To the left of Obama on gay marriage. (The list grows...)
Roger L. Simon has a very thoughtful piece about Laura Bush's support for gay marriage.
Yes, that Laura Bush. The former first lady. Barack Obama is now to the right of her on this issue.
She proclaimed that support in her characteristic well-mannered, low-keyed fashion on Larry King Live. (Okay, nobody's perfect.) I even had the suspicion that her husband agreed with her, but for political considerations didn't say so.
What does this mean? Traditionally a woman like Bush would oppose gay marriage, but she has stepped outside that "tradition," seen the situation objectively and come to a different conclusion. I think it's interesting that the supposedly liberal Barack Obama has not been able to reach this conclusion or to perform any action that would indicate that he had. Meanwhile, the supposedly antediluvian Dick Cheney has expressed his support for same-sex marriage.
This of course begs the question of what is conservative and what is liberal. One of the things I always liked about Roger is that he doesn't get hung up on such words:
So what are we to think? Who is the "progressive" and who is the "conservative"? And what do these words mean? Well, not much to me, as I have said.
Everything is in flux. These days those who identify themselves as "liberals" are on the run because the lynchpin of their ideology - increased government spending - is bankrupting the world economy. I certainly agree with this analysis as do, according to the polls, most voters. But will this always be so? Not necessarily. At some point, governments may stop spending money and come out of bankruptcy or near bankruptcy. This will probably take a while, but then where will we be? Our infrastructures will likely be in sore need of repair. At that point many of us may feel it's time for governments to start spending money again. How inconsistent of us. But that's life. Things change.
Which brings me back to gay marriage. The world has changed on this issue and is continuing to change. As Laura Bush points out in her interview, it's a generational thing. Younger people in our culture don't consider homosexuality such a big deal. Same-sex marriage is also no big deal to them. Indeed, it has already come to pass. Our cities are filled with gay couples who are de facto married. Almost all of us know some of them. Many of us have them in our families. No social calamities have occurred that I know of, at least not from gay people living together.
We have real problems. That is not one of them, not even faintly.
I have long had reservations about gay marriage (mainly because of privacy concerns -- which also extend to government jurisdiction over marriage generally), but I cannot understand how it is that this issue became such a huge threat to activists on one side, and the be-all and end-all it is to the activists on the other.
What delights me about Laura Bush's remarks is the damage it will do to the ridiculous and ongoing culture war narrative.
Our politicians will not deal with the hard issues, that would require a decision, responsibility and accountability, not
traits apparent in people who believe and practice promise them everything give them nothing.
Hugh · May 14, 2010 7:58 AM
Eric Says: She proclaimed that support in her characteristic well-mannered, low-keyed fashion on Larry King Live. (Okay, nobody's perfect.) I even had the suspicion that her husband agreed with her, but for political considerations didn't say so.
Just another example (like Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush on Abortion.) of people hiding their true beliefs for political convenience, thereby lying to the people who support them.
They win the benefits of the support from their followers, than after they are no longer useful, inform them that they were chumps, and they never really loved them.
Is it too much to ask that we can have people who actually believe in what they are saying as opposed to cynically manipulating people for political gain?
Diogenes · May 14, 2010 1:44 PM
Gee, I dunno, probably because intolerant gits like you go ballistic over every perceived deviation from the Revealed Truth?
Why not cut off the heads of the unbelievers to encourage the others?
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
Our politicians will not deal with the hard issues, that would require a decision, responsibility and accountability, not
traits apparent in people who believe and practice promise them everything give them nothing.