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We are fighting Islamism from ignorance, as we did the cold war
The west wasted trillions in needless conflict with the USSR. Now we are being brainwashed into confrontation with Iran
Simon Jenkins
Thursday 1 March 2012 15.00 EST
Were we wrong? I have lived through two global conflicts: the west against Russian communism and now the west against political Islam. The latter was caused by western leaders exaggerating a threat from a tiny group of terrorists to win popularity in war. But the former? Surely the cold war was a good war, a Manichean struggle between competing visions of how to order humanity. If not, then it must have been one of the great mistakes of all time, and a horrific waste of resources.
Andrew Alexander gazes down from his Daily Mail column like a stern and scholarly heron. No one could possibly call him leftwing, let alone a pacifist appeaser. He has no illusions about the evil of Stalin or Mao, any more than he has about Saddam and al-Qaida. But he combines cussedness towards conventional wisdom with historical scepticism. In a sensational but little-noticed book, America and the Imperialism of Ignorance, he marches to the conclusion that most recent foreign policy has been based on systematic ignorance. We were duped -- and still are.
Alexander agrees with the now accepted thesis that after the second world war, Stalin and his successors never meant to invade western Europe and overthrow American capitalism. As the historian Sir Michael Howard has written, "No serious historian any longer argues that Stalin ever had any intention of moving his forces outside the area he occupied in eastern Europe".
Stalin's obsession, understandably, was with stopping any German renascence. He was a brutal psychopath, but, like most Russians, his fear was of encirclement. He sought buffer states and an iron curtain to guard his borders. His stance towards the west was not aggressive. He had neither the will nor the means to wider world dominance (while the US had both).
The conventional answer to this was that Nato could never be sure. Rearmament, including nuclear weapons, was a sensible precaution: hope for the best, prepare for the worse. This also suited the macho tradition in US politics. Franklin D Roosevelt was succeeded by the hawkish Truman, who would not listen to Churchill's counselling of peace with Russia. Likewise in 1953, on Stalin's death, the US rebuffed Georgy Malenkov's desire for reconciliation. The arrogant secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, goaded the Soviets into a nuclear arms race, bringing the west close to war with Nikita Khrushchev and even during Ronald Reagan's madcap brinkmanship. Only Mikhail Gorbachev's courage and intelligence averted what might have been disaster.
Although it is easy, in any arms race, to declare a plague on both houses, Alexander is in no doubt -- the fault lay primarily in Washington. A succession of bombastic American leaders, chary even of travelling abroad, denied what their own intelligence was telling them, that Russia posed no threat to the west. This is backed by recent research into Russian archives. (Alexander might have credited others who said so at the time, from CND to Enoch Powell.)
The US duly kept on being a wartime military establishment of great political power, sustained in public by a hysterical McCarthyism and evoking an equally paranoid response from the Soviet Union. This in turn bolstered America's psychological need for a titanic foe to bind the western alliance together. If no foe existed, then one had to be created. This was intriguingly paralleled by the anti-mafia Kefauver committee, which was reduced to pleading with a series of two-bit gangsters that they were surely in thrall to a satanic nationwide boss, to no effect.
The cold war consumed trillions of dollars. Hundreds of thousands died in surrogate wars around the globe. The opportunity cost in poverty and disease, in growth foregone and democracy postponed, was awesome. The embattlement of eastern Europe, like that of today's Islamist states, retarded its passage into economic and political maturity. The cold war was not a war of good against evil. It was ignorance so pernicious as to question "the integrity and basic intelligence" of those democratic institutions persuaded that they were under existential threat.
Where Alexander goes for broke is in showing how this ignorance is ongoing. With the end of the cold war -- and the west's later inept handling of Russia -- the west's craving for a necessary enemy has revived. For a decade after 1990, defence chiefs resorted to genocidal autocrats, drug lords and Balkan separatists to maintain their budgets, which duly dwindled. Then came 9/11 and a "clash of civilisations". Bush and Blair won elections. Bankers lent money to generals, and the military-industrial complex refloated on an ocean of myth and mendacity.
