President Endorses Gay Marriage

Some politicians are actually willing to lose rather than compromise their principles or foreswear cynical politics

It is often astounding how easily people will see what they want to see and shape their opinions around the obvious tripe dished out by individuals they, for one reason or another, feel are significant.

If I were gay, I certainly wouldn't be unhappy that the president of the US has come out in favor of gay marriage, but I certainly would be asking the questions:

What took you so long?

and

Why now?

Since he ran for the office, the liberal wink-wink, nod-nod conceit was that he was personally for gay marriage but had to affect a tie to the bigoted homophobes in the heartland, in order to get elected and do great things...eventually even for gays.

The nonsense about his opinion "evolving" was simply code for " be patient gays, I'm setting the stage. I've got these rubes just where I want them and before long, I'll get there."

If you believe that this announcement has nothing to do with the upcoming election, then you are hopelessly naive or partisan.

If you believe that if he thought maintaining his status of "evolving" would help his chances in November, but that second term be damned, he was ready to emerge from the seas of bigotry and walk on the land of enlightened tolerance, well...ditto.

His campaign's internal polling, and the recent embarrassments of Democrat primaries where he has run "unopposed" but had to struggle against "No Preference" and a felon in jail, tell him that if he is to win in November, he has to have a turn-out among his base that matches or exceeds performance in 2008.

What is exceedingly delicious is to read the crap by Obamanistas who claim to appreciate that an evolving opinion on gay marriage is perfectly understandable.

Ha!

Everyone else has been required to walk on land long before Obama lest they be labelled bigot and homophobe, but The One? Apparently his is the only mind in America that is so obviously grand and nuanced that he gets to evolve, and evolve, and evolve.

And the notion that he made his announcement after the NC Amendment One vote to bring hope and light to the gay community is so laughable I'm afraid I might split my gut.

Unless one believes that his evolution of thought was so coincidently timed as to occur after the vote, the question should be: "If the president of the US was in favor of gay marriages, why wouldn't he lend his weight to those who opposed the amendment, before the vote?"

The answer is simple. He had good reason to believe the Amendment was going to pass, and that his weight was meaningless as far as the vote went. In the midst of a re-election campaign why would he take the chance of proving to America that his endorsement has no weight? Gays sure as hell weren't worth that risk, and surely they should have appreciated that because his re-election is the only thing stopping the Religious Right from shipping them off to camps.

So many of you lean far left and hate the right. Fair enough. Vote for any Democrat over a Republican because it is obvious that any of the former is more aligned to you positions than any of the latter, but when you engage in this desperately silly attempt to make your only choice a hero of your ideology you make yourselves seem childish at best.

Some politicians are actually willing to lose rather than compromise their principles or foreswear cynical politics. Obama ain't one of them.

Joe(Please, people on the left, get out and vote.)Nation

We have come a long way, Baby!

They want to be counted as equal even by the institutions that are demonstrably antipathetic to them.

What bravery he has show in respect to the Syrian tyrant who daily tortures and kills his citizens.

You, predicatbly, mistake principle for political calculation.

As a US Senator, it served Obama's ambitions to distinguish himself from the rest of the herd.

What was the political liability for a state senator from an exceedingly liberal area of Illinois to oppose the Iraq war? Where was the bravery in that?

Most of the rest of us didn't.

If he had waited to announce at the convention, you rightwingnuts would say it was political calculation. If he continued to postpone taking a stand inevitably, you'd carp that he wasn't as "hopey changey" as he'd promised. No matter when he took this stand, you'd find a way to pronounce it as empty and useless and bray about how his supporters are naive and gullible.

Conservatives have nothing to be proud of - certainly not this soulless, empty suit whose kool-aid pumping tin heart couldn't muster a strong stand on something if his corporate enslaved life depended on it.

So you sling shyt at the only thing moving at all. It wouldn't be so bad if you could admit that you'd rather yank out your eyeteeth than admit what Obama has done well. You're not only boringly predictable in your denouncements of Obama and his supporters, but your one-note corrosiveness belies an ugliness that can't even see itself.

I can imagine if you were gay, you'd feel this much differently. I was amazed at a close friend recently who said his view on gay rights is that it's none of his business.

I reminded him:

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.


It may seem gratuitous or trite now - but it is still visceral to me. It wasn't long ago they came for you and me. We may fall into some unforeseen, discounted category in the future. We have to be vigilant.

Please fight for equal rights for everyone.