For so long being only mildly gay friendly, s Democratic politicians now find themselves behind the wave of American support for marriage equality. And as we approach November’s mid-term elections, they must really be regretting their previous stances on same-sex marriage, right?
Once upon a time, Democrats were in the clear, writes Paul Waldman in American Prospect.
For a long time, Democrats didn’t even need to have a position on same-sex marriage. It was something only anti-gay crusaders talked about, a boogeyman supposedly lying at the bottom of a slippery slope of gay rights. If we made it illegal to fire someone because of their sexuality, the next thing you know, two men will be allowed to get married! Gay-rights activists didn’t want to talk about marriage much in public, seeing it as a long-term goal best put off until public opinion underwent a great deal of change.
And then Jack’s beanstalk started to grow, or something equally plausible.
But when Howard Dean surged to the front of the pack in the 2004 presidential primaries, the fact that as governor of Vermont he had signed the country’s first civil-unions law was used as evidence of what a radical left-winger he supposedly was. Then came the Massachusetts ruling and the rogue San Francisco marriages. Democratic politicians were forced, many for the first time, to articulate just where they stood on same-sex marriage.
[…] Yet the more we debated the marriage issue, the worse the standard Democratic position looked. It now seems logically inconsistent and without the courage of its convictions. Once you start probing it and looking to apply the moral principles on which it would claim to be based, it falls apart like tissue paper.
When your average Democratic politician is trying to explain his position on this issue, you can usually see the discomfort in his face. The assumption I’ve always made (and I’m sure most conservatives agree) is that the politician actually believes in marriage equality but is afraid of the political consequences. So he talks about how he believes we’re all equal, except in marriage, and hopes no one will ask him exactly why gay people aren’t quite equal enough to have their unions given the same status as those of straight people. If someone does, he rambles about tradition and his upbringing and religion, and can’t quite come up with a rational reason why he believes what he does (you might remember John Edwards finally concluding, “I’m just not there yet,” which presumably meant he eventually would be).
So certainly the Dems are going to face backlash over their straddling of the issue, right? Nah, and they’ve got Republicans to thank.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Fortunately for Democrats, it doesn’t look like their opponents are going to be asking them a lot of questions about marriage equality this year. There may be some hot Republican-on-Republican action — in GOP primaries, where one candidate accuses the other of not being tough enough on gays — but it doesn’t seem that the issue is going to be that big in the general election.
CJ
It’s the economy and government pending that’s driving voters right now. Gay marriage is a very low priority for non-gays. It would just “add” to any previous feelings or frustrations that are already there. It’s just like the gulf spill. It won’t dictate many voter’s decisions. But, it just adds to the frustration level of some.
whatever
Economy. Economy. Economy.
The government spending shit the guy mentioned above is a red herring. Out of control spending started with Reagan and continued with Bush II. Cheney remarked, “Deficits don’t matter.”
Jeffree
It’s all about unemployment at this point. Statistics that we’re between 9 + 10% fail to include people who have been out of work for more than a year, or people who worked part time and can’t find replacement jobs.
Let me add that individuals/families who used to count on overtime to pay their rent or mortgage are getting thrown out of their homes. You can argue with their logic about depending on overtime, but the point is that jobs & hours aren’t expanding fast enough to keep our economy on the upswing.
let's move
If some gays are unhappy right now with President Obama and Democrats in Congress, lets’s see how they’ll enjoy sucking on Boehner as Speaker of the House next year (yes, pun was intended)
Bill Perdue
The Democrats deserve to lose. They’ve betrayed all of their constituents except BP, Haliburton and Massey Energy. The Democrats are going to get a drubbing and then we’ll have to contend with the evil twin, the Republicans. The polls Americans are coming to despise both parties.
The rot starts at the top.
Obama’s bigotry in denying health care to immigrant and imported workers is the problem.
Obama’s gynephobic denial of federal funding for abortions os the problem.
Obama as Supreme Warlord, fighting for oil and resources in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan is the problem.
Obama as anti-GLBT bigot is the problem.
Obama’s use of trillions of tax dollars, stolen from workers and consumer to make whole the debts of the looter rich and predatory lenders who created the current depression is the problem.
Obama’s refusal to jail managers and owners of BP, Haliburton or the Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch coal mine is the problem.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress are part of the problem but Obama’s White House is the origin of the problem.
Bill Perdue
@whatever: The current depression was created by Clinton when he signed NAFTA and the Republican bill deregulating predatory lenders. Republicans helped out but it’s a Democrat depression.
@Jeffree: The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, U6 index of unemploymentM/b> was 16.5% for July, it’ll rise for August.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm
Stephen Murray
The Democrats and the Republicans are both appalling.
Why is there not an alternative to either of those parties.
I wouldn’t vote for either of them.
Bill Perdue
From Political Wire “Americans are growing more pessimistic about the economy and the war in Afghanistan, and are losing faith that Democrats have better solutions than Republicans,” according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.
“Underpinning the gloom: Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the economy has yet to hit bottom, a sharply higher percentage than the 53% who felt that way in January.”
“Just 24% express positive feelings about the Republican Party, a new low in the 21-year history of the Journal’s survey. Democrats are only slightly more popular, but also near an all-time low.”
Fitz
I can’t speak for the world. But for my little household with 2 voting adults in it– yeah.. it’s very unlikely that we will be voting democrat again for some time. I may have to do the worst thing in the world, which is to not vote at all. I simply will not vote for either a “separate but equal or a “Trust me. Someday i will get to you” person again.
Baxter
@Bill Perdue: You’re completely nuts. The current recession was caused by the housing bubble bursting and subprime lending, particularly by Fannie and Freddie. There isn’t a credible economist in the world that thinks that NAFTA had anything to do with this mess. As for deregulation, any harm it caused was probably more than cancelled out by the harm that regulation caused. One of the reasons we had so much subprime lending in the first place was because the government was pressuring lenders to do it. And all new regulations are doing now are making it less likely that businesses will create jobs.
Bill Perdue
@Baxter: Don’t be willfully ignorant.
Quit repeating WH press releases, it’s a depression, not a recession. “We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense.” Paul Krugman (Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. In 2008, Krugman won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his contributions to New Trade Theory and New Economic Geography.)
The housing bubble and subprime lending were the result of Clinton’s championing and signing the bill deregulating Glass-Steagall which unleashed predatory lenders.
NAFTA created unemployment and lower wages.
Aram
The ban on the gay marriages and the lift off of the ban are just diverting American mindset from other priority issues.
Black Pegasus
Well, I’m voting DEMOCRAT this November and in 2012 as well!
Unlike the Gay Republican Retards, I know where my Bread is Buttered! I refuse to get caught up in the hair trigger, fear and loathing campaign launched by the right-wing and their TeaHat rabid dogs.
redd
I will not vote for Obama. He is not the president I wanted. I said from the get go he would accomplish nothing, that is isn’t a friend to gays and lesbians and I still believe it.
The one thing he can do without anyone else weighing in is to lift the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military (just as every other president could have) and he refuses to do so. That would go a long way to proving to us that he is a president for all people.
However that aside, I just don’t believe he has the cajones to get things done.
Should have been Hillary, she has what it takes.
Just my .02.
Bill Perdue
Hillary and Obama are both Bill Clinton clones. They’re as worthless as their republican cousinbrothers and sisters.
ousslander
no most gays will stay on the dem’s plantation.