Even on a regular Friday, this story may well have been missed, but particularly on Fitzmas Day, when there seemed to be no other news at all, it had no chance of being acknowledged, despite its importance as well as the irony that bad news for the White House is undoubtedly what prompted it. The story? The Federal Marriage Amendment has been resurrected.
And why wouldn’t it be? A new strategy memo issued by Carville and Greenberg notes that public confidence in the Republicans has collapsed, and with many of their most prominent members currently under investigation and/or indictment, it’s time for the GOP machine to kick the old hate-mongering mechanism into high gear. Sure, we may be criminals, but at least we’re not gay!
And what coincidental timing. The Senate Sub-Committee on the Judiciary will meet about the FMA on Nov. 2 to hold a vote, and then send it on to the full committee, with the hope of its supporters that it will come to a full vote in both Houses of Congress just before the 2006 mid-terms. So once again, we face an election cycle where the GOP tries to hide its heinous agenda and resolute incompetence behind the exploitation of homobigotry. And they say the Democrats have no new ideas?
With the possibility that they may be successful in making this an issue yet again, the Dems need to stop punting; semantic contortions about civil unions versus marriage are both unnecessary and unproductive. It’s time for a firm, simply stated position on the right of equality for all Americans, which should be about the least controversial position one could imagine.
Two days ago, the actor George Takei, most famously known for his role in Star Trek, came out. A Japenese-American, who lived in a U.S. internment camp from age 4 to 8, likened discrimination against the LGBT community to racial segregation, and noted, “It's against basic decency and what American values stand for.” There’s something deeply touching to me about a man who spent four years of his childhood exposed to the ugliness of an internment camp and experienced a lifetime of bias because of his sexuality being more in touch with the notions of basic decency and genuine American values than many Americans , including those at the highest levels of government. Prejudice against gays is against basic decency and what American values stand for. Such a simple truth. Are the Democrats finally ready to say the same?
(Crossposted at Ezra's place.)
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