The comment quoted in the title of this diary has been repeated on liberal websites such as this one (as in this diary here) since news came out that "only" 70% of LGBT people voted for Democrats this year. That attitude demonstrates a major problem with the Democratic Party, and why it failed so badly this year. That problem is the view that Democrats are owed 100% of the vote from all minority groups despite their modest to poor effort (in some cases outright hostility) towards minorities in this country. Further it also is indicative of another problem of entitlement by Democrats: the belief that they are owed the hard work and efforts of all progressives.
Dear straight Democrats (in government), you are NOT entitled to ANY gay votes, because straight Democrats, you have actively worked against gay rights. Obama has appealed every gay rights ruling by the courts claiming it is his job to do that. In fact it isn't. In the 1990s when a federal judge ruled that the military's ban on HIV positive people from serving was unconstitutional, Bill Clinton didn't appeal. He accepted the ruling and military policy changed. Obama could have done the same thing in regards to DOMA and DADT. He didn't and continues to actively work against gay rights. Yet, you Democrats feel entitled to 100% of the gay vote, and anything less you consider an apostasy.
Well, no, that's not the rules of the game. You aren't owed anything from gay people until you actually muster the courage to vote for gay rights policies that most Americans support. Further, if you continue to treat our demands for our equality as "wishing for a pony" you deserve even less support next time around.
But let's go with what you got from us this time: 69% of our vote. If only the straight community were as supportive of Democrats as the gay community. What would have happened if straight Democrats were as successful in getting straight people to vote Democratic as gay Democrats were in getting gay people to vote Democratic?
Straight people, not gay people have failed the Democrats. If straights voted as strongly for Democrats as gay people did, you would not have lost 61 seats. In all likelihood, you would have picked up 100 seats with 69% of the straight vote. So, get this right my straight Democratic friends: you didn't get your ass kicked because of gay people, you got your ass kicked because of straight people.
This issue isn't a matter of gay people voting against their interests. This issue is a matter of Democrats governing against their interests. The Democrats in government belittled its base repeatedly during the last two years. The Democrats in government compromised with a party that had no interest in supporting Democratic initiatives, and wound up with convoluted policy that confused voters, angered its base, and failed to bring in dynamic change that would've energized the large progressive turnout and support from 2008. That's called governing against your interests.
Despite your failures to bring true progressive reform, to support strong initiatives in immigration that would've energized the Hispanic vote, or to support strong gay rights legislation that would've energized the gay vote, you still won these voting blocks. Democrats don't deserve unconditional gay support because they fail to deliver for gay people. They don't deserve unconditional minority support because they fail to deliver for minorities. They don't deserve unconditional progressive support because they fail to deliver for progressives.
And Democrats didn't deserve the 69% gay support they got. But they got it anyway. You want more support from gays than you got? Prove it. Govern like you do.