Andrew Sullivan, who used to be a Bush supporter but now is a waffling contrarian whose support is on sale for the price of gay marriage, might want to check out this interview in the NY Times:
Careful not to question the sincerity of Mr. Bush’s faith or to criticize the mobilization of conservative religious forces on his behalf, Mr. Kerry nonetheless suggested his opponent’s campaign had gone over the line with the way it frames some issues.
“I think you have to draw that line, so the answer is yes, they reached beyond that line, and in my judgment they’re trying to exploit certain issues,” he said. “The president and I have the same position, fundamentally, on gay marriage. We do. Same position. But they’re out there misleading people and exploiting it.”
Sullivan somehow thinks Bush sold him out, and pretends to fool himself that the democrats are the answer to his now sole political issue of importance- gay marriage. I used to think Andy was a bright fellow, but boy does he have the blinders on for this one.
Quite frankly, there is no real grass roots support for homosexual marriage. Perhaps 30% of the population is in favor of it, 20-30% are indifferent, and thiswould explain the polls that give Andy false hope, but Andy might want to look into a little thing called Social Desirability Bias. There is a reason that polls in California might show 50+% support for homosexual marriage, yet Proposition 22 passes by a 61%-39% margin. It ain’t vote fraud, either.
Virtually every time gay marriage is put on a ballot anywhere, it is demolished, and it is only in the courts that any ‘progress’ is made. Of course, this progress is eventually overturned by higher courts, leaving the homosexual community worse off than they were before. By trying to ram things through the courts, they end up alienating many voters who previously had been indifferent regarding the issue.
At any rate, back to Sullivan and his new-found hatred for Bush and Rove. If for one minute you think Kerry is going to lead you to the promised land, you are wrong. Not only has he no stated desire to do what you wish legislatively, the Democrats find the homosexual community to be too valuable a voting bloc for them to give you what you want. The Democratic party is much better seved by talking loudly about advancing homosexual marriage and doing nothing, all the while playing fools like Andy off the ‘bigoted’ GOP.
It is so clear and obvious it hurts to watch.
*** Update ***
Sullivan responds (not to me, of course), sort of.
S.W. Anderson
“The Democratic party is much better seved by talking loudly about advancing homosexual marriage . . .”
Exactly when and where has the Democratic Party talked loudly, or even softly, about advancing homosexual marriage?
Veeshir
First off, I’m a little upset that you had me go to Sullivan. I don’t like increasing his site stats anymore.
Second, I have to say the post linked looked like the old Sullivan. The problem is that the next post is the new Sullivan.
In the first post he explains that both candidates are similar but we really don’t know what the hell Kerry means. Good so far, then the next post he gets into exactly what Kerry means.
Self-delusional is no way to go through life.
jp
I can’t remember if Sully is one of the marriage-hardliners or a civil-union pragmatist, but if he’s the latter it makes good sense to throw support to the Dems, since they’re generally OK with civil unions (or at least expansion of benefits into that ballpark), non?
jp
Having (begrudgingly) flipped over to Sully’s site, his argument is practically a no-brainer: repubs want to ban gay marriage and civil unions; dems oppose the former and support the latter.
JB
Soooo…Sully’s theme now is that, because he helped to propose a Constitutional Amendment (which he quite likely knew was a slam-dunk non-starter) in order to settle the question re: gay marriage and/or civil same-sex unions once and for all (relatively speaking, of course), Bush is therefore immeasurably the poorer choice for POTUS.
Talk about slicing the cheese extra-thin…
Sully’s become the exact same sort of for-sale strumpet on a single issue that he once famously decried – he’s utterly and irreversibly discredited himself as any sort of credible pundit.
Andyzero
Bush said he’d support Civil Unions too, though.
Porpheus
Something is happening to Sully’s brain, and it isn’t pretty. The precious and irrepraceably neurons are being daily murdered by the hundreds of thousands by anti-retroviral drugs, and other consequences of HIV infection. There’s no going back. Sully’s on the downhill track.
jp
Bush said he’d support Civil Unions too, though.
Maybe I’m overthinking this, but if Bush is supporting the amendment that’s been featured most prominently, which bans the ‘incidents’ of marriage, then it’s hard to see how he can also support civil unions.
Andy00
He just doesn’t want it called marriage. But he, and his press secretary, have said that individual states should make “legal arrangements other than marriage.”
Is this fair? No. But I’m really not seeing the difference with Kerry.
The irony is…once homosexuals start getting civil unions (which if succesfuly, will lead to greater possibility for marriage), there’s going to be a huge schism between them and the rest of the “Outsider” culture.
I think a lot of their spokespeople are aware of that, which is why they’re not really pushing for Civil Unions.
Ernest Brown
Actually, he just wants to get back in good with the “smart set” now that he thinks that Bush has done all the heavy lifting on the war on terror. (he even compared him to Churchill in 1945, when the electorate got rid of Winnie after 6 years of prosecuting the war)
Sullivan’s dishonesty about his ADVOCATE interview debars him from being considered an honest pundit ever again.
Kimmitt
Democrats find the homosexual community to be too valuable a voting bloc for them to give you what you want.
Well, that definitely explains Mayor Newsom’s actions. Thanks for clearing all of that up for me.
wild bird
What a idiot i mean if he supports these idiotic gay marriges then he is a jerk just like the jerk mayor of san fransico i mean this guy has gone from good to wicked in a just a few years