Is it really only one month before the midterm elections? At the beginning of the summer, everyone was predicting that the Republicans would make tremendous gains in state and federal elections, on the wave of the tea party anger and discontent. Democratic candidates were even starting to behave that way, running away from President Obama and the accomplishments of the past 20 months. What a bad idea.

When Democratic Party candidates fight for what they believe in, instead of tacking to the right, they do better in the polls. Liberal ideals are good ideals, founded on the idea of putting the people first, ahead of non-people. Liberal ideas are both about individual rights and responsibilities as well as the idea that we are all in this together, and we have to cooperate together to ensure that every citizen benefits from the success of the whole.

Don’t run away from your accomplishments, Democratic candidates. Fight back, hit the Republicans hard. You will win.

We just saw a short period of expansion of our rights, and now there’s some push-back. We need to push back even harder – I hate to have to feel like I have to become a single-issue voter, because the world is so much more complex than that, but human rights are at the foundation of society. I will not support any candidate who does not support full equality for gayfolk, and you shouldn’t, too, no matter how otherwise qualified he or she is.

Let me say that again: human rights are the foundation of society. They underpin all transactions that people can perform. We know all this already, but one cannot hear it too many times.

I will not volunteer for or donate to any candidate who does not support full equality for all people. I don’t care if they are the perfect abolish-corporate-personhood-single-payer-healthcare-withdraw-our-troops-from-everywhere-let-the-teachers-teach candidate. If they do not support full civil rights for gayfolk, including full marriage, employment, housing rights, then screw them. I will not support apartheid. This is the absolute highest priority issue for me. Even though I don’t want the government in the marriage business at all, if a government sanctioned institution is available to some, it must be available to all.

The California Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, is on Twitter.  I made a somewhat snarky comment to her about the fact that she had to vote with a provisional ballot in today’s election down in Los Angeles county, and she actually took the time to respond to me.

I respect that she makes herself that accessible, and hope that we continue to see a growing transparency in our public servants and government.