The brainwashing was ubiquitous. No book, no argument, no evidence could dissuade any British cabinet from the belief that only a giant defensive armoury stood between it and a communist takeover, and now stands against an Islamist Armageddon. Hence the need to keep nuclear-armed submarines at sea, somehow to deter an unnamed "terrorist state". Likewise, five of the original six Republican candidates for US president recently called for war with Iran for "posing a threat to the American people". What threat?
I believe Alexander is right to seek explanation not in the realpolitik of international relations, but in the motives of democratic leaders. America's belief in itself as the "greatest superpower the world has ever seen" led Lyndon B Johnson to impotent fury at being thrashed by " a raggedy-ass little country" -- Vietnam. It led Washington lobbyists to protect defence spending, as Truman was advised, by "scaring the hell out of the American people". Today, a similar self-delusion leads Washington and London to claim the right to drop bombs on anyone they find "unacceptable".
To this there is only one answer. Let no day pass without headbutting an ignorant politician, and kissing a sceptical historian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/01/islamism-ignorance-cold-war
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Breaking Alert:The Obama LongForm Birth Certificate Was "Manufactured"
See links to video of full press conference below.
Breaking Alert: The Obama Long Form Birth Certificate Was
"Manufactured" And There Is More Than Sufficient Evidence To Move
Forward On Cases Of Criminal Forgery And Fraud!
The evidence released by Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Cold Case Posse was
not just compelling, in the words of an Arizona state legislator who
came to the press conference, the information released from this
investigation was downright "troubling."
Of course, it's not news to to any of us, but now, it's pretty much
official. What we all feared for so long has now been verified and
vetted through a legitimate law enforcement investigation that obtained
sworn affidavits and testimony from graphics experts, law enforcement
experts and private citizens.
The Cold Case Posse's conclusion: There is COMPELLING EVIDENCE that
the man who is presently occupying the Oval Office is potentially
occupying that office as a result of CRIMINAL ACTS of FRAUD and FORGERY.
The courts have tried to ignore this issue. The media has tried to
ignore this issue. Our Republican leaders in Congress have desperately
tried to ignore this issue.
But now, EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED. The evidence is in and it is
COMPELLING. They can no longer ignore this issue. Our elected officials
can no longer stick their heads in the sand. Congress MUST finally
investigate this constitutional crisis and determine, once and for all,
if the man who is occupying the Oval Office is a fraud and a usurper.
The White House Watch is a project of the Policy Issues Institute.
Contributions are not deductible for tax purposes.
Before We Get To The Findings Of The Investigation... One
Observation On The Role Of The Media In This Evolving Scandal.
==================================
!!! -- Let's make one observation before we present the findings. In
spite of the compelling, overwhelming, earth-shattering and disturbing
evidence and findings presented during the Cold Case Posse's press
conference, don't expect what should quite literally be the story of the
century to make the front-page.
!!! It was clear to those who actually watched the press conference
that, in spite of the compelling evidence presented, the press was only
interested in personally attacking Sheriff Arpaio... his career... and
his character.
==================================
Links to the Full Press conference and the TV news story here below,
Then the explanation above continues below that.
================================= Az.Sheriff Joe Speaks
Confirmed: Obama's Birth Certificate Not Authentic 2012 (Full conference length
video below)
Just watch this video from CBS TV Channel 5 in Arizona and pass it on
and on to all Americans that want and Demand an honest Federal
Government with a legitimate eligible to be President President.
