The Democratic Party, Marriage Equality, and Obama's 'Evolution': VIDEOS
Lots of talk about marriage equality, the Democratic Party platform, and Obama's position last night on Current TV.
Cenk Uygur took on the topic on The Young Turks and said the President's position "is absurd" but he's giving a pardon to Obama.
Michelangelo Signorile joined Uygur to discuss current anti-gay events in Uganda and the lawsuit against Scott Lively, Obama's "evolving" position on marriage equality and "the box" he's put himself in.
Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith joined Jennifer Granholm on Current to discuss the same issue, whether the push for a marriage equality plank in the Democratic Party platform puts him in a tough position.
Watch all the clips, AFTER THE JUMP...
Meanwhile, the Huffington Post reports that while the push for a marriage equality plank in the DNC platform appears to have a lot of momentum in its favor, there is an undercurrent of conflict within the party that hasn't showed its face in the recent cycle:
Interviews with more than a dozen party officials and activists reveal that despite widespread and growing support for marriage equality among Americans, the issue is still viewed as politically sensitive in the top ranks of the Democratic Party. While many high-profile figures have publicly advocated for including strong language in the platform, the Obama campaign and the allied Democratic National Committee are searching for ways to split the difference: showing support for equality but stopping short of a full-fledged endorsement.
Publicly, this friction has yet to surface. During a conference call with reporters on March 7, Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina avoided the matter, saying that all decisions would be made by the convention’s platform committee, whose members had yet to even be chosen.
“There's a process,” he said, “and the DNC will go through that, and we will have a platform.”
Behind the scenes, however, there are concerns that expectations surrounding the platform’s language are moving beyond electoral feasibility.
LGBT rights advocate and former Clinton aide Richard Socarides told The Plum Line's Greg Sargent that Democrats will settle for nothing less:
“There is no reason for delay. This is an issue that everybody knew would come before the platform committee at least since last June, when we passed marriage equality in New York. The Democratic Party needs to stand for full equality for LGBT Americans. There shouldn’t be any issue or discussion over whether the Democratic party supports full equality. Either you’re for full equality or you’re not. Any Democrat who thinks we can finesse this as a party this year is delusional.”
Obama 2008:
“I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.” “For me, as a Christian, it is also a sacred union.”
He repeated something similar in December 2010 with less harshness.
Posted by: Nun | Mar 16, 2012 11:20:13 AM
I can't be the only person who thinks that new Democrat logo is the worst I've ever seen. It looks like something you'd see at a pizza shop in rural Virginia.
Posted by: Paul R | Mar 16, 2012 11:20:14 AM
Not that I wouldn't like marriage equality in the platform, but I do have some mixed emotions on it. Republicans will try to position Democrats as "radical", even though we know it is people like Santorum who are the real radicals. If the platform loses Obama some votes, that may not be good. I think it is going to be a close race, and it is imperative that we re-elect Barack Obama. He has been the most LGBT supportive president we've ever had, and I think he will complete his "evolution" after he gains a second term.
Posted by: rick | Mar 16, 2012 11:21:23 AM
I love Cenk Uygur. Been listening to his political takes for years. He always seems to have a logical stance and response.
Posted by: Trey | Mar 16, 2012 11:26:30 AM
Bingo, Rick. Yes, I know 'enough is enough' should have happened years ago. We should no longer allow our President to not support our full equality. But, throwing the gays a bone today may jeopardize President Obama's chances in November and I can't stand the thought of his opponent winning. It will set us back decades. A few more months of this "evolution" garbage - that's all. November 7th, we can demand it finally come to its conclusion.
Posted by: kpo5 | Mar 16, 2012 11:47:54 AM
I wish all this focus and energy put towards same-sex marriage could be equally put towards ENDA, fighting discrimination and the plight of homeless gay teens. I hope the marriage issue is decided soon because it takes so much attend away from other majority issues within the movement.
Posted by: KP | Mar 16, 2012 11:58:27 AM
"November 7th, we can demand it finally come to its conclusion."
Yeah, that's the way to negotiate! Make demands after you concede everything! Why didn't the rest of us think of that? Moron. I mean its worked so well with Obama conceding everything from contraception to taxes with the Republicans hasn't it? The only thing that makes you cowards even more dangerous is your stupidity.
Posted by: gaylib | Mar 16, 2012 12:04:37 PM
There's a quote from an old movie about the reading of a wealthy man's will after his death, "You always said you were an 'all or nothing' kind of guy. Well since you can't have it all, you get.... nothing."
Well that's what all this foot-stamping over the pace of Obama's "evolution" is risking, that by throwing fits over what *may* be a true process of personal evolution in thinking but might just as easily be prudent political positioning, that we end up with a Republican President aka NOTHING. If you need a reminder of where this country is in ITS evolution toward marriage equality, don't look at polls which are conducted by seeking responders out, look at the actual VOTES in every state thus far where the question was on the ballot, cast by people who actually made the effort to show up at the voting booth!
Do you really think the GOP is afraid to turn this election into a referendum on gay marriage? They're not. In fact they would love nothing more because it offer them their best chance of winning.
Do I "like" that fact? No, but at some point realism should at least make a guest appearance in your expectations.
