Like many LGBT Obama supporters, I'm angry at this administration - angry at the clear lack of any concrete action demonstrating President Obama's "fierce advocacy" of our rights. I know that Obama needs the Congress with him in order to make lasting legislative progress, but watching Gibbs fumble and mutter and slip and slide through his responses to any and all LGBT-related questions demonstrates pretty clearly that Obama is not taking the lead here. And leadership is what we need right now.
What angers me is not the lack of progress on any of our legislative issues - clearly the economy and healthcare are the legislative priorities right now. But there is no schedule, no timetable to bring up DADT, DOMA, ENDA, UAFA, etc. Are any of them political priorities after the economy and healthcare? Even the administration's support for the hate crimes law has been as minimal as possible.
Obama said this week he wanted us to hold his feet to the fire. Complaining isn't enough; I think we need something that will visibly demonstrate that he is losing our support. We all have a lot of Obama campaign paraphernalia at home, which we used to demonstrate our support for his Presidency. Let's use the same stuff now to demonstrate our disappointment: send it back!
The primary power of the Presidency is the bully pulpit - the ability to use the power of the office to drive the political and social direction of the country. That is the power that Obama is not using right now, at least not for LGBT rights. He clearly does not feel he can risk his political capital on our issues, and feels safe doing so because we really have no where to go. Well I, for one, am fed up with being the Dems whipping boy because of our lack of realistic political options.
I think a contrast here is in order. FDR, who Obama most resembles, was also a major political pragmatist who let Congress lead on a lot of issues. He would not push for an anti-lynching bill in order to save Southern votes in the Congress, for instance. The difference is that FDR (and to a major extent Eleanor) used the power of the bully pulpit to demonstrate that African-Americans should not be considered second-class citizens. The First Couple routinely invited prominant civil rights leaders to dinners and functions, Eleanor arranged for Marian Anderson to perform after her bigoted rejection by the DAR, they both fought for expanded opportunities for African-Americans in the military and in war production. Today their efforts seem slight, and the improvements for African-Americans minimal, but in 1932 we were basically starting at zero in terms of racial equality. Their actions had huge impacts.
In short, FDR and Eleanor became the change they wanted to see. Even when legislation was not politically possible, they lived their public lives showing their beliefs in equality. That is what we are not seeing from Obama right now.
Sure, we got an invitation to roll eggs. Great - an event that is supposed to be open to the public was, in fact, open to the public. Not exactly politically courageous. There has been nothing else - barely even lip service to our agenda. Where is the proclamation for gay pride month in June? What events is the federal government sponsoring to recognize our contributions (events that routinely happened under Clinton, but stopped under Bush) during that month? Where is the public meeting between Obama and the recently fired gay service members? Where are the public statements about the need for civility and respect in the debate over marriage in NH, CA and ME, or civil unions in IL, or out-of-state recognition in DC?
During the campaign, Candidate Obama was more than willing to address homophobia in the African-American religious community. Where is he now as that homophobia is being used (by preachers who live and often preach outside DC) to try and undermine the home rule actions of DC's City Council? Obama could easily step in and attempt to moderate the issue, without expending a lot of political capital. He does not need to change his position on civil unions v. marriage to express a desire for states and localities to be allowed to decide this for themselves, without anti-gay propaganda being used to demean, belittle and degrade our community.
I don't think Obama or his staffers realize the shaky nature of the LGBT support he had during the campaign, or how quickly he can lose (and likely is losing) that support. We need concrete actions from him and his administration, not necessarily legislation, to demonstrate he is not yet another Democratic politician willing to sacrfice our lives for political expediency.
At the same time I am frustrated that the only response to this has been to march and demonstrate, and for some to suggest yet another March on Washington. Marching is great and protests draw coverage, but they can only go so far - we have lives to lead after all. Declaring we will take our support and money elsewhere during the 2010 or 2012 elections also is ineffective - it's too far in the future.
We need something visible, attention-grapping and more quickly organized to express our disappointment and to demonstrate that our support for this President is waning or gone. There is a simple way we can do that - send back our Obama political swag from the election. We all have t-shirts, lawn signs, coffee mugs, buttons, expressing our support for Obama's candidacy. Send some or all of that swag back directly to Mr. Obama at his new residence. The pile of stuff that will result will create a kind of public art installation of our disappointment.
Such a protest has the best of all worlds:
- It is relatively cheap and easy for anyone (LGBTs and allies) to do - no need to take off time from work or spend the cost of airfare on a March on Washington. On your lunch hour or on a Saturday you can jam some stuff in a envelope or a box and take it down to UPS or FedEx or the Post Office and send it along. If you're one of our unemployed citizens, you can join in on the cheap - for the cost of a first-class stamp you can send back a campaign button or the remains of a bumper sticker.
- The protest is a clear message to the administration - "I'm not happy with you right now," and provides a better visual than mere emails or even letters. All packages for the White House have to be screened, and thousands of returned items would create quite a backlog - one that cannot be ignored.
- It's economically stimulative. The money we spend on postage and mailing supplies guarantees or adds jobs to all those selling delivery services and supplies.
- You can customize the protest to your level of anger. If you're totally pissed, send everything back; if you're more worried but still hopeful, send just one item. You can also send along a note explaining your disappointment, or follow up with an email on the White House site.
Such a protest will be most effective in a concentrated period of time, and one begins Monday. During Gay Pride month, let's show our pride in our community and our refusal to wait for our full citizenship any longer. Send it back!
This diary was adapted from a comment left by yours truly on Pam's House Blend