Short version S.Joe + CBS TV News
Confirmed: Obama's Birth Certificate Not Authentic 2012
Entire Obama BirthCert.Press Conference
Sheriff Arpaio:--> Conference
Sheriff Arpaio: Entire Obama Birth Certificate Press Conference
Here below is the link to the additional videos
mentioned at the end of this video you just watched. Videos that go into
the specifics of how the tests that proved President (sic) Obama's Birth
certificate is fake.
youtube birth certificate tests Sherrif Joe Arpaioo - Google Search
http://www.google.com/search?spell=1&ie=UTF-8&spell=1&hl=en&source=hp&gbv=1&q=youtube+birth+certificate+tests+joe+arpaioo
Tea Party Power Hour
http://www.teapartypowerhour.com/
=================================
Continues here below
==================================
Oh yes, they were all there... CBS, NBC, CNN... but it was clear,
once they started asking their questions, that they had already written
their stories before they even walked in the door, and it became clear,
as they left the room, that the stories they had already written would
probably not even see the light of day, because Arpaio didn't give them
anything, they could twist or bend or distort, to insert into their
pre-written attack narratives.
!!! We've have witnessed media bias in operation for years, but this
time around, it was almost surreal. We scratched our heads in
astonishment and continually asked ourselves; did these "reporters" see
the same presentation of evidence and facts that the rest of us saw?
Personally speaking, I found the bias, the distortions and the
willingness to grasp at straws, to find any excuse to ignore the
compelling evidence and let Barack Obama off the hook, from these
so-called "objective reporters" to be DISGUSTING.
Our founders ratified the 1st Amendment to the Constitution under
the hope that a protected press would safeguard this nation from
tyranny. What would our founders think if they were alive today and
witnessed this spectacle of reporters serving as the willing lapdogs and
propaganda agents of a tyrannical regime?
Don't expect any help from the media on this one. The American people
will need to take matters into their own hands. We must go beyond the
media. We must go over their heads.
And there is only one alternative. We must deluge our Republican leaders
until they're tired of hearing from us... until they come to understand
that this issue is NOT going to go away and that the American
people will not rest until they resolve this constitutional crisis.
Finding: There Is Probable Cause To Believe That The Obama Long Form
Birth Certificate Released On The Internet Was A Computer-Generated
Forgery.
Can the anomalies in the Long Form Birth Certificate released by Team
Obama on the Internet (particularly the "white halo effect" around the
lettering that is illustrated in the picture below) be explained by the
use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Software, or by the fact that
the document was "optimized" prior to release? Detractors have long
contended that such is the case.
But the Cold Case Posse PROVED CONCLUSIVELY (backing up those
assertions in a series of videos) that while OCR and optimization can
(and do) produce anomalies in documents, the SPECIFIC anomalies in the
Obama long form birth certificate CAN'T BE DUPLICATED by computer
software and can ONLY be produced through INTENTIONAL electronic
manipulation.
The Cold Case Posse concluded that the Obama Long Form Birth Certificate
published on the Internet appears to be a forgery and moreover, the lead
investigator of the Cold Case Posse, Mike Zullo, also announced that the
Cold Case Posse has identified a "person of interest" in connection with
the possible forgery of the Obama Long Form Birth Certificate.
But that's not all. The Cold Case Posse, relying upon the sworn
testimony of acknowledged computer graphics and law enforcement experts,
also concluded that the Registrar Stamp, the green background and the
Date Stamp on the Obama Long Form Birth Certificate were IMPORTED INTO
THE DOCUMENT that Team Obama eventually released on the Internet from
outside and unknown sources.
Zullo explained: "That we were able to cast reasonable suspicions on
the authenticity of the registrar stamps was especially disturbing,
since these stamp imprints are designed to provide government
authentication to the document itself."
And Zullo also went on to state that if the Registrar Stamp and Date
Stamp are forgeries, then the document itself is likely a forgery.
The only questions left are just who actually "forged" the Long From
Birth Certificate and at whose direction? Arpaio added that a
"continuing investigation is needed to identify the identity of the
person or persons involved in creating the alleged birth certificate
forgery and to determine who, if anyone, in the White House or the state
of Hawaii may have authorized the forgery."
Arpaio emphasized that Congress should investigate this matter and we
agree; and now, more than ever, it's important that they hear from you.
