Maybe- just maybe- I've found my candidate. The candidate who will get me excited about the GOP- and the election- again.
OK, maybe I'm already excited. I'm just trying to tamp down my excitement, because he's kind of a dark horse candidate, but that could actually be what works in his favor...
Oh and I read about him in Esquire. Seriously, I need to get a subscription to that magazine. What more could a fashion-conscious butch want? Anyway, I'm well aware I'm stalling. Drumroll, please...
Jon Huntsman.
He's pro-gun, anti-abortion, fiscally conservative, socially moderate, has some rather alarming views on global warming (which I don't agree with, but we can work with that), and is- get this- PRO CIVIL UNIONS. Ever since C and I talked about gay marriage laws and why they're good and why they're not, I've been pretty convinced that civil unions are all the government should have to offer the gays- or, for that matter, the straights. Marriage is primarily a religious institution and if we are truly to honor the separation of church and state that our founders intended, the ceremony should be administered and regulated church by church (I'll skip the PC stuff; just read my other post).
That being said, civil unions are different from marriage; most people consider them a step down. I kind of do too- I like the idea of getting all churchy, with me in a dashing tux from The Butch Clothing Company, and the bride in a beautiful white dress, and...getting misty-eyed again. Somehow I always forget to consider the inevitable series of fights I'll be having with my mom:
Her: OK, I think we've got the caterers all set up, and the reception, and we should be able to fudge the flowers, but we just need to take care of your dress.
Me: Mom...
Her (talking over me): It's pretty short notice, and I have no idea why you've been dragging your heels so much, but I've got a list of a few places that can do the fitting-
Me: Mom!
Her: -and they have some pretty nice designs, I'm sure you'll like them, and-
Me: Mom! The tux has already been ordered. It's tailor-made, it's hanging up in my closet, and if you don't shut up about me getting a dress you don't get to come to the ceremony. I'll see you at the reception.
Anyway- Jon Huntsman. I like him. He's the consummate diplomat, literally- he was the U.S. Ambassador to Beijing while the country was blowing up all around Obama, and he has by and large avoided most of the flak that the primary Republican figures have been taking. But he also takes a softer line than most of the Tea Partiers- much as I may agree with many points on their agenda, he's not shouting about how teh gay life is "a very sad life...[a] part of Satan."
So already I like him better.
My sister reports that many of the kids in her generation are looking at the mess Obama and his government have made of their futures- debt and taxes and Social Security crashes up the wazoo- and are suddenly starting to shift right in their fiscal thinking, if not their social. And that seems to be where Huntsman stands- socially moderate, but fiscally conservative. He was a successful governor of Utah, twice. That's gotta count for something. Maybe he could be the candidate that gets the kids energized about something besides an impossibly liberal agenda, just because they have the better musicians (The Beatles vs. Christian rock=no contest).
But nobody knows his name.
In Autostraddle's guide to the Republican candidates for 2012, he doesn't even show up. He was in New Hampshire at the time of the Esquire article, talking to constituents in coffee shops and feeling out his potential voters, getting to know them and what they thought of him and adjusting his political strategies accordingly. The guy is smart. He's fluent in Mandarin, he's been ambassador to a country that does not love us, and he's been governor of Utah twice. He's got a bunch of kids, two of which are going to the Naval Academy this fall and one of which is adopted from China. He looks wonderfully all-American.
Can he do it?
I sure as hell hope he can...
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