Earlier this evening I had a twenty minute conversation with a very nice lady from the Obama campaign. I will call her "Jan." That's not her name, but I don't use real names on here.
The reason I called the Obama campaign is because I wanted to express my extreme displeasure over Obama's apparent reversal when it comes to gay issues. I am not a single issue voter and never will be, but it disturbed me greatly when today a friend of mine forwarded an article that was written in the Advocate which outlined Obama's apparent switch of positions on gays:
More precisely, Sen. Obama said, "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman," shortly after being asked if he opposed same-sex marriage, to which he responded, "Yes."
This seems at odds with Obama's previous statements on gay rights. In a press release from February 28th, Obama had this to say:
I’m running for President to build an America that lives up to our founding promise of equality for all – a promise that extends to our gay brothers and sisters. It’s wrong to have millions of Americans living as second-class citizens in this nation. And I ask for your support in this election so that together we can bring about real change for all LGBT Americans...
As your President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws. I personally believe that civil unions represent the best way to secure that equal treatment. But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples — whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage...
We also need a president who’s willing to confront the stigma – too often tied to homophobia – that continues to surround HIV/AIDS. I confronted this stigma directly in a speech to evangelicals at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, and will continue to speak out as president.
That is where I stand on the major issues of the day. But having the right positions on the issues is only half the battle. The other half is to win broad support for those positions. And winning broad support will require stepping outside our comfort zone...
I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all LGBT Americans. But neither will I close my ears to the voices of those who still need to be convinced. That is the work we must do to move forward together. It is difficult. It is challenging. And it is necessary...
-Barack Obama.
So Obama has gone from being the first major Presidential candidate to use the term 'civil marriage' to couch his support of the GLBT community to being a someone who now states that he is opposed to gay marriage.
I explained to Jan that this was a clear reversal from his previous position. She seemed genuinely interested and concerned about what I had to say, and I must state that I am extremely impressed that she listened so closely and wrote down everything I was saying.
I also expressed my extreme disdain over the FISA collapse (you say compromise, I say collapse). I said I was pleased that Obama voted no on cloture, but was dismayed to the utmost over his willingness to vote yes on this horribly bad bill. Much to my surprise, she confessed to me that she "completely" agreed with me. She said, "I can't really say much here, but I am in total agreement with you." I got the sense that she was as disappointed as I was. We conversed about how the "the news" wasn't really the news anymore, about how our Constitution was being sold out regularly and about the famous Ben Franklin quotation concerning liberty versus security.
I then outlined the reasons I got involved with the Obama campaign in the first place - how refreshing it was to have a consistent voice from a person who actually stood up for the "little people." I told her I was really thrilled that Obama stood up against the Iraq War in 2002 with an excellent and prescient speech. I explained to Jan how ridiculous I thought that the current debates were always being framed as liberal versus conservative. Once again, she exclaimed, "I am in total agreement with you." I basically said, "Since when is standing up for the Constitution a liberal or conservative value?"
I then explained how hard I had been working on my voter registration drive for the Gulf Coast area of Mississippi. As of now, I have 12-15 really excellent location in which to conduct the drive with roughly 20 volunteers. I have done a great deal of work.
But today, I am most likely leaving the Obama campaign behind. The FISA issue probably should have been enough to signal that the Democrats have "left the building" as Randi Rhodes likes to say. Obama's position on FISA and gay rights is a one-two punch that I cannot get past.
I know what's coming. Everyone here will say "Purity Troll!" and start bashing me. I don't care. You don't know what I've been through. You haven't been physically threatened like I have. You haven't waited for a leader to just fracking stand up for a change. This isn't about "shifting to the center for the general election" strategy or some such bullshit. There is no such thing as "center." There is what is right and what is wrong and there is even a way to please everyone without totally caving in.
This has been a great struggle for me. I wrote the John Dean diary partly to convince myself that Obama could still make things right. But the common sense of the Jonathan Turleys of the world keep breaking through. The Democratic Party has jumped the shark permanently with their cynical view that it's okay to urinate all over the Fourth Amendment - the people will still elect us because we are better than the Republicans.
That's what Jonathan Turley said that the Democratic insiders basically told him the other day. This isn't about purity versus pragmatism. This is about the last vesitges of our democracy being swept away. The Fourth Amendment is what protects us from an Orwellian nightmare. In my view, Big Brother is here.
So we have Barack Obama caving into FISA, saying his anti-NAFTA rhetoric during the primary was just words, and doing a complete 180 on gay rights. I do actually understand that politicians can't always say exactly what they feel in this country. I do get it. But if even Dick Fucking Cheney can just say, "This is a matter that's best left up to the states" instead of saying, "I oppose gay marriage," then why can't we get that from Barack Obama?
My energy to fight for Obama is gone. I know everyone here will say, "My, aren't you fickle?" or some such stuff. But to that, I say, you don't get it! The entire reason I became a maniac for Obama is because he represented something new and different. I saw consistency there. I wasn't always an Obama Maniac at all. But as I followed his campaign I became more and more impressed with him. Now I just see caving in, exactly like all the other Democrats who just allow the Republicans to frame everything the way the want to and then cave in on everything even when they do have a congressional majority. Obama is going to win in a total landslide this Fall anyway, does anyone actually believe he'll lose enough votes to matter by not saying, "I oppose gay marriage"??
So I am saying goodbye to the Democratic Party and to the campaign of Barack Obama. I will not give any more money to Obama's campaign (I have given far too much already) and I will not be voting for Obama in the Fall. I won't vote for the nutcase John McCain so I will stay home. Tomorrow morning I will cancel the voter registration drive in Mississippi and I am saying goodbye to this site as well. I know this site doesn't allow non-Democrats here so there's really no point in continuing to write anything.
It was really nice meeting great people like Soms and Jenontheshore and DelawareDem and DavidKroning so this is a sad farewell. I will not be back. Most likely, my friend and I are looking at moving to Vancouver, B.C. and becoming Canadian citizens. I have lost faith in my country.
UPDATE: Well it seems clear from the comments who has a kind heart and who doesn't. I can't say this isn't what I expected. There are some of you who understand where I am coming from. There is a gulf of difference between the statement, "I oppose gay marriage," which is an unequivocal denunciation and the statement, "I support equality for gays and I believe it's a matter that is best decided by the states." If you can't see that the statement "I oppose gay marriage," is a totally pandering "shift to the center" as they say, then God help you.
And quite frankly, this is really more of a delayed reaction to the FISA bill and to the Democratic Party's consistent capitulation as a whole. Please go review Jonathan Turley's comments. His logic is unassailable.
Finally, this is also about Nancy Pelosi. It was never her right to "take impeachment off the table." That is not her decision. That is OUR decision. She doesn't get to make that call, WE DO. I have never been so angry and disappointed at the Democrats in Congress than I am right now because they cannot even organize a simple filibuster to save us from an Orwellian nightmare.