BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER

SCOZZAFAVA HOLDS DEMOCRATIC LINE ON KEY SOCIAL ISSUES

Has Accepted the Margaret Sanger Award and Voted for Same-Sex Marriages

People keep e-mailing into us asking: "If Dede Scozzafava runs as a Democrat will she be a reliable vote on our key social issues? We aren't sure where she is on that key issue." 

Of course, abortion and same-sex marriage are a sort of litmus test in the Democratic Party and so here we are trying to answer the primary question of where Dede Scozzafava is on abortion. Good news for the Democrats on this one though -- from our vantage point this is one of the key reasons why we want Dede Scozzafava to run as a Democrat! We believe she would be good on promoting stem cell research, allowing women to keep having full rights to abortions, and even pro same-sex marriage, not just civil unions (at least she voted for it in the State Assembly). 

Most people don't know this, but one of the frustrations with Darrel Aubertine, even though he is a Democrat, is that he is pro-life and against same-sex marriages. Thanks, but no thanks on those issues Darrel.  

So here is some information on Scozzafava that you might not have known about to prove our point. Hardly anyone knows that Dede Scozzafava has worked with outside progressive groups like the Family Planning Advocates of New York, NARAL, and Planned Parenthood. Furthermore, she was even awarded the Margaret Sanger Award in 2008 and was once on the Board of Planned Parenthood, one of our main Democratic fundraising bases. See her speech accepting the pro-choice award on YouTube and tell me she wouldn't be a reliable vote for abortion advocates.

For those of you who don't know who Margaret Sanger is she was one of the earliest advocates for abortion, eugenics, and massive distribution of contraception during the time of the women's liberation movement. She was quite a controversial figure at the time, but she certainly lines up with our values and our culture today, and more so than Darrel Aubertine so we think it is a testament to Scozzafava for being awarded such an honor from such great organization in our progressive movement (even though she accepted it as a Republican). You'll hear the far right fringe go off on Sanger sympathizers from time to time; they did it to Hillary Clinton on multiple occasions this year. In the end we are confident that Scozzafava will not try to distance herself from her views on abortion or Margaret Sanger. The people on the right will try to say that Sanger was a radical and that she even worked with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) trying to create a more "purified" stable, white-only race. They level charges of racism at Sanger because of her views on eugenics. But mostly it is a bunch of hogwash and I am sure it will play out as a bunch of hogwash.

To be frank, Sanger was just doing what she felt was right during those challenging times. Sanger worked with hundreds of community groups in the Northeast to promote her agenda and that is what we see in Dede, and advocate for liberal regulations on abortion, stem cell research, and hopefully some types of cloning so we can create economic development here again. We hope this post answers some of your questions, and thanks to all of you readers for asking them. (On a side note our former New York State Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton also accepted the same Margaret Sanger Award earlier this year in Texas soon after she was confirmed as our Secretary of State). Birds of a feather flock together. 

Dede, we are birds of the same feather, lets get together.