...you can't say Obama didn't warn you. He talked about reaching out, about expanding our politics and that crazy bastard actually meant it. Nobody on the left or right quite knows what to make of it. We want to cram Obama into our old, divisive, two toned ideological and political frame and if he doesn't fit, we'll attack him too. Attacking is what we're used to doing.-The Huffington Posts's Lee Stranahan, talking his fellow liberals off the ledge regarding the Rick Warren affair.
Larry, Ben, and I have been in one of our email loops about Warren, as well as Obama's commitment to gay rights. Here is part of what I wrote to them this morning:
Look...I'm just as disappointed as you are. Even this morning I'm reading that Obama bypassed a lesbian who was more than qualified for the post of Labor Secretary in favor a congresswoman from L.A.
But then I'm old enough to remember Clinton's first term. The very first thing on his plate when he took office? Gays in the military. It hobbled him from Day 1. And the Republicans took over congress two years later.
Americans are hurting more than ever right now. Millions have been knocked on their asses by this economic crisis. Millions more will be knocked on theirs next year. If Obama started putting gay rights front and center, the backlash would be horrible. Not only against him, but against us. It would set us back a decade.
We just need to grit our teeth and bare it.
Now...if, during his first term, he doesn't overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," repeal DOMA, and at least try to pass a bill granting civil unions at the federal level, then I'll start in on him.
But right now, the man has one hell of a mess to clean up.
We 'mos need to give him a little bit of room to work before we start blasting him. Because whether we have gay marriage or not, it ain't gonna matter much if we're all unemployed and shivering under a cardboard box in the Tenderloin a year from now.