Let them know, in no uncertain terms, that they can no longer stick
their heads in the sand. The American people demand an investigation and
will not rest until that demand is satisfied!
And Barack Obama's Selective Service Registration Form Appears To Be A
Forgery As Well.
The Cold Case Posse also found disturbing inconsistencies in Barack
Obama's publically accessible Selective Service Registration Form, as
can be illustrated in the picture below.
Zullo presented an illustration of a typical postal stamp (on the right)
and the postal stamp that appears on Barack Obama's Selective Service
Registration Form (on the left).
Notice anything strange? Look closely. As Zullo points out, the year
in the Date Stamps that are used by the United States Postal Service
ALWAYS render the year in FOUR DIGITS (as is shown by the stamp on the
right), and yet the Date Stamp on Obama's Selective Service Registration
Form is rendered in two digits. How is that possible?
But Zullo wasn't done. Look again at a magnified rendering of the Date
Stamps in the photo below and pay particular attention to the spacing
between the digits and the justification in both Date Stamps.
It's clear that the spacing and right-leaning justification is not
consistent and that the Date Stamp in Mr. Obama's Selective Service
Registration Form could have been produced by someone taking an
Exacto-Knife to an actual USPS rubber stamp, cutting-out the digits and
re-inserting those cut-out digits back into the rubber stamp.
For now, we can only ask why, but we need to do more than ask why. We
must demand a full investigation. These clumsy forgeries must be
explained and the man who has the answers, Barack Hussein Obama, must be
compelled to answer these questions. The American people deserve
answers.
Even More Shocking Reveleations....
Detractors, have pointed out that birth announcements published in
newspapers in Hawaii in August of 1961 prove that Barack Obama was born
in Hawaii.
But we have contended, for some time now, that a birth announcement only
proves that Barack Obama WAS BORN, and that a family member could have
called the birth announcement into the newspaper... PERIOD.
It would make sense. Obama's mother and grandparents lived in Hawaii.
Why would they not want to announce his birth in the papers?
The Cold Case Posse addressed that contention as well and found that the
Hawaii papers that published Barack Obama's birth announcement ALSO
published birth announcements of infants born ABROAD to parents who
otherwise resided in Hawaii. In other words, the Obama birth
announcements that appeared in the newspapers in Hawaii prove NOTHING...
ZILCH... NADA!
Is it possible that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, as the people of
Kenya believe? Here are some additional findings from the Cold Case
Posse that raise more questions than they answer.
The Cold Case Posse attempted to ascertain whether Barack Obama's mother
(Stanley Ann Dunham) was out of the country when Obama was born on
August 4, 1961. While the release of passenger manifests from air
carriers could easily answer that question, there are no surviving
passenger manifests going back that far. They were all destroyed long
ago.
However, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) also maintains
records of people entering and leaving the United States and the records
going back to 1961 are presently maintained in the National Achieves and
the Cold Case Posse did, in fact, request the INS records from the
National Achieves for a ten year time span which included the records
from 1961 and what they found (or didn't find) was astonishing.
When Jerome Corsi went to the National Achieves to examine the
microfiche records requested by the Cold Case Posse, he found that all
of the records from August 1, 1961 through August 7, 1961 were MISSING
and the National Achieves has no explanation as to why the records are
missing.
But that's not all. Zullo also claims that the association between
Barack Obama and Weatherman-terrorist Bill Ayers goes back much further
than Barack Obama claims, at least as far back as the 1980s and Zullo
claims that the Cold Case Posse is in communication with a private
citizen who is willing to testify, under oath, that Ayers' mother
introduced him to Barack Obama many years ago as a "foreign student"
that they were trying to help.
So, what must we do? There is only one answer to that question. We must
exercise our grassroots muscle and DEMAND a Congressional investigation.
We must put this issue to bed once and for all. At the very least, we
must send a clear message to our elected leaders that this issue IS NOT
GOING TO GO AWAY. There are simply too many unanswered questions.
