GOP leaders are putting gay marriage back on the agenda. Will voters respond?
"A constitutional
amendment should never be undertaken lightly -- yet to defend marriage,
our nation has no other choice."
--President George W. Bush, radio address, July 10, 2004
"Unfortunately, activist judges and some local officials have made an
aggressive attempt to redefine marriage in recent years."
--President George W. Bush, radio address, June 3, 2006
2006 was supposed to be the election when the Noise Machine trotted out illegal immigration as its new Wedge Issue of the Year. That didn't turn you so well, but you know: The classics never go out of style.
Where would the GOP be if it didn't have gay men to run against?
This is more an attack on the courts than it is anything else. The
whole protection of marriage crap just happens to make a nice little
wedge for these closeted homophobes. Every little thing this group has
done has always had the undertones of seizing the courts. Bring it on
George! Just as much as your ilk have exploited single anti abortion
issue crazies, this too will rally a new Democratic base against
writing descrimination into the Constitution.
Sophisticated political issues are a feeble substitute for the
manufactured decadence of flags, fags and fetuses. It's kinda like
sweeps week, sans the new episodes, series and specials.
Though Bush himself has publicly embraced the amendment, he never
seemed to care enough to press the matter. One of his old friends told
NEWSWEEK that same-sex marriage barely registers on the president's
moral radar. "I think it was purely political. I don't think he gives a
s--t about it. He never talks about this stuff," said the friend, who
requested anonymity to discuss his private conversations with Bush.
White House aides, who also declined to be identified, insist that the
president does care about banning gay marriage. They say Monday's
events with amendment supporters—Bush will also meet privately with a
small group—have been in the works "for weeks" and aren't just a sop to
conservatives.
Whatever the political maneuvering, it's the courts that could make the
next move. Last week New York's highest court heard arguments that the
state must allow gay couples to wed. A similar case in New Jersey was
argued in February. Decisions could come later this summer. At the same
time, judges recently struck down 2004 bans from Georgia, Ohio and
Nebraska. "It's just a matter of time before the other shoe falls,"
says Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. "This is not an
issue you can take a pass on." For politicians and activists, that may
be true. But average voters might do exactly that.
At the close of his commencement speech before 250
graduates (and 4000 others) at tiny Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. on
Saturday, satirist Stephen Colbert left them with a piece of advice:
Get your own TV show. "It pays well," he observed, "the hours are great
and you have fans. Eventually, some nice people will give you an
honorary degree for doing jack squat."
This advice could be crucial, for earlier he had
observed: "I don't know if they've told you what's been happening in
the world while you've been matriculating. The world is waiting for you
people with a club....They are playing for KEEPS out there, folks."
Colbert, who slipped in and out of his rightwing
blowhard TV persona on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” received
an overwhelmingly positive response compared with the mixed reaction at
the recent White House Correspondents Dinner. Afterward, students
presented him with a purple “Veritasiness Tour” t-shirt (which
translates, very roughly, as "truthiness").
He had opened his speech with: "My name is Stephen
Colbert, but I actually play someone on television named Stephen
Colbert, who looks like me, and talks like me, but who says things with
a straight face he doesn't mean."
In that vein, Colbert considered the immigration
debate: "It’s time for illegal immigrants to go — right after they
finish (building) those walls." People keep saying immigrants built
America, "but here's the thing, it's built now. I think it was finished
in the '70s sometime. From this point it's only a touch-up and repair
job."
His suggestions for securing the U.S.-Mexico border
went beyond walls to include moats, fiery moats and fiery moats with
fire-proof crocodiles.
He added that the border with Canada also has to be
secure so Canadians cannot bring their "skunky beer" into the country.
He backed English as the official language of the United States — "God
wrote (the Bible) in English for a reason: So it could be taught in our
public schools."
Noting the college was founded by abolitionists,
Colbert came out against slavery. "I just hope the mainstream media
gives me credit for the stand I’ve taken today," he said.
Recently picked as one of the 100 Most Influential
People by Time magazine, Colbert quipped: "If you do the math, there
are 6.5 billion people in the world. That means that today I am here
representing 65 million people. That's as big as some countries. What
country has about 65 million people? Iran? Iran has 65 million people.
So, for all intents and purposes, I'm here representing Iran today.
Don't shoot."
Colbert, 42, graduated from Northwestern University in
Evanston 20 years ago. He said that instead of a diploma on his
commencement day, he got a scrap of paper, which informed him he had an
incomplete in one class. He said he happily waved it in the photos with
his parents that day. At the next graduation, half a year later, he
didn’t receive his diploma because of a library fine, he claimed.
He closed his speech on an apparently semi-serious
note, urging the grads to learn how to say "yes." He noted that saying
yes will sometimes get them in trouble or make them look like a fool.
But he added: "Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young
people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly
cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing
from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a
self-imposed blinder, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it
will hurt us or disappoint us.
"Cynics always say no. But saying yes begins things.
Saying yes is how things grow. Saying yes leads to knowledge. Yes is
for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say yes.
At the close of his commencement speech before 250
graduates (and 4000 others) at tiny Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. on
Saturday, satirist Stephen Colbert left them with a piece of advice:
Get your own TV show. 
