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Friend of the Blend, former special assistant and senior advisor to President Bill Clinton Richard Socarides, has a piece at The Politico, where he notes that President Obama missed an opportunity with the Prop 8 ruling last week to shift his hardline “God is in the mix” opposition to marriage equality. Obama is backed into a corner now (he supported it in 1996, so he’s politically regressed), and he’s going to be forced into accepting the truth that he knows as a constitutional scholar quite soon.
First, where you stand on the issue of marriage has become a kind of political litmus test for gay voters on whether you support full or partial equality. It is now seen as a proxy for whether you believe gays and lesbians are entitled to full dignity, respect and inclusion in every aspect of American society. And whether, in essence, our struggle for equality is worthy as a civil rights movement. Just saying you are for equal rights will no longer cut it.…Support for equal benefits, but not for equal status – a gay “separate but equal” rule – is contrary to what Obama stands for, both as a person and as a symbol of expanding freedoms and opportunities. Continuing on this course will lose him and his fellow Democrats the support and enthusiasm of a large block of his base voters.
…People understand that most public officials who now support gay marriage once opposed it. It wasn’t until after they left office that Bill Clinton and Al Gore (and, most recently, Laura Bush) said that they favored marriage equality. As Nate Silver recently wrote on his blog FiveThirtyEight.com: “Does anyone really believe, in a country that is becoming close to evenly divided on gay marriage, that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Kerry are among the half who oppose it? ”
The sooner Obama changes his answer on this most important equal-rights issue of the day, the better off he will be. The Perry ruling provides the right opportunity to shift his emphasis and provide real leadership, reminding people that in this country, we look to the courts for direction on what our Constitution requires.
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“What Obama stands for”Where could anyone possibly get the idea that Obama “stands for…expanding freedoms and opportunities”?! I have a feeling Van Jones, Shirley Sherrod and the staff of ACORN might have a wee bit of a different take on that.
On the available evidence, what Obama “stands for” is a continuation of the status quo at all costs. And not just the status quo for LGBT people, either. The status quo as in: the federal government bending over for corporations; escalating the war in Afghanistan; torturing; plundering the environment; doling out public money to churches; continuing to spy on American citizens; keeping Gitmo open; and on and on. In short, Obama “stands for” pretty much the same things George W. Bush stood for. The corner Obama has backed into is a corner of his own making, and he seems perfectly comfortable in it.
I have a lot of respect for Socarides. In a lot of ways, he’s been a terrific advocate for our community. But mindlessly believing Obama’s rhetoric rather than examining his actions is inexcusable at this point. There is a troll under the bridge; trying to pretend it’s not there won’t accomplish anything but getting you devoured.
QScribe is correctObama isn’t going to change his mind because (his exact words) “God is in the mix.”
And Miss God isn’t all that into us.
Nah, I wanna see President Obama sweat nowDebate the issue at the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary. (and what do those 2 states have in common?)
The first two paragraphs say it all.99% no longer makes the grade. Individual equality supporting candidates “yes”, others, well, they’ll just have to wait won’t they.
‘specially whenthat 1% seems to be where all the action is. We certainly haven’t gotten any out of the 99%.
Took the words right out of my mouth
“Yes We Can” turned into “No We Won’t”.
And what are the chancesObama and his advisers will seriously consider the advice of this “professional left” “angry gay blogger?”
A status quo presidentQSrcibe’s list is like the one I reel off over and over here and elsewhere and I’m sure it’s echoed across the “on drugs” “professional left”:
Despite changing our image abroad, we are in a third Bush term, except it has a different cast of characters, and the rhetoric isn’t as hateful. But the reality is something quite different. I am heartsick and disgusted by the WH’s mouthpieces and by the lack of real change.
Chalmers Johnson once again sounds the alarm on our encroaching disaster, but this is not an administration that gives a shit:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
God can still be in the mix.WIthout any significant hypocrisy fallout, he can still say that God is in the mix for him, and shift the meaning of that to full civil marriage equality, with a clearly articulated “hands off” policy with regards religion and clergy.
Current law already honors that, but if we need to reinforce it using redundant language in the appropriate laws saying that no church or member of clergy will be required to conduct a wedding that is in contradiction of their church policy, that’s fine.
I’d love to see Obama’s rhetorical skills pointed that way. I was frankly stunned when he didn’t come out the gate that way given his past statements. I’m convinced that somewhere along the line, it’s what he’ll be saying. Why not now.
It’s not like he’ll lose anyone from the Right because of it. What’s a little gay equality to people who already believe he’s a secret Muslim (as if that mattered.)
