Obama on gay rights
(posted by Angelica)
Once upon a time in this election cycle, I supported John Edwards, even though his chances never looked good. When Edwards bowed out, I switched to Obama without thinking about it too much. To me, there was just too much to dislike about Hillary Clinton, and I don’t mean her supposed ’shrillness’.
However, as time goes on, I am feeling better and better about Obama. I’ve always thought that he was a great salesman for the Democratic party for the general population. But as time goes by, it has become increasingly obvious that he is also a staunch champion for progressive ideas in general, with an uncanny knack pitching ideas that would normally raise hackles.
Case in point:
Obama’s rally in Beaumont today was the highest-energy of this Texas swing, with a crowd that was about three-quarters black cheering at almost every turn.
An interesting moment came when he was asked a question about LGBT rights and delivered an answer that seemed to suit the questioner, listing the various attributes — race, gender, etc. — that shouldn’t trigger discrimination, to successive cheers. When he came to saying that gays and lesbians deserve equality, though, the crowd fell silent.
So he took a different tack:
“Now I’m a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday,” he said, to a sudden wave of noisy applause and cheers.
“I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian,” he said, and the crowd seemed to come along with him this time.
This episode demonstrates not just political courage, but something arguably more precious — the ability to lead people to challenging ideas with calmness and confidence.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:19 am
It’s even better than that. Obama may say he’s “against gay marriage”, but if you actually look at the details of his position he’s *for* repealing DOMA. Since that’s the major pro-gay-marriage policy action that could be taken at the federal level Obama’s being “against gay marriage” looks more like rhetorical camouflage than substantive policy.
March 7th, 2008 at 11:19 am
See, this is where Hillary’s “just words” argument falls apart.
Words change minds. Words are how we work out what we believe.
March 7th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Obama was a “movement person” to a certain degree in Chicago–although he has been out of the movement for quite a while doing the things required to be president.
I would have preferred Edwards as well and I wonder why neither Edwards or Richardson has endorsed Obama.
Whether he is more progressive than he seems–I dunno. In a strange way he has to run to the middle because of the racial dynamics of the thing–can’t get “Jackson-baited.”
We will see.