shows, Democrats would be wise to completely and ruthlessly kick all of it out of the party.

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

[T'Chenka]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

[Hindsight was 2020]

The problem I have with your argument here Dale is what exactly does “pick your battles” mean in this context? Does it mean to simply to ignore all this “drag queens and gay teachers talking sex to kids” stuff the right is pushing? Because if so you are seriously not giving enough credence to the fact alot of this outrage is bad faith cover and the political actions the right is taking over the outrage is main at curtailing gay rights in general. So if the left disarms on this there is a serious risk to basic gay rights being undermined here

[DaleCooper]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Because they have no place in chidren's activities in the publicly funded or publicly supported sphere.

[afleitch]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

[DaleCooper]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

[T'Chenka]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

[DaleCooper]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

[Hindsight was 2020]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights 

[MasterJedi]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights 

Before that it was civil rights, before that 
Womens right to vote, etc. same arguments regurgitated.

[Joe Republic]

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

You just completely missed afleitch's point, and now aren't making any sense at all.  His point was that gay marriage was back then a fringe position being espoused and implemented by "liberal extremists" in a small handful of the bluest states.  He's right, and he and I both remember very well that large swathes of moderate Dems and other swing voters steered well clear of this hot button issue that would clearly lose them votes (see almost every Dem presidential candidate up to and including 2008).  They hoped it would just go away, and these 'extremists' would please stop embarrassing them and the party.

Had the relevant terms existed back then, you might well have been saying things like "I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone" in the numerous threads around this forum at the time discussing the creeping spread of gay marriage.  Or if not, and instead you were supportive of the then-fringe position, then once again we see that the methods by which you pick and choose which social issues are "destructive wokeness" and which are perfectly fine and normal are completely arbitrary and frankly anybody's guess.

[Horus]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights 

Gay marriage never involved changing yourself biologically.

[Fuzzy Bear]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights 

Before that it was civil rights, before that 
Womens right to vote, etc. same arguments regurgitated.

Imagine equating Drag Queen Story Hour in Libraries on the Public Dime to Women's Suffrage.

[Mr. Reactionary]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights 

Before that it was civil rights, before that 
Womens right to vote, etc. same arguments regurgitated.

Imagine equating Drag Queen Story Hour in Libraries on the Public Dime to Women's Suffrage.

Imagine equating Drag Queen Story Hour in Libraries on the Public Dime to LGBT rights.

[Hindsight was 2020]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights 

Gay marriage never involved changing yourself biologically.

Thanks for proving my point because 15 years ago if someone drew a comparison between civil rights of the 60’s with gay marriage there’d likely be a comment like yours scoffing at the notion because civil rights “never had to do with condoning degeneracy” or something along those lines. 

[Horus]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights  

Gay marriage never involved changing yourself biologically.

Thanks for proving my point because 15 years ago if someone drew a comparison between civil rights of the 60’s with gay marriage there’d likely be a comment like yours scoffing at the notion because civil rights “never had to do with condoning degeneracy” or something along those lines.  

You do realize I'm gay, right? In fact my first post here was 17 years ago. It was citing a poll that showed how much more popular gay marriage was among the youth than the older generations at the time.

Point is ssm was such (and still is) a winning issue because it involved two consenting adults making a choice together. No surgeries, no open questions about what gender is, no confusing academic reasoning, just two consenting adults in love. Many of the difficult matters relating to trans rights involve a minor making permanent, irreversible changes to their body. So obviously there's going to be more pushback as the two issues have nothing to do with one another.

[Hindsight was 2020]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights  

Gay marriage never involved changing yourself biologically.

Thanks for proving my point because 15 years ago if someone drew a comparison between civil rights of the 60’s with gay marriage there’d likely be a comment like yours scoffing at the notion because civil rights “never had to do with condoning degeneracy” or something along those lines.  

You do realize I'm gay, right? In fact my first post here was 17 years ago. It was citing a poll that showed how much more popular gay marriage was among the youth than the older generations at the time.