Posted by: Caliban | Mar 16, 2012 12:23:17 PM
Does anybody remember the prop 8 robocalls stating obama's opposition to gay marriage? What about the november referendums?
Posted by: calvin | Mar 16, 2012 12:24:20 PM
It makes me sad that the community let the marraige issue be chosen for them by our enemies, because it's our weakest issue and may scare independents. Of course we should cool it during the campaign. We've been used as a wedge issue for too many decades, and there's a lot more at stake in this election than marraige tax breaks for a few of us. But again, the community doesn't think strategically. They're easily manipulated by our enemies and by self destructive queers.
Posted by: Wilberforce | Mar 16, 2012 12:28:45 PM
anyone who insists that Obama is NOT on "our side" is a racist.
yeah, i'll say it. He's a smart man who knows how history plays out, and how history will remember his Presidency.
Don't be a complete tool. He totally has a plan. He's not some Republican piece of scum who still tragically believes that one day the South Will Rise Again, he knows damn well that the world only spins forward.
term two. equality. trust it.
Posted by: LittleKiwi | Mar 16, 2012 12:31:24 PM
"Yeah, that's the way to negotiate! Make demands after you concede everything! Why didn't the rest of us think of that? Moron. I mean its worked so well with Obama conceding everything from contraception to taxes with the Republicans hasn't it? The only thing that makes you cowards even more dangerous is your stupidity."
What alternative do we have, oh wise one? While I don't care for some of the ridiculous compromises the rabid right has forced upon our President, what alternative do we have? Put your foot down on every issue, constantly saying "No!", and never getting anything accomplished in such a polarized political climate? Sounds an awful lot like Tea Party mentality.
Posted by: kpo5 | Mar 16, 2012 12:45:08 PM
“There's a process,” he(Messina)said, “and the DNC will go through that, and we will have a platform.”
And if Jim Messina has anything to say about it, marraige equality will never see the light of day.
Posted by: RWG | Mar 16, 2012 12:57:41 PM
Yawn. I've been watching the Dims make the same empty promises for 35 years and there's always an excuse they can't/won't/don't get it done.
-- There's a war.
-- The economy is bad.
-- The race is too tight.
-- The moon is in the wrong phase.
The platform committee will come-up with some reason why "now is just not the right time" (but be sure to send them your money).
Posted by: Anastasia Beaverhausen | Mar 16, 2012 1:15:06 PM
All I hear, from Obama and the Democrats and their defenders here on this issue, is blah blah blah. Especially the defenders, who basically say, he may not have done enough, or anything on his own really, but if we don't re-elect him, we're screwed. Plus, he'll CERTAINLY be on our side come term #2.
An anecdote for your pleasure: I was recently part of installing a toilet, and someone helping me needed a tool. I was doing something so I didn't get it to her immediately. So she said; "I can't do anything; progress is at a stand-still" to which I quipped, "So you're a Democrat?"
The only difference is, as soon as I get her the tool, she'll get right back to work; there's nothing you can do about a Democrat, though.
Posted by: Matt | Mar 16, 2012 3:41:56 PM
Honestly, what I think he should do is use the pulpit he has to explain to the American people like Cuomo did. WHY equality is right, just and American. Why even if you have been raised to believe a thing, or religiously believe a thing, that EACH and EVERY American should be free to choose the life they want. Nobody agrees with everything everyone does, nor will they. But America is about respecting each persons right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Don't just have some press person say you've changed your opinion, stand in front of the American people and tell them how and why you got here and why it's American. You don't have to agree, just not deny others their right to live their lives as they wish. That's what America and freedom is about.
Nobody speaks as passionately and as eloquently as he does. They have the best speech writers on the planet. Cuomo did it, Hillary did it in front of the U.N. Make the case and change history. Be THAT president and the country will follow. It's what people believe already, all this waffling seems Romneyesque. Don't follow, lead and the majority of America will follow.
Posted by: Michaelandfred | Mar 16, 2012 5:34:16 PM
Were I not gay, and were I not an "older" man at 58, I would see this President Obama foremost as a champion against the utterly insane Republican Party's defense of the rapacious right-wing rapists of our jointly owned and invested American economy. Hell, for that matter, the responsibility for sowing poisoned financial instruments throughout not only America's states, municipalities, private and quasi-governmental agencies that relied upon the crooked financial advice of the "Too Big to Fail" Wall Street gangster gamblers did not stop at our borders. Great crimes were committed on a global scale that have yet to be safely unwound, and threaten the very fabric of what we consider a civilized society. Have you had the occasion to breathe into your irately exercised lungs the teargas of the Greek police? If you think "Occupy Wall Street" has been disruptive nationwide, wait until our own quasi-military beefed-up American police forces, with the squandered millions of Homeland Security dollars on assault vehicles for small-town police forces, get a chance to pull their multiple triggers on all of their new fascist toys to suppress pensioners protesting as to where their 30 & 40 year paid pensions have gone! As a gay man in his late 50's, I worry less about the crumbs from one or another heterosexually dominated political party than I do worry about whether civil order will survive in these United States by mid-century.
Posted by: Tom Cardellino | Mar 16, 2012 7:25:12 PM