What Have You Done of Paramount Importance for Me Lately?

Chris and Zeke at BuzzFeed reported last night that "same-sex couples will be a part of the proposal for addressing immigration reform that President Obama is scheduled to unveil Tuesday in Las Vegas." This is excellent news, if accurate, both because it is the ethical thing to do and also because it's a direct challenge to DOMA.

Anyway. One of the architects of the Senate's bipartisan immigration proposal, Senator John McCain (R-Eallysoreloser) had to piss on the parade on CBS this morning, grumping "that including binational gay and lesbian couples whose relationships are currently not recognized by the federal government in the proposed legalization process is a 'red flag' that is 'not of paramount importance'."

Now you know I could spend all day every day writing about how terrible John McCain is (because that's pretty much exactly what I did during the 2008 election), but I'm not highlighting this totally typical bit of McCain fuckery to kick the Senator while he's already stuck in the quicksand on the shores of irrelevance.

I just wanted to highlight how emblematic of contemporary Republican thinking and argumentation this particular bit of haughty dismissal is: The issue is not of paramount importance.

To whom?

It is certainly of paramount importance to bi-national couples who cannot be together because the US government jettisons its charter of universal equality when it bumps up against not treating LGB people like second-class citizens.

It is certainly of paramount importance to immigration reform advocates who have petitioning for this change (among others) for more than a decade.

It is certainly of paramount importance to me, who has written ALL THE LETTERS to my elected representatives begging them to please extend to same-sex couples the right granted to Iain and me, because our love for one another and our desire to spend our lives together is not special because we're of different sexes.

But it's not "of paramount importance" to John McCain and the members of his garbage party. It's only "of paramount importance" to People Who Don't Matter. So it's thus not "of paramount importance" to anyone at all.

That, right there, is why the Republicans lost the Presidency, are a minority in the Senate, and wouldn't even have a majority in the House were it not for gerrymandering.

Members of their party are making noises about having to change the way they say things, and do things, but the GOP is never again going to be a functional national party as long as they continue to assess need on the basis of privilege.