Can we have a civil discussion about the president's policy on marriage rights?
In contrast to his reversals on state secrets, warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention without trial, etc., marriage is an area where the president has not reversed himself since the campaign.
Barack Obama has told us all that "I think marriage is between a man and a woman". When he says this, he isn't saying that if he and Michelle divorced he would never marry a man. He's talking about enforced restrictions on other people's decisions and rights: he does not believe in federal recognition of marriages in Massachusetts, Iowa, Vermont, California, or Connecticut unless they meet that gender criterion. In this sense he finds himself to the "right" of many Republicans, from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Dick Cheney.
Yesterday Obama's quiet, resolute leadership (or to those in denial, his lack of it) helped embolden like-minded Maine voters to narrowly repeal the equal rights legislation there, making it the 30th state with a Jim Crow law that prevents same sex couples and their children from obtaining Social Security benefits, inheriting from a spouse, and enjoying more than 1000 other federal rights.
What do you think?
Read More