Obama has always saidthat he would rather have one great term as president than two mediocre ones.
Too bad he’s a pathological liar.Supporting gay marriage would be one of those things that might take some votes away from conservative democrats (and I say “might” because I don’t believe that any of them would have been voting for him in 2012 anyway), but that would have allowed him to leave a legacy of equality and dignity for all people.Posted same comment re Timothy Kincaids piece…today on Box Turtle bulletin..
. under the Politico piece. It it time to say no more, we will stand for no more bigotry from those who try to call themselves Christians.
Our highly educatedleader may be an intelligent man, but his calls for change and progress have been sidelined by excessive, political circumspection. The right wing yet governs the agenda of this government, and Mr. Obama is either hapless in efforts to confront his adversaries or he is complicit with their demands. No matter what, he is so far not a good leader. We are still wandering in the desert.
This is the first time I’ve seen anyone other than me express this:“Does anyone really believe, in a country that is becoming close to evenly divided on gay marriage, that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Kerry are among the half who oppose it?”
Just because someone says an obvious lie, doesn’t mean you have to pretend it’s the truth or that there’s any ambiguity about the truth.
Of course Barack Obama is for marriage equality. Of course he’ll lie about it as long as he’s the president. He’s a liar and a coward and a oorporate stooge.
And FYI, Mr. President: your own church — the one you started attending in order to further your political career, because who believes you actually believe that nonsense, either (and it’s hysterical that it backfired on you at the worst possible time, by the way, though what exactly ever happened to your dear friend, the reverend?) — believes in marriage equality, so which god are you referring to, exactly? Not the one you pretended to worship for a decade or two. If you can’t tell the truth, at least show us the respect of being a good liar.
Yes yes…yet another hysterical demand for Obama to fall on his sword for the LGBT elites.
Yet another demand that he martyr his presidency for gay marriage.
If Obama wants to come out in support of gay marriage, fine…as long as he follows that up with a clear statement that he will NOT SEEK THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT.
If Obama changes his official stanceDon’t expect it to occur before the November elections. With Democrats feeling their control of Congress is so precarious, they aren’t going to do anything to rile the opposition further.
On the other hand, now could be an ideal time to work behind the scenes to negotiate with the administration to announce a new position supporting marriage equality following a decision by the 9th Circuit. Especially if the 9th Circuit denies standing or hears the Prop 8 case and concurs with Judge Walker’s assessment that it is unconstitutional.
The last thing Obama wants is to have the Supreme Court hearing this case in late 2011, then issuing a decision in October 2012 that makes him appear out of the mainstream.
And mainstream is rapidly becoming pro-marriage.
Sounds good to me.
Do you oppose marriage equality?
Seeing the name “Socarides” here startled meThe title of this post took me by surprise, because I had not heard of Richard Socarides. Nevertheless I was very familiar with the Socarides family name. This was the case because my father, like Richard’s, was a practicing Freudian psychiatrist. Among my father’s books I used to notice and sometimes read parts of one written by Richard’s father Charles, all about the “treatment” of homosexuality.
Charles Socarides, M.D., was an outspoken proponent of the idea that gays needed to be “cured.” Even as a 12 year old, looking through one of Charles’ books gave me a strange feeling that something was wrong with its author’s ideas, though probably I could not have understood or explained my feelings at the time. There was just something not right about that book.
Later, when I was an undergraduate at Berkeley, as the “gay lib” movement first began to make itself known on campus, I remember trying to reconcile the “cure” concept of Socarides with the notion that being gay had suddenly become politically “in”.
I should explain that, at that time, it was the professional goal of Freudians to ascribe all of life’s problems to difficulties in a child’s upbringing and early life experiences. Perhaps as a result, there was little or no mention of heredity or intrauterine development in the psychoanalytic literature up to that point. Probably the idea that sexual preference could be a variable, inborn characteristic would have sounded strange to psychiatrists in those years.
Now I am relieved and happy to learn that Richard Socarides is trying to undo some of the harm that may have been caused by his father’s campaign to “cure” gays and lesbians.
Short short memoryPam, how you can call this man your friend is beyond me.
This is the man who gave us DOMA and DADT.
Enough said.
With friends like these…..
Speaking of hypocrites…
By the way, I do disagree with Socarides in thatI don’t believe that marriage equality is the “most important equal-rights issue of the day.”
I do think that it’s important and I do think that marriage equality will periphally (is that a word?) benefit even single LGBTs in many ways.
But I think that non-discrimination in housing and employment is a more important equal rights issue.
And when I say in “employment,” I’m not just talking about hiring and firing, I’m also talking about it in terms of salary and promotions.