Biden: Straight People ‘Given Their Voice By The Gay Community’

[rangerrebew]

- The Daily Caller - http://dailycaller.com -



Biden: Straight People ‘Given Their Voice By The Gay Community’

Posted By Tristyn Bloom On 4:57 PM 07/17/2014 In | No Comments


Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that the gay community freed “decent straight people” from being intimidated to speak out against homophobia at a progressive political convention.

“They freed us,” he said. “It used to be that the vast majority of the American people who were not at all homophobic felt intimidated if they spoke up, felt intimidated if they were in a circumstance where someone made fun of, or was demeaning to, someone who was part of the [gay] community… so many decent straight people who were just as afraid to speak out now have been given their voice by the gay community.”

Biden was keynoting the major progressive convention Netroots Nation, which bills itself as “a giant family reunion for the left.”

He repeatedly thanked the audience of activists and bloggers, crowing that no longer are people called “socialists” for asserting that healthcare is a basic human right, not a privilege. “You made that happen!” he congratulated them.

He also touted what he considers economic triumphs of the progressive agenda, saying, “We literally saved this country from moving from a great recession into a depression.”

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URL to article: http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/17/biden-straight-people-given-their-voice-by-the-gay-community/

[mountaineer]

“We literally saved this country from moving from a great recession into a depression.”

I love it when Joe starts this "literally" or "not just figuratively but literally" stuff. He doesn't have a clue. Jonah Goldberg discussed this in a great column, "Big &#%!ing Joker". Here's an excerpt:

... The word “literally” has taken a beating in the Age of Biden. He’s often proclaimed that Obama had the opportunity “literally to change the direction of the world” (which, if possible, might help fulfill that promise to lower sea levels). Biden announced that “before we arrived in the West Wing, Mr. Boehner and his party ran the economy and the middle class literally into the ground.” His speeches are “literally” festooned with “literally”s, like hundreds of tethers to the hot-air balloon that is his head.

The standard joke is to quote the scene in The Princess Bride when Inigo Montoya tells Vizzini, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” The problem is that Biden insists that he does know what it means. One of his favorite ways to emphasize his seriousness is to say, “and I mean literally, not figuratively,” as if “literally” meant “I’m really serious” and “figuratively” connoted some effeminate lack of conviction. He says JFK’s “call to service literally, not figuratively, still resounds from generation to generation.”

 He told students in Africa, “You are the keystone to East Africa — literally, not figuratively, you are the keystone.”

 “The American people are looking for us as Democrats,” he has said. “They’re looking for someone literally, not figuratively, to restore America’s place in the world.”

 Speaking at a rally for Senator Patty Murray, he said, “I have now gone into 110 races around the country, and everywhere I go I see ordinary people who play by the rules, get everything right, paid their mortgage, showed up in their school helping their kids, made sure that they did everything they could to save to get their kid to college, took their mom and dad in when they needed help and hoped to save a little bit of money so they wouldn’t have to rely on their own kids when the time came.”

 Here’s the kicker: “And all of a sudden, all of a sudden — literally, not figuratively — they were decimated.”

If they were literally decimated, Biden doesn’t just see ordinary people, he sees dead people. But only one for every nine among the living. ...

[mountaineer]

Joe Biden touts progressive cred, claps for protesters
Politico

DETROIT — Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday cast himself as a life-long champion of progressive priorities as he offered a keynote address at a liberal confab that was interrupted several times by protesters.

Biden, who may run for president in 2016, ticked through a list of top issues for the Democratic base here at Netroots Nation, from income inequality to climate change to immigration reform.
    
“I don’t take a backseat to anyone when it comes to fighting some of the toughest progressive battles the country’s seen,” he said, detailing his path from the civil rights movement to the Senate.

Biden was introduced by Arshad Hasan, the executive director of the activist group Progress Now. Hasan praised Biden for coming out ahead of the rest of the White House in backing same-sex marriage, and the vice president began his address by reiterating his support for the LGBT movement.

“I didn’t free the LGBT community,” he said. “What y’all did, what they did, was free every straight woman and straight man in this country.”

Biden endorsed gay marriage in 2012 on “Meet the Press,” doing so before President Barack Obama did and forcing the president’s position back into the spotlight. Obama announced his support for the issue three days after Biden’s remarks went public.

Hasan said that on the issue of same-sex marriage, “I give Barack Obama credit for changing the dialogue around the country… I give Joe Biden credit for changing the dialogue in the White House.”

The vice president received a warm reception in discussing that issue, as he did on a range of others, including when he addressed what he described as mounting challenges to economic mobility.

He also nodded to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is extremely popular at Netroots, propelled in part by her populist message. Biden said he, Obama, Warren and many in attendance at the event shared similar values.

Biden also faced immigration protesters, who interrupted his address partway through to chant, “Stop deporting our families.” Some immigration activists have been highly critical of the number of undocumented immigrants who have been deported under the Obama administration.

The vice president initially said that he would deal with one issue at a time. But when the activists continued, he began clapping to applaud them, leading the rest of the room to cheer, too.

“We should clap for these young people, you should clap for them,” he said. “… Can you imagine the pain, the anxiety, coming home every day, wondering whether or not your mother or father will still be there?”

And with that, he pivoted to another policy issue: protecting voting rights.

“There’s so much unfinished business,” Biden said. “But I believe in a nation that understands the most precious right Americans possess is the unfettered access to the ballot box. I mean this sincerely. It is not as sexy, it is not as immediately heart-wrenching, but it’s the basis upon which we’ll be able to deal with the concern of those young people.”

Throughout his speech, Biden often jumped between talking about current-day issues and discussing his long history in politics.

“I’ve been around longer than all of ‘em,” he said, to laughs.

[jmyrlefuller]

“It used to be that the vast majority of the American people who were not at all homophobic felt intimidated if they spoke up, felt intimidated if they were in a circumstance where someone made fun of, or was demeaning to, someone who was part of the community… so many decent straight people who were just as afraid to speak out now have been given their voice by the gay community.”

And now it's the other way around. Anyone who dares oppose sodomy is intimidated to say anything as the “community” will be demeaning to them. Decent people just the same.