If you're in a really generous mood, you can kind of forgive a few people for shouting "let him die!" in response to a question about a person without health insurance who is suddenly stricken ill.  That shrieking answer might well be directed at the hypothetical itself and not any one individual.  Hypotheticals like that can be frustrating, particularly when you lack a non-sociopathic answer.

After last night's debate, conservatives are now lining up to meekly criticize another audience outburst, this one far uglier, as people booed an actual military service member for being a homosexual.  There's no hypothetical here.  They booed an actual person who had agreed in principle to die on the behalf of the cads who condemned him.

I suspect that Republicans will have to rely on the "few bad apples" excuse while steadfastly denying that the Republicans have done anything over the decades that would send a signal to these people that booing the gays is okay.

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson summed it up: “In my opinion, when you have booing this is not indicative of Republicans.  This is not the Republican Party that I belong to.”

I'm sorry, Gary, but it is the party you belong to.  Maybe you need to reconsider that.  I've met Johnson a few times (and interviewed him for my college paper) and he's a nice, thoughtful guy with some strange ideas.  I truly believe that there's no bigotry in him.  He's a libertine business man with an unrealistic political philosophy.  He's Ron Paul without the weird attitude towards gold and minorities.  There are lots of Republicans like him who are educated, urbane and have no problems whatsoever with homosexuality.

But they are still part of the party that sold out to the booing bigots in exchange for votes.  "This isn't the party I know," is not an answer.  Unless you've really not been paying attention, this is exactly the party you signed up for.

Now, if you're trying to fix the party and get rid of people who boo homosexual soldiers, then that's great.  But do it.  Say, "that's not acceptable and I want those people removed from the debate hall now, or I walk."  At least tell the people to shut up.  Demand that the party condemn anti-gay bigotry as part of its platform.  Do something other than saying, "oh, those people don't speak for us, but we'll take their votes and money."

They want to have loudmouthed bigot support without owning loud mouthed bigotry.  Sorry, can't have both.  By the way, I'd hold Democrats to this standard as well, but Democrats don't act like this.  The closest example I can come up with was Moveon.org calling David Petraeus "Betray-us."  But Democrats roundly criticized Moveon for that and you'll notice that it never happened again and that the insulted General now runs the CIA.  I actually think Moveon had a point so if it had been up to me, I'd have owned the statement and canned Petraeus.  Either response (own it, or fiercely condemn it and make sure it doesn't happen again) is, at least, a real response.  A fake response is the kind Johnson offered up. It's akin to saying, "those people on our side aren't really on our side."

In any event, look how far I had to reach there.  There's really no equivalence between booing homosexuals and calling a general names while he was in the process of escalating a war that most people wanted wound down.

We have two major parties in this country.  One of them has members who hate gay people, love executions and think that the uninsured should die in the streets.  It shouldn't matter if the Republicans run Mitt Romney or Rick Perry or Gary Johnson or Sarah Palin.  Whatever any of them might believe personally because they are all happy to be in a party that welcomes bigots without even trying to change their minds.  Being a Republican today is like being a member of an all white country club and trying to claim, with a straight face, that you're not a racist.

It is the party you know, guys.  There is no special "Gary Johnson Republican Party" where these things don't happen.  So either fix it, leave it, or own it.