Centrist Pundits

I always liked John McCain.  I regretted that he wasn’t the candidate in 2000.  I probably still would have voted for Gore, but I would have felt that no matter who won, the country would have been in good hands.  John McCain 2000 seemed to be someone who gave some thought to his issues, and didn’t hide behind a veneer of civility that makes politics seem so phony. George Bush seemed like a big phony, and someone who didn’t give a lot of thought to anything, let alone political issues.  8 years of his Presidency didn’t convince me otherwise, by the way.  But those 8 years did a lot to convince me that what I thought of John McCain was incorrect.

McCain wanted to be President.  He wanted it bad enough that he sold out his maverick nature to toe the Republican line far more frequently; frequently enough that his moments of breaking with orthodox thought appeared more bizarre than maverick.  By 2008, he had fallen far enough in my estimation that I essentially never even considered voting for him.  He no longer appealed to the independent streak in me, instead seeming fairly standard issue Republican.

And yet, maybe the maverick spirit lives within in the McCain family.  I’ve liked Meghan McCain since she appeared on the scene – she’s a conservative, sure, but she has sensible stands on gay marriage, sexual freedoms, and she can explain her concerns on most issues, and is willing to listen.  She also has a sense of humor, which counts for a lot.  And she tells other Republicans that blind faith to far right agenda will never appeal to the youth voters, which is true.

And today, I have new reason to respect Cindy McCain.  I always thought of her as the severe and somewhat mean-spirited woman on John’s arm.  Not only was she a political wife who only seemed to speak in order to support her husband or take a swipe the candidate couldn’t take, but the darker rumor mill indicated she allowed her husband to get away with things that are verbal abuse.  She seemed smart, but willingly used.   So of course she had to throw off all my expectations by posting for the NoH8 campaign, a movement that photographs celebrities with duct taped mouths and No H8 penned on their faces, for promoting marriage equality – or, in another term, for gay marriage rights.

Mrs. McCain, I’m not sure I like you, as I genuinely like your charming daughter… but bravo.  Bravo indeed.

JC Personalities, gay rights gay marriage, gay rights, McCain, NoH8

Recently, President Obama has been taking a lot of hits from the left, and perhaps the biggest hits are coming from gay rights groups who have taken great umbrage to his Department of Justice performing such a vigorous defense of the Defense of Marriage act.  I suppose this should not surprise anyone.  While Obama is easily the most pro-gay rights President ever (barring, maybe, rumors about one or two specific Presidents) he’s never been a great friend to homosexual rights groups.  He came out – if you pardon the expression – against gay marriage as far back as the campaign.  And while this is certainly painting with a broad brush, with many groups that are against gay marriage being of a religious background, the idea that this very religious President isn’t the best friend of the gay community doesn’t really strike me as surprising.

I buy that the government has to defend the laws that are on the books.  I also buy that they don’t have to do so with quite the vigor that occurred in this case.  On the other hand, if I expected the government to help me on something, I would hope they would do so to the best of their ability regardless of any individual bureaucrat’s feelings.  Perhaps that is naïve.

I think the problem here is not that Obama is particularly anti-gay; I don’t think he is.  I just think its remarkably low on his list of priorities.  Obama has been saying since his election, if not before – “economy, health care, and education” as his domestic agenda.  He has made it plain that anything that’s not one of those 3 issues has to take a back seat to those 3 issues.

By that same logic, I have a friend up here in New York who’s pretty sure gun laws are going to be changing for the worse shortly.  He’s not alone, gun and ammo sales are up up up since Obama’s election out of worries about gun restrictions.  I’m fairly sure guns are somewhere on Obama’s agenda.  I don’t know if it is before or after gay rights.  But since guns are not economic, health care, or education, I just don’t think he’s going to do much with them this term.  If he gets a second term, maybe then.  Maybe not.

Gay rights groups have every right to be disappointed with Obama on this matter and perhaps other, similar issues.  Obama will never have more political capital then he has right now, if he hopes to get things passed he needs to do it now.  By not putting these issues at the top of his agenda, he is making them less likely to pass during his term in office.  That is no doubt the true implication of his lack of concern about gay rights, and so of course activists should be worried.

On the other hand, to every idea there is a season, and given the polling on the acceptance of gay marriage indicates that the younger a person is, the more accepted the idea is, it is likely that as time goes on gay rights will happen almost inevitably.  Of course, “almost” is a tricky word, and no one feels they should have to wait for their inevitable rights.  I sympathize. 

The most cynical argument would be, of course, “where else will the gay rights community go if not the Democrats”?  A third party?  Please.  The Republicans?  Log Cabin aside, unlikely.  Stay home come election time?  That’s like giving up.  Of course, that’s a dangerous philosophy; some say the Republicans lost because they didn’t excite the traditional base enough this last election.

In some ways, a mountain is being made of a molehill here.  Still, there are enough people out there for whom this is the single issue that most importantly defines their support for a candidate – I’m looking at you, Doc – that the mountain still needs climbing.

Photo by rt69 on flickr.com and is shared under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.  Thank you and let us know if you would like attribution noted differently.

JC Society culture, gay rights, obama