Rimmerman - The lesbian and gay movements: assimilation or liberation?

The Lesbian and Gay Movements

Dilemmas in American Politics

Series Editor: Craig A. Rimmerman, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

If the answers to the problems facing U.S. democracy were easy, politicians would solve them, accept credit, and move on. But certain dilemmas have confronted the American political system continuously. They defy solution; they are endemic to the system. Some can best be described as institutional dilemmas: How can the Congress be both a representative body and a national decision-maker? How can the president communicate with more than 250 million citizens effectively? Why do we have a two-party system when many voters are disappointed with the choices presented to them? Others are policy dilemmas: How do we find compromises on issues that defy compromise, such as abortion policy? How do we incorporate racial and ethnic minorities or immigrant groups into American society, allowing them to reap the benefits of this land without losing their identity? How do we fund health care for our poorest or oldest citizens?

Dilemmas such as these are what propel students toward an interest in the study of U.S. government. Each book in the Dilemmas in American Politics Series addresses a real world problem, raising the issues that are of most concern to students. Each is structured to cover the historical and theoretical aspects of the dilemma but also to explore the dilemma from a practical point of view and to speculate about the future. The books are designed as supplements to introductory courses in American politics or as case studies to be used in upper-level courses. The link among them is the desire to make the real issues confronting the political world come alive in students eyes.

EDITORIAL BOARD

Amy Black

Wheaton College

MaryAnne Borrelli

Connecticut College

Diana Evans

Trinity College

William Hudson

Providence College

Josiah Lambert

St. Bonaventure University

Ruth Jones

Arizona State University

Jay McCann

Purdue University

Barbara Norrander

University of Arizona

Karen OConnor

American University

Richard Pacelle

Georgia Southern University

Ellen Riggle

University of Kentucky

BOOKS IN THIS SERIES

The Lesbian and Gay Movements: Assimilation or Liberation?, Second Edition

Craig A. Rimmerman

Inequality in America

Stephen Caliendo

Can We All Get Along?: Racial and Ethnic Minorities in American Politics, Sixth Edition

Paula D. McClain and Joseph Stewart Jr.

The Democratic Dilemma of American Education: Out of Many, One?

Arnold Shober

Onward Christian Soldiers? The Religious Right in American Politics, Fourth Edition

Clyde Wilcox and Carin Larson

The New Citizenship: Unconventional Politics, Activism, and Service, Fourth Edition

Craig A. Rimmerman

Claiming the Mantle: How Presidential Nominations Are Won and Lost Before the Votes Are Cast

R. Lawrence Butler

Voting for Women: How the Public Evaluates Women Candidates

Kathleen A. Dolan

Two Partiesor More? The American Party System, Second Edition

John F. Bibby and L. Sandy Maisel

The Role of the Supreme Court in American Politics: The Least Dangerous Branch?

Richard L. Pacelle Jr.

Money Rules: Financing Elections in America

Anthony Gierzynski

The Accidental System: Health Care Policy in America

Michael D. Reagan

The Image-Is-Everything Presidency: Dilemma in American Leadership

Richard W. Waterman, Robert Wright, and Gilbert St. Clair

The Angry American: How Voter Rage Is Changing the Nation, Second Edition

Susan J. Tolchin

Remote and Controlled: Media Politics in a Cynical Age, Second Edition

Matthew Robert Kerbel

Making Americans, Remaking America: Immigration and Immigrant Policy

Louis DeSipio and Rodolfo de la Garza

From Rhetoric to Reform? Welfare Policy in American Politics

Anne Marie Cammisa

No Neutral Ground? Abortion Politics in an Age of Absolutes

Karen OConnor

Payment Due: A Nation in Debt, a Generation in Trouble

Timothy J. Penny and Steven E. Schier

Bucking the Deficit: Economic Policymaking in the United States

G. Calvin Mackenzie and Saranna Thornton

To those teachers, scholars, and activists who paved the way.

Westview Press was founded in 1975 in Boulder, Colorado, by notable publisher and intellectual Fred Praeger. Westview Press continues to publish scholarly titles and high-quality undergraduate-and graduate-level textbooks in core social science disciplines. With books developed, written, and edited with the needs of serious nonfiction readers, professors, and students in mind, Westview Press honors its long history of publishing books that matter.

Copyright 2015 by Westview Press

Published by Westview Press,

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Westview Press, 2465 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301.

Find us on the World Wide Web at www.westviewpress.com.