Comments on: What is More Change: Gay or Black?

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:15:33 +0000

Kolja, thank you for your comment.

I don’t recall writing, “playing a substantial role,” though. My point is this: one of Obama’s great strengths during the election campaign was his ability to rally supporters from a very vast democratic, and even republican, spectrum. Prop 8, in my opinion, added a question mark to his message of unity, and dismissal of the US as a nation of division. As we have seen time and time again, the Democratic base is by no stretch of the imagination an ideological monolith.

Yet, as Samuel Kernell argues in his book “Going Public,” it is crucial that a president has the ability to communicate clearly to/with the public, in order to remain empowered. The Bush presidency in many ways has become a living case-study of that. If Obama moves into the White House, and issues like Prop 8 already cause a rift within the Democratic base, I believe that does pose a challenge for him.

Granted, Obama can very well divert attention from that rift – there are plenty of issues and crises to choose from, and enough battles to pick.

I don’t agree with the notion of Obama as a radical left-wing liberal (on a European scale, Obama is even conservative on a lot of issues). He could be more assertive in his health care plan (Obama has no mandate on his – only regarding children); he supports the 2nd Amendment (right to keep and bear arms); and his tax plan is not exactly radical either.

That being said, however, I don’t think that the US is as conservative as ever – I actually do believe that both the Bush presidency, increased international isolation, and the financial crisis, have made some Americans revise their conservative stance.

And, yet, with topics like health care and education, which rank high on Obama’s agenda, (liberal) family values have invariably been pushed more to the forefront than they have been in a long time.

As always, Kolja, you have some valuable points, but I wouldn’t discard family/ethics issues like same-sex marriage just yet…Obama is going to NEED 2 terms to overhaul Washington the way he says he will, and to get that, he will need all the support he can get!

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:23:20 +0000

Peter,
thanks for all the background info and this thought-provoking analysis!
while I agree with Kolja on the part that this doesn’t seem to be an issue on the top of the agenda, compared to the other important causes, I wanna point out that Obama in his acceptance speech (do you call it that?) in Chicago specifically adressed citizens “gay or straight” – so I do see a much higher level of openness and acceptance toward this group. And while he hasn’t specifically opposed Prop 8, he has said in a TV interview that he doesn’t agree with re-writing a state’s constitution (as I believe Prop 8 does) to REMOVE rights from a group of people, as the constitution should be there to protect or grant rights to citizens.
But yeah, in my head I can’t quite resolve the paradoxon, either, why Barack Obama was voted into office as President while this measure was rejected in the “oh so liberal” state of California…
oh and the hypocrisy of that woman interviewed by Bill O’Reilly does amaze me- she says one thing and then completely opposes it in her next sentence, doesn’t she?

By: Kolja

Kolja — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:59:22 +0000

as sad as the approval of prop 8 is, I can’t see how gay marriage will play a substantial role in the next years in presidential politics.
it would reignite the culture wars, open up a new battle line and prove that Obama really is the radical left-wing liberal as which the McCain campaign has portrayed him. with the economy in shambles, two wars to fight and a health care reform to negotiate, gay marriage or “dont ask dont tell” are likely to be placed at the very bottom of obama’s agenda.
also, it’s a state issue. the president would only act if the congress somehow starts working on federal legislation that would infer with the states’ laws.
one last point, family value issues are always a great topic for campaigns, but they are hardly ever touched upon after a candidate has reached office. they are just too controversial.
Some people have used the prop 8 result to say that the election does not reflect a greater liberal or progressive shift of the nation. that’s the bigger question, is the change voters have asked for related to the ideological direction of the country, or just the failed politics of the bush administration? is the US as conservative as ever or did it change?