Mr. President, Enough Of The Politics, Step Up To The Plate
By David Mixner
Copyright by David Mixner
Aug 6 2010
http://www.davidmixner.com/2010/08/mr-president-enough-of-the-politics-step-up-to-the-plate.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DavidMixnerCom+%28DavidMixner.com%29
Freedom After the Proposition 8 historic decision came down on Wednesday, my email box was flooded with people from every walk of life issuing press releases praising the victory. The Republican Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn't be more excited for the LGBT community in our victory. Justice and equality was having a good day and everyone was basking in it.
Well, not quite everyone. Our President, our fierce advocate, continued with a game of giving us begrudgingly congratulations in a tepid unemotional and uninspired statement while sending his minions out to make sure the entire country knew that he was against marriage equality. If there was anyone that should sit down and read this opinion it would be this son of an interracial couple who had to go to Supreme Court to obtain marriage equality.
Unfortunately, he didn't even mention the court case in his two line statement. However, David Axelrod found plenty of time to go on national television to make sure the country knew that Obama was against marriage equality. Then there was the cowardly "nameless source" who said the President would only deal with those actions at the federal level such as benefits and things.
This game has to stop. The President is either with us or against us. If he is neutral, so be it but then stop hurting us by saying over and over how marriage equality is between a man and a women. He should pay close attention to the line in Judge Walker's decision that says,
"Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. "
With this case he could no longer hide behind the fact that the Attorney General would have to intervene against us. The case does not involve the federal government. The issue is here to stay. As much as they wish, they can't manage it politically for their convenience. Mr. President, that is no longer possible. The surge toward marriage equality is even going to be stronger in this coming Presidential election. In fact, the Supreme Court could even rule one way or another before the election.
For the President, an enormous amount is at stake surrounding this issue and it goes far beyond marriage equality. Is the President going to seize this moment in history and become a great leader or will others have to lead him? Is he going to be remembered as Harry Truman or more like those Senators in the 1960's who walked a fine line attempting to appease all sides in that great epic struggle for civil rights?.
Now is the time, Mr. President for you to lead, not tomorrow but today. We want you by our sides. If not, you will be the one that will always be remembered for standing on the sidelines without courage. With or without your leadership, nothing is going to stop our inevitable march to freedom.
Bob Shrum: The Republican War On The Constitution
By David Mixner
Copyright by David Mixner
Aug 6 2010
http://www.davidmixner.com/2010/08/bob-shrum-the-republican-war-on-the-constitution.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DavidMixnerCom+%28DavidMixner.com%29
Out of all the reactions that came from the Proposition 8 Court decision perhaps none was as horrible as that of Republican leaders seriously discussing modifying the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. This amendment has been a beacon of hope for decades for those seeking a position of equality in America. Clearly if they don't like the way things evolve in America their solution is just change the Constitution.
Bob Shrum has written for "The Week" an extraordinary article about "The Republican War On The Constitution." Please read the entire column since it is a thoughtful and important piece of writing but here are some excerpts:
It is the party of Lincoln no more.
As part of a crass strategy to appeal to anti-immigrant paranoia and racism, Republican leaders are now assaulting the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The Amendment, which was passed after Lincoln’s death, ratified his life’s work. Republicans propose to repeal its guarantee of citizenship as a birthright, and while the impetus for this assault on Constitutional principle comes from the GOP’s tea-intoxicated fringe, it has been seconded by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham. In today’s GOP, the few with loose morals vie to lead the many with loose marbles.
Shrum continues:
As President, George W. Bush favored at least six constitutional amendments—to require a balanced budget (even as he ran up historic deficits); to ban flag-burning and same-sex marriage; to rollback a woman’s right to choose; to permit official prayer in public schools; and to establish so-called victim’s rights in criminal proceedings, a misnamed measure which would have undermined the presumption of innocence. Bush’s Anti-Bill of Rights, which stoked the fires of intolerance against gays, helped to secure his narrow reelection in 2004. Six years later, the GOP’s assaults on the nation’s charter have multiplied.
Talking about the Proposition 8 Court Case he writes:
The federal court opinion striking down the California ban on same-sex marriage will add one more weapon to this arsenal of prejudice. GOP candidates can now trash another provision of the Fourteenth Amendment—the requirement of “equal protection of the laws.” This may be dumb politics in the long run. But this GOP, which reflexively bows to backlash and bigotry, seeks power now.
In an infamous campaign, a strategist for anti-busing Democrat Ed King, the successful candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1978, said, “We put all the hate groups in one pot and let it boil.” That recipe has become as fundamental to contemporary GOP politics as voodoo economics.
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