Obama Evolved!
I am willing to admit that I was wrong. People told me that President Obama was just waiting until his second term before he openly supports same-gender marriage and I laughed. I didn’t think he would support it until after he was out of office when there wasn’t anything he could actually do about it. I was wrong and to President Obama, I’m sorry.
With that said, let’s face facts. He wouldn’t have done it at all if Vice President Joe Biden didn’t come out with his statement on Sunday’s Meet The Press. Right afterward, David Axelrod issued a statement claiming that Biden wasn’t really for gay marriage and that his position was the same as the President’s position. But that didn’t hold any water and everyone knew it. So the President felt he had to come out in support of gay marriage.
I am really glad he did. I have been complaining about Obama’s “evolving” position for a long time. But I am concerned with his couching this with, “I personally believe” and then falling back on the “states can do what they want” approach. I would prefer that he would “evolve” toward a federal amendment on this issue. But if he is going to fall back on the states thing, he can at least promise that he will personally campaign on this issue state-by-state.
The thing is that Republicans have been using gay marriage as a wedge issue for a long time. Now, the numbers favor gay marriage (60%). So maybe Obama should be out there using it as a wedge issue. Conservatives have gay family members too and this is an issue that many Republicans have realized or in the process of realizing that they are going to lose if they stand against the tide of history.
Now that Obama has “evolved” on gay marriage, it is time to push him to evolve on greater support for the atheist community too. He can start by stopping with the “God bless America” bit that almost all politicians use. We get it, he’s a Christian. But he doesn’t have to push it on us. So now is the time to put the pressure on him more on promoting gay marriage state-by-state across the nation and on atheist and secular issues too.
Oh, I guess we need a lobbying organization for that. If only people weren’t calling to de-fund our lobbying organization…
Related articles
- Gay marriage: How Americans, like Obama, are ‘evolving’ on the issue (abcnews.go.com)
- Obama campaign turns gay marriage issue on Romney (politico.com)
- Vice President Joe Biden ‘absolutely comfortable’ with gay marriage (while Obama’s views on it are still ‘evolving’) (dailymail.co.uk)
Filed under: church/state, culture war, Gay Issues, Obama, Political Activism, Politics | 3 Comments »