US Supreme Court rejects Colorado's ban on LGBT 'conversion' talk therapy

[Courtney G]

p.s. Bernie Sanders would be considered a radical and probably 'a socialist' by a majority of Americans. Good guy, and I personally like his politics, but I'd like to see our trans rights defended from the Centre ground rather than relying on radicalism.

But Bernie is *not* radical and he's not very left of center. It's just that the whole thing has moved SO far to the right that it appears that he is. Eisenhower was about as far to the left as Bernie. Heck, Nixon was pretty close.

[Tills]

I know.

I just don't think we're going to get anywhere though if we peg our cause to someone like Bernie. He's just not sufficiently mainstream.

My feeling is that we need to be working to shift opinion in the two main parties. Even the GOP hasn't always been this Far Right. It's incredible to think that someone like Richard Nixon signed into law The Endangered Species Act (1973). That illustrates just how far the Party has now lurched into loony land. (For Nixon was not exactly a Commie 🤣 )

It's like the UK. Much as I love The Green Party, I also want to see Labour and even the one-nation Conservatives come back to defend our corner. Remember, Prime Minister Theresa May was ready and willing to bring in self-certified Gender Recognition. That narcissist Boris Johnson then began stirring the anti-trans anti-woke pot in a shameless attempt to grab power.

We mustn't cede the centre ground.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst   
Are full of passionate intensity.

W.B. Yeats The Second Coming

xx

[Courtney G]

I see your point, but do consider the fact that Zohran Mamdani won NYC. There are many who say that we need something "radical" right now, like another Dwight D Eisenhower.

[Tills]

If we take ourselves out to the fringes, that's how we will be considered and treated. A group on the margins becomes the marginalised.

We need to show the world that it's people like Donald Trump who are the fringe, existing out in the margins where mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. We are the sane ones, not the current GOP.

I think back to the fight for equal rights for lesbians and gays. Until as recently as 2003 homosexuality was a felony in the U.S., still enacted in c. 14 States. That's an example of what we're dealing with here.

We need to show that we are the mainstream not these loons. As I mentioned upthread, we have massively on our side the simple fact that his edifice will come crashing down because it is built on a whole pile of deluded nonsense. I want us to be ready in the centre when the backlash starts.

We don't have to go radical or react to extremism with extremism. We need to demonstrate that we are normal, lovely and loving human beings.

Let's hold the centre, however complex and hard.

xx

[Courtney G]

I get it. I'm being a bit sarcastic - trying to point out that "center" is a million miles from where we're at.