In 2004 it was Swift Boating. In 2008 it’s race-baiting, and talk about terrorism, and socialism, and at the state level, all the old favorites: abortion, affirmative action, immigration, and gay marriage.

If the past is anything to go by, the Right’s culture warring works best when Democrats decline to fight back. Take one example. Democrats running for a president typically run for cover when any gay related topic gets mentioned. Having failed to tackle the topic with anything resembling principle (or panache) liberals then blame the homosexuals when homophobes win the day.

It’s appealing to believe that the culture warriors can be trumped by changing the subject. But the LGBT movement has a word for a frame that’s built around the fear of being honest: a closet. And there’s only one exit: coming out.

People who are clear about who they are, and who clearly respect themselves and their beliefs, attract respect. Consider Lupe Valdez, a fifty-seven-year-old lesbian Latina who was elected Sheriff of Dallas in 2004. A former prison guard and federal agent, the 5′2" daughter of migrant workers was opposed by the unions representing many of those working in the sheriff’s department. Valdez was outspent three-to-one.

At the last minute, her opponent, the favored candidate, raised alarms about her acceptance of campaign contributions from the Washington-based Gay and Lesbian Victory fund. But Valdez won. How? People in Dallas were ready for a change. Their Republican sheriff, a twenty-year incumbent, had just been indicted on charges of corruption. Valdez cast herself as an agent of change and made her sexuality work for her, rather than against: "I’m not like anybody in here. I’m the element of change. I’m a lesbian," she said.

A third of those who voted for her were cross-overs, voters who didn’t vote a straight Democratic ticket. Now Valdez is the only woman among 254 sheriffs in Texas. With that, she became the first woman, first gay person, and first Hispanic ever to be Sheriff of Dallas, and the first Democrat to hold the job in twenty-five years. Valdez didn’t win by obscuring who she was, she won by doing the opposite – by "coming out" and taking on her opponents.

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