Yesterday I expressed disappointment with President-elect Obama's corporatist choices for the Cabinet, but those selections look downright progressive next to the right-wing wind bag he's picked for the Inaugural Invocation, Rick Warren.
I mean, how quickly can you shit on the constituency who got you elected (I'm not simply talking about homosexuals -- I mean the entire progressive mass of the Democratic and beyond Democratic voters and activists who worked the phones, the streets, and the polls to get Barack Obama elected)? As Andrew Sullivan put it, "Shrewd politics, but if anyone is under any illusion that Obama is interested in advancing gay equality, they should probably sober up now." Obama most likely won't be so retrograde in the area of gay rights as McCain/Palin would have been, but now liberals, progressives, and leftists should know that Obama is not terribly interested in doing more than treading water on that front.
3 comments:
I don't see why this is a surprise. For a very long time -- even before he was a presidential candidate -- Obama has not been to the far left wing of the Democrats. You've said that. I've said that. The lefties all should have known this.
Has Obama ever said he was for gay marriage? Civil unions, yes, but I never recall him saying he was for gay marriage.
On the abortion front, Warren and Obama disagree, but this is just further proof that Obama is friends with many people who don't follow his politics exactly. Bill Ayers is a perfect example.
Warren and Obama seem to have much more in common on the religion front. The far left and the far right each seemed to think Obama was lying when he said he was a religious Christian, but it's clear now that he was being sincere.
I have no problem with Warren. I don't agree with him on gay marriage or abortion, but he strikes me as someone much more conciliatory and decent than other right-leaning Christian pastors. I have no problem with him speaking at the inauguration. Warren also tries not to associate himself with the left or the right.
Lonnie, you are well-reasoned, but someone who espouses discriminatory laws and torture like Rick Warren by default associates himself with the Right. I didn't expect Obama to come out there and write an executive order authorizing gay marriage (if he could do that) or spend his radio address pleading with the public for gay marriage, but I also didn't expect him to give the big middle finger to supporters of equal rights.
Wait, he espouses torture? When?
I think this guy has a very good analysis.
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