But it's not going to be easy. Republicans on Capitol Hill would rather
sit in their offices or slink off to fundraisers than expose the truth
about the man who is running this great country into the ground.
Our so-called Republican leaders must come to understand that if they
want our vote, they must stop hiding under their desks and start seeking
the truth. They must start asking Barack Obama the hard questions and
stop trying to ingratiate themselves to him.
Those are harsh words but with your help we will give them the back-bone
to do what is right. When they see a boat-load of faxes from patriotic
Americans filling their trays and spilling onto the floor, they will
grow a spine and start asking the questions that the patriots of this
nation wanted answered a long time ago. They will begin to realize that
you are not going to sit down, or shut up, or go away; and we will,
eventually get the truth.
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Kirk Cameron was a cute young man, but he has become an ugly old man. -T
From Coleman
Sign GLAAD Petition
Spanking TV Has-Been Kirk Cameron
for Anti-Gay Remarks
Posted March 4th, 2012 by Wayne Besen
Growing Pains has-been Kirk Cameron is a religious fanatic. One can
tell his degree of zealotry by witnessing the glazed over look in his
eyes, which sends the clear message: "I've stopped thinking for myself
a long time ago and now sound like a cult member."
On CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight," the anti-gay actor trashed LGBT
Americans. According to a GLAAD petition:
Cameron described his personal bias against gay people by saying:
"I think that it's – it's – it's unnatural. I think that it's – it's
detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations
of civilization."
"In this interview, Kirk Cameron sounds even more dated than his
1980s TV character," said Herndon Graddick, Senior Director of
Programs at GLAAD. "Cameron is out of step with a growing majority of
Americans, particularly people of faith who believe that their gay and
lesbian brothers and sisters should be loved and accepted based on
their character and not condemned because of their sexual
orientation."
Piers Morgan disagreed with Cameron when asked what he would do if
one of his kids came out. Morgan said: "If one of my sons [came out],
I'd say 'that's great son, as long as you're happy.'"
Best known for his role as Mike Seaver on the 1980s television
series "Growing Pains", Cameron also spoke out against marriage
equality in the interview:
"Marriage is almost as old as dirt, and it was defined in the garden
between Adam and Eve. One man, one woman for life till death do you
part. So I would never attempt to try to redefine marriage. And I
don't think anyone else should either," explains Cameron. "So do I
support the idea of gay marriage? No, I don't."
Herndon Graddick of GLAAD responded:
"With an increasing number of states recognizing marriage equality,
Americans are seeing that marriage is about committed couples who want
to make a lifelong promise to take care of and be responsible for each
other and that gay and lesbian couples need equal security and legal
protections. That's not 'redefining' anything," said Graddick.
Truth Wins Out would be all over this, primarily because we simply
don't like Cameron because he comes across as an arrogant, bigoted,
brainwashed zombie. However, GLAAD beat us to the punch on this one —
so please sign their petition, "Tell Kirk Cameron It's Time to Finally
Grow Up."
SIGN PETITION HERE
http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2012/03/22857/
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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Gay St. Ann Teacher Fired
His partner says their 20-year relationship was not a secret.
His partner says their 20-year relationship was not a secret.
STL TODAY/KSDK/KPLR-TV Posted on: 2:28 pm, March 2, 2012, by Chris Smith
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, MO. (KPLR11.com) Full disclosure. I am happily
married. Admittedly, it took me three tries. But I have been absurdly
happily married for seventeen years now. All kinds of studies show
that people who are married earn more money. They live longer. They
raise kids better. They're healthier. Maybe it's because we've found
someone who's willing to put up with us until we die.
Given all the benefits of marriage and given that everyone from
political candidates to church groups keep yapping about what a good
thing marriage is; I noted with some interest that a St. Louis county
music teacher's decision to get married, got him fired. Al Fischer's a
popular teacher at Saint Ann Catholic School in North County.
