Wednesday, May 09, 2012
I've never felt better about President Obama than today, when he revealed his support for equal marriage rights. I write "revealed" because I don't think he was really against it even in 2008. People like the Obamas aren't opposed to equal marriage rights; they're too educated, too urbane, not doctrinaire religionists. I don't know if the announcement was calculated or was pressured by VP Joe Biden. A difference of opinion between a president & VP is not uncommon, as long as they are together on major policy decisions. Supporting equal marriage rights but conceding the decisions to the states, as Obama did, is not major policy.
I did foresee the President expanding LGBT rights within the federal government by presidential directives in his second term. Now I wonder if this announcement will cost him a second term. The President is on record as wanting the Defense of Marriage Act overturned by the courts, or at least not caring if it is, as the administration declines to defend its constitutionality.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I did foresee the President expanding LGBT rights within the federal government by presidential directives in his second term. Now I wonder if this announcement will cost him a second term. The President is on record as wanting the Defense of Marriage Act overturned by the courts, or at least not caring if it is, as the administration declines to defend its constitutionality.
