The President With Two Faces

The Advocate
reports:
When it comes to same-sex marriage, President Barack
Obama acknowledged Wednesday that "attitudes evolve, including
mine" during an interview with five progressive bloggers....

On the question of marriage, President
Obama began by clarifying that he wasn't going to "make big news"
at that particular moment. But his answer gave the first indication
that he might be rethinking what has so far been his unremitting
support for civil unions ever since adopting that stance during his
2004 U.S. Senate bid.

"I have been to this point unwilling to sign on to same-sex
marriage primarily because of my understandings of the traditional
definitions of marriage," he said. "But I also think you're right
that attitudes evolve, including mine. And I think that it is an
issue that I wrestle with and think about because I have a whole
host of friends who are in gay partnerships. I have staff members
who are in committed, monogamous relationships, who are raising
children, who are wonderful parents. And I care about them deeply.
And so while I'm not prepared to reverse myself here, sitting in
the Roosevelt Room at 3:30 in the afternoon, I think it's fair to
say that it's something that I think a lot about. That's probably
the best you'll do out of me today."
Adam Serwer
unpacks that:
If Obama began to openly support marriage equality,
that wouldn't just be an "evolution" of his views, it would be a
return to where they once were. After all, in 1996, while running
for the Illinois State Senate, he said he
supported marriage equality. In response to a newspaper
questionnaire, he wrote, "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,
and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages."

As we all know, the Illinois State Senate
candidate who once supported marriage equality ultimately ran for
president in a country in which a majority of citizens did not
support same-sex marriage, and his administration has defended in
court laws that do just that. Polls are now
beginning to show a majority of Americans favoring marriage
equality, and you can sense a palpable relief in the president's
statement that someday soon, he'll be able to stop pretending that
his religious beliefs demand that he oppose equal rights for gay
and lesbian couples.
The underlying lesson here -- aside from "Don't trust Barack
Obama" -- is the exaggerated importance people put on the
presidency. Activists love to project secret agendas onto their
favorite politicians. In this case, Obama almost certainly
does support gay marriage in his heart, but that hasn't
done a thing to advance the cause; it may even have retarded it
slightly, to the extent that his gay admirers are less likely to
hold his feet to the fire. Progress is coming from changing views
at the grassroots, and the fellow who theoretically leads the
country is, at best, waiting for public opinion to lead
him.

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