He decided to get married to his long time love, Charlie Robin; who's
head of the Edison Theatre at Washington University. Al and Charlie
decided to travel to New York State, where gay marriage is legal and
tie the knot. But Charlie says when a supervisor overheard al talking
about the wedding with co-workers, Al was fired.
Al's employer is the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The supervisor who
overheard his conversation was an official with the archdiocese. And
the archdiocese says it did the right thing, that firing Al, quote "is
in full compliance with the Christian witness statement signed by
every educator in the catholic school system", close quote. That
witness statement says teachers must abide by the Catholic Church's
moral and social teachings.
That means no gay marriage. It apparently also means no birth control.
It also means they can't support women as priests. So that's what
catholic teachers agree to. And they can be canned for not obeying. I
understand the kids at St. Ann's lost a darn good music teacher. I'm
assuming nobody from the archdiocese will send al and Charlie a
wedding gift.
See Couple & Watch Video At:
http://kplr11.com/2012/03/02/jacology-gay-st-ann-teacher-fired/
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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Perfect for driving by the local mosque at prayer time.
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It's time to fix the Bill of Rights
By FRANK FLEMING
Last Updated: 11:59 PM, March 2, 2012
Posted: 10:23 PM, March 2, 2012
So the Senate has voted down the effort to undo President Obama's quite reasonable mandate that all employers have to pay for their employees' contraception. I was shocked that there was a dispute about this especially because of "religious objections." Who knew that was still a thing?
Even worse, when I dug out a copy of the revered Bill of Rights to show someone how it guarantees everyone a right to contraception, I found no mention of that right!
In fact, the Bill of Rights doesn't guarantee anything people need not food, shelter or even broadband internet. The only things it mentions are a few nebulous rights of absolutely no market value. It's rather pointless, really.
Why was the Bill of Rights thought out so poorly? It turns out it was written by these "Founding Fathers" long, long ago, in a much more primitive time. I'm pretty sure their first meeting to draft it was broken up by a woolly mammoth attack.
So it's no wonder the Bill of Rights looks like it was written by a crazed, right-wing militia member living in an isolated compound. It's all "Government can't tell me to do this" and "Government can't make me do that" and "I want to have guns."
Obviously, we're much more sophisticated now. We aren't like the Founding Fathers, with their primitive fear of government and thunder. We need to update this silly, archaic Bill of Rights, which puts all this emphasis on "freedom" with no mention of the much more important "free stuff." If we don't act, other countries will make fun of us for it and who wants to be tittered at by Belgium?
We want a strong government that guarantees us all the things we need, and we should have a new Bill of Rights that reflects that.
I propose that we have a meeting of all the great minds (college professors, A-list Hollywood actors, people who watch "Downton Abbey") to list everything people need basics like food, transportation, and smart phones.
The first section the "free stuff" section of the new Bill of Rights will guarantee that everyone gets all these essentials. After that can come the "freedom" section of less useful rights that don't actually give you anything, like freedom of speech (but let's leave out the one about guns they're dangerous; people will shoot their eyes out).
And the brain trust will make it clear that if the "freedom" section ever conflicts with the "free stuff" part, then "free stuff" wins out.
We should also have a big blank space between the two sections, so we can fill in more things as we realize people need them (as happened with modern contraceptives; those didn't used to exist, and now we know everyone needs those). For instance, maybe in the future there will be great robot butlers, and we'll want to make sure everyone can have them.
And if we fill up the blanks but need to add more "free stuff," we can always erase some of the "freedoms" to make more room. Goodbye, freedom of religion hello, free hoverboards!
This way we'll have some real, tangible rights. And if we ever have a shortage of anything people have a right to, we can force some of those silly "religious objectors" to go to work and manufacture whatever we need.
There certainly won't be anything in the new Bill of Rights to keep people from being forced to do what they don't want especially if it's to protect someone else's rights.
