Yes, he may have come out—so to speak—and said it only because his Vice President couldn’t keep his yap shut (not that keeping his yap shut has ever been Joe Biden’s strong suit); but the fact remains that President Obama did state publicly that he believes that gays and lesbians should be able to marry. He could have backtracked it; he could have hedged his bets (which he sort of did, but not really); he could have distanced himself from it by saying that Vice President Biden had been expressing his own opinion, not the opinion of the Obama administration or anyone else in it; or he could easily have repeated the flaccid statements he has made in the past, leaning on the crutch of his religion in order to defend an indefensible position.
But the President did none of those things (except sort of hedge his bets—which is, like, totally unusual for a politican to do). He stood up and said what he thought, even though it’s still not an overwhelmingly popular position; and he did so just as his campaign for re-election is getting underway. Regardless of what you think of the guy personally or politically, I think it’s difficult to look at what he did and not admit that it’s a risky thing to do in an election year. I keep reading that most people in this fading republic support gay marriage, but that seems optimistic to me. Maybe it’s just that I’m seated here in Indiana, an overwhelmingly rural and ignorant state.
I don’t know if publicly supporting gay marriage helps the President in his bid for a second term or not. I seem daily to be getting more and more disillusioned with politics and politicians. Most politicians spend far too much time (and money) trying to get elected again, and not nearly enough time doing things that warrant their having been elected in the first place—never mind genuinely impressive things that are also the right thing to do.
Supporting gay marriage is absolutely the right thing to do. I completely agree with the Comment piece in last week’s issue of The New Yorker, which calls gay marriage an “historic inevitability.” I’m not sure whether it matters if President Obama made his public statement for political gain or not, because I’m not sure that there can be a wrong reason for doing the right thing. (I bet there probably is some technical argument for why, philosophically, it’s bad to do the right thing for the wrong reason—but that doesn’t change the inherent rightness of the thing in question.) Elections are an ugly, messy business in this fading republic; and they so often produce lies and distortions that serve no one but ignorant voters who can’t be bothered to pay attention to anything longer than a thirty-second television ad.
Even if it was only for political gain—and it most definitely was not only for political gain—then President Obama’s public statement on gay marriage is at least something good and right that came out of an election campaign. It’s not an attack on anyone else—just an expression of one man’s feelings. It’s strong, courageous leadership from an awfully good President.
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