Point is ssm was such (and still is) a winning issue because it involved two consenting adults making a choice together. No surgeries, no open questions about what gender is, no confusing academic reasoning, just two consenting adults in love. Many of the difficult matters relating to trans rights involve a minor making permanent, irreversible changes to their body. So obviously there's going to be more pushback as the two issues have nothing to do with one another.

Yes that’s why I deliberately compared the two as I figured you’d sympathize considering you went through these same hurdles yourself. Also again not even the trans poster here advocate kids getting surgery 

[Horus]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights  

Gay marriage never involved changing yourself biologically.

Thanks for proving my point because 15 years ago if someone drew a comparison between civil rights of the 60’s with gay marriage there’d likely be a comment like yours scoffing at the notion because civil rights “never had to do with condoning degeneracy” or something along those lines.  

You do realize I'm gay, right? In fact my first post here was 17 years ago. It was citing a poll that showed how much more popular gay marriage was among the youth than the older generations at the time.

Point is ssm was such (and still is) a winning issue because it involved two consenting adults making a choice together. No surgeries, no open questions about what gender is, no confusing academic reasoning, just two consenting adults in love. Many of the difficult matters relating to trans rights involve a minor making permanent, irreversible changes to their body. So obviously there's going to be more pushback as the two issues have nothing to do with one another.

Yes that’s why I deliberately compared the two as I figured you’d sympathize considering you went through these same hurdles yourself. Also again not even the trans poster here advocate kids getting surgery  

The science is not settled on whether hormones, puberty blockers etc are 100% reversible. There have been many issues with bone density and sterility.

When it comes to ssm it's just two adults, in love, signing a contract. Nothing more. The comparison isn't valid. The two matters are in completely separate philosophical realms.

[Goldwater]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights 

Before that it was civil rights, before that 
Womens right to vote, etc. same arguments regurgitated.

Imagine equating Drag Queen Story Hour in Libraries on the Public Dime to Women's Suffrage.

Imagine equating Drag Queen Story Hour in Libraries on the Public Dime to LGBT rights.

Imagine being such a sensitive snowflake that you are offended by a dude in a dress reading to kids.

[OSR stands with Israel]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights 

Before that it was civil rights, before that 
Womens right to vote, etc. same arguments regurgitated.

Imagine equating Drag Queen Story Hour in Libraries on the Public Dime to Women's Suffrage.

Imagine equating Drag Queen Story Hour in Libraries on the Public Dime to LGBT rights.

Imagine being such a sensitive snowflake that you are offended by a dude in a dress reading to kids.

There are certain things that are inappropriate and should not be funded through taxpayer money

[lakeview]

I've also made it clear that regardless of partisan politics I think that wokeness is terrible and destructive for the country, so of course I want to see its influence gone.

People here know that I'm fairly anti-woke (within reason), but Republican policies are 100x worse for America than Woke Twitter. It isn't even close.

I know, that's why I'm so disgusted when college-educated people ruin the left's reputation and risk losing elections to Republicans just so they can die on the hill of woke BS.

Define?

15 years ago, equal marriage was seen as 'PC bs'. A vote loser. A distraction.

And yet we still managed to get there, didn't we?

We got there by ignoring your advice to let Republicans control the narrative.

Oh no, not at all. It's possible that we never would've gotten gay marriage if the left and Democrats were doing what they do now.

Sorry Dale but your arguments here are coming off a nostalgia bias as alot of what you are saying the left is doing wrong here to alienate people on trans issues is the exact same arguments people were saying they did wrong 15 years ago on gay rights  

Before that it was civil rights, before that  
Womens right to vote, etc. same arguments regurgitated.

Imagine equating Drag Queen Story Hour in Libraries on the Public Dime to Women's Suffrage.

Imagine equating Drag Queen Story Hour in Libraries on the Public Dime to LGBT rights.

Imagine being such a sensitive snowflake that you are offended by a dude in a dress reading to kids.

"If people question the appropriateness of taxpayer-funded institutions hosting events where men in drag read books to little kids, I'm going to call them names" is definitely a winning strategy. /s

And that's probably the answer to the titular question of this thread. Republicans keep pressing the drag queen button because it's pretty much guaranteed to make Democrats say stuff that makes you wonder if they're off their meds.