11/13/2025
Highs and Lows on the LGBTQ Political Scene ... a LV Spectrum editorial
It’s been a week of highs and lows for our community. As I write this, many sensible, sane voters are super turned off by the Democrats, after eight Dems caved and gave into the Republican party over the government shutdown. Our anger, at the moment, is directed at Nevada Senators Catherine Cortez-Masteo and Jackie Rosen, but it was just a few weeks ago that Rep. Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Stephen Horsford, also sold out their party.
It was exhilarating to see the election results from last week. Not only did the progressives win a majority of the races, it was a clear repudiation of Donald tRump and his divisive policies.
The corrupted Supreme Court finally could no longer deny common sense and ruled that same-gender marriage was an established, legal right. One ruling, however, still can’t compensate for the cruel and inhumane decisions they’ve handed down against our transgender brothers and sisters. Imagine the indignity of a transperson, who lives as their true gender and likely has that gender on their driver’s license, being forced to travel with their “dead gender” on their passport. Never mind the confusion it’ll cause at international borders, but the indignity is insufferable.
While I’m on a tear about the Supreme Court, let’s not forget the individual financial corruption of several of its members, how they’ve ruled that a certain president has criminal immunity, that Homeland Security and its gestapo-like ICE officers can target people simply for their skin color and language, that it’s perfectly alright to separate parents from their children, to incarcerate people in far away countries to which they have no connection, to deny people legal representation and so much more. Don’t get me started on taking away the right of women to control their own bodies! I am appalled and disgusted with the majority on this court.
As I write this, the government has been shut down for 43 days. Poor people are being denied access to SNAP (food stamps), and vulnerable children are being denied Head Start educational programs. Over 50 million people will soon have no access to health care, either because Medicaid has been cut or their health insurance premiums will double, triple, or quadruple, all to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. This is being done by the Republican party that apparently believes in the right to life of an embryo, but once a child is born, those children then have no right to food, education, or healthcare.
We understand the pressure our Members of Congress were under. Thanks to tRump’s tariffs and constant insults to our foreign allies (especially Canada and Europe), we’re all paying higher prices for nearly everything. Foreign tourism is down dramatically. While Las Vegas has tried to make up for the loss of foreign visitors by running specials for interstate visitors, they don’t spend like international visitors. Not only are room rates and occupancies down, but with the loss of big-spending international visitors, the casino profit levels took a nasty hit. Combine that with the airline flight reductions caused by air traffic controllers and TSA agents not coming to work when they don’t get paid … well, we can sort of understand why Cortes-Masteo and Rosen joined their Republican colleagues. They voted to end the government shutdown, giving up the Dems’ only bargaining chip, but got absolutely nothing in return.
Here's the thing. Democrats are sick and tired of the many do-nothing Democrats. The Dems had four years to right some of the wrongs caused by the Republican party during tRump’s first reign of corruption. They slow-walked every investigation. They played nice and kept the filibuster, even when they had a chance to expand the Supreme Court from 9 to 12 justices. They slow-walked aid to Ukraine and prevented the Ukrainians from attacking the source (on Russian soil) of all the missile and drone attacks. They didn’t fix immigration, and not only are families being ripped apart, but our streets are becoming militarized by this wannabe strongman dictator.
Currently, progressives, liberals, and even moderates have only one chance of getting anything accomplished politically, and that is to throw their lot in with the Democratic Party. Trouble is, we have weak-willed, unimaginative, and slow-acting individuals in the Democratic Party.
It’s time to let people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Greg Casar, Barbara Lee, Pramila Jayapal, Hakeem Jeffries, Bernie Sanders, Jasmine Crockett, and others pick up the mantle. That’s not to say that we necessarily get rid of folks like Cortez-Masteo, Jackie Rosen, Dina Titus, Susie Lee, or Steven Horsford, but they need to step up, smell the coffee and get with the program. If not, then step aside and let’s support leaders who will.
And finally, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer needs to resign his leadership post immediately and not run for re-election. Let this be a wake-up call to our Members of Congress from Nevada. Either pay attention to what your voters are demanding or get out of the way and make room for a new generation of elected officials.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the writer, Rob Schlegel, publisher of the Las Vegas Spectrum and founder of the progressive endorsement organization, Nevada Impact. Schlegel suggests that if you believe those elected to public office are either unwilling or unable to meet the moment and are asleep at the wheel, then consider joining “Leaders We Deserve.” LeadersWeDeserve.com is a political action committee of young progressives.
LV Spectrum
