How to Alienate Friends and Shoot Yourself In the Foot
18 December 2008 9:00 am by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
Inclusiveness defined: Inviting a homophobic, anti civil rights, including when it comes to women, right-wing preacher to do your invocation. Now that’s change we can believe in, folks. What a joke, except few are laughing.
It’s his first
colossal error and he hasn’t even been sworn in. But trust me, this is just the beginning. Wait until we get to FISA and interrogation policies, one of which Obama has already aligned himself with Bush. But on something as fundamental as civil rights, you’d think Obama would have a clue.
Human Rights Campaign’s letter says it all:
Let me get right to the point. Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans. Our loss in California over the passage of Proposition 8 which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years. And by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table. [...]
Newsflash: You never had a place at the table. You were simply invited to the party because it was politically advantageous to the host.
Either Obama doesn’t think he has to answer to the people who elected him, or he’s so full of himself he doesn’t
care. Either way, deciding that Warren should be the one to lead him in prayer before becoming president is nothing short of reckless.
… The selection of Warren to preside at the inauguration is not a surprise
move, but it is a mirror image of President Bill Clinton’s early struggles
with issues of gay rights. Obama has worked, and at times succeeded, to bridge
the gap between Democrats and evangelical Christians, who form a solid section
of the Republican base.Obama opposes same-sex marriage, but also opposed the California constitutional
amendment Warren backed. In selecting Warren, he is choosing to reach out
to conservatives on a hot-button social issue, at the cost of antagonizing
gay voters who overwhelmingly supported him.Clinton, by contrast, drew early praise from gay rights activists by pressing
to allow openly gay soldiers to serve, only to retreat into the “don’t
ask, don’t tell” compromise that pleased few.The reaction Wednesday in gay rights circles was universally negative.[...]
The article above is talking about gay activists only. They showed their faith
then got stabbed in the back, which really should not have surprised anyone.
Obama’s certainly anything but brave on these matters, which was proven during
the long election season.
The red and blue America lives on, with some still standing outside. Why he wants to spend his political capital like this is beyond me. It’s strictly amateur hour.
Oh, and the way he’s utilized the bully pulpit on Blago isn’t particularly impressive either. Alienating a fawning press? Yeah, that’s a good move.