Frank J. Fleming is a political humorist.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/it_time_to_fix_the_bill_of_rights_lV499TctTwOaHmxNX3rksI
Posted: Sun, Mar. 4, 2012, 3:01 AM
Once-loud opposition to gay marriage has quieted
By David Boaz
That sound you don't hear is social change happening.
Even as the Republican candidates fight to see who can get furthest to the right, acceptance of gay people and gay marriage in the United States is moving briskly along. Gallup finds support for same-sex marriage now at 53 percent, up from 40 percent in 2008.
In February alone, a federal appeals court ruled California's gay-marriage ban unconstitutional; Washington state legalized gay marriage; New Jersey's Legislature passed a marriage law (vetoed, though with a caveat, by Gov. Christie); and a marriage-equality law passed the Maryland legislature and became law on Thursday.
As voters' attitudes change, politicians are changing too. In 2008, both Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton opposed equal marriage rights. But now two governors with presidential ambitions have very visibly invested political capital in supporting gay marriage.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo took personal command of the campaign for marriage rights. He made speeches, twisted arms, calmed Catholic opposition, plotted with Republican donors, and got the credit when it passed. He was immediately hailed as a front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
Not to be outdone, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley announced he would make marriage equality a top priority for the 2012 legislative session. After appealing to Maryland's heritage of religious freedom and "respect for the freedom of individual conscience," he signed the bill into law Thursday.
Republicans haven't given up their opposition, but their resolve is weakening. A few GOP legislators helped put the issue over the top in New York, Washington, and Maryland. Former Republican national chairman Ken Mehlman and a group of libertarian-leaning GOP donors played a key role in Cuomo's efforts in New York.
The formerly vocal opposition to gay marriage has quieted. Congressional Republicans haven't revived the Federal Marriage Amendment. Conservative media stalwarts like Rush Limbaugh and Bill Buckley's National Review have barely mentioned the issue. (When you search for gay marriage at National Review Online, you get lots of ads for things like "Gay Destination Weddings.") The ambitious Christie vetoed his state's bill while also calling for a referendum on gay marriage rather than flatly rejecting the idea. He also has nominated an openly gay judge to the state Supreme Court.
Even Rick Santorum, who has been stridently antigay throughout his career, muted his remarks when he led a rally to repeal the Washington state law. "There are legitimate reasons that people have to want . . . to change the law," he said. "And there are legitimate reasons that people have to want to keep the law in place. . . . There are ebbs and flows in every battle."
Republican leaders know that opposition to same-sex marriage is strong in their base right now but that young voters support marriage equality overwhelmingly. They don't want to lose a whole generation.
Just two decades ago most Americans said they didn't know anyone who was gay. Now only 22 percent say that - a remarkable level of change. Acceptance and visibility rise in tandem.
The shift in mores has been even more pronounced in commerce. One telling episode is J.C. Penney Co.'s hiring of openly gay talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres as a spokeswoman. Penney's demographic is Southern and Midwestern middle-class moms. A small band of social conservatives went ballistic. The "One Million Moms" project of the American Family Association called for a boycott, but no mainstream conservatives seemed to notice.
As Bill O'Reilly noted, the One Million Moms couldn't produce a single one to go on his popular Fox News Channel show. He did find a defender to appear in their stead, and he and conservative media critic Bernard Goldberg proceeded to denounce McCarthyism, blacklisting, "witch-hunts," and "a strain of bigotry running through conservative America."
Other corporations have been even more outspoken. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni writes that several large corporations, including Starbucks, Microsoft, and Amazon, backed gay marriage in Washington state. Bruni points out: "More so than politicians, corporations play the long game, trying to engender loyalty for decades to come, and they're famously fixated on consumers in their 20s and 30s. They see support for same-sex marriage as a winner, something that will help with employee recruitment as well."
If the federal court decision holds up in California and gay marriage is restored there, then almost a quarter of Americans will live in states with marriage equality.
That sound you don't hear -- the absence of outrage over marriage rights, and gay spokespeople for middle-American companies -- is the sound of social change.
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/141326953.html
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