As hard as it is to imagine the party of George Bush and Karl Rove transitioning into cheerleaders at a gay pride parade, it looks like we're headed there. A recent Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans favor openly gay and lesbian soldiers in the military. And it's not a slim majority, either.

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It breaks down like this: 77 percent of moderates and 86 percent of liberals approve, in both cases an increase from the numbers five years ago. But the change among conservatives is the most dramatic. Conservatives who approve of gays in the military jumped from 46 percent in 2004 to 58 percent today.

In the words of the late Barry Goldwater, "You don't have to be straight to be in the military. You just have to be able to shoot straight."

Somewhere I've got a picture of my sister and me in our Easter best holding up a Goldwater bumper sticker. My dad, a rabid fan of minimal government, used to say, "If politicians want to go to Washington and collect a paycheck for doing absolutely nothing, that's fine with me."

How much Goldwater would have done or not done if he'd become president we'll never know. The infamous Peace, Little Girl ad branded him a war-monger, and LBJ buried him in the 1964 election.

But some of what Goldwater espoused at the time and on up to his death in 1998 sounds downright liberal by today's standards. On abortion Goldwater was pro-choice. And he said, "Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar."

Goldwater would not have fit in with the party of wedge issues. In the early 1990s he told conservatives, "Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have."

Prophetic words. But there's a new wind blowing, according to the website of the gay/lesbian group known as Log Cabin Republicans.


The gays and lesbians I know are very active in politics. Democrats, ignore this shift in public sentiment at your peril.




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