We Democrats have a problem and it's not just disagreement over who's gonna drive our buses in 2008. It's also about who's gonna ride and under what conditions.
Our buses serve a lot of people who weren't allowed to ride in the past. Or when they were allowed to board, they had to sit in back. The discrimination hasn't been limited to riding either; some of us have been denied jobs or simply run over. And now, given our long history of injustice based on prejudice and intolerance and misunderstanding, we have people belonging to groups that have been "on both ends of the stick" sharing that bus with others who've also been on both ends, receiving and dishing out. It's a problem.
And, if we stop and think about it with the care that it deserves, there really are no simple solutions. If there were, the problem would be resolved by now. If it were so easy to change one's sexual orientation and/or expression of it ... if it were so easy to change or relinquish one's religious beliefs or cultural practices ... if it were so easy to just accept and embrace and support one another ... it would be done by now. But it isn't.
Nevertheless, we Democrats, we progressives, with out belief in creating a more just, humane, inclusive society need each other. In more ways than one. We don't just need each other for the obvious purpose of winning elections. We need also need each other for the less obvious purpose of healing wounds and righting wrongs. For wounds and injustice are not just within each individual but also in our relationships with one another. Or the alienation from one another that afflicts us when we experience "the other" without the real compassion or understanding or sense of connectedness that is part of who we are ... if and when we are whole.
That is who we are and what we are about, as Democrats, as Americans, as human beings. Or, it should be. Thus, whether or not she means it, Clinton is on to something when she talks about people feeling as though they are invisible. And Edwards, whether or not his path to making the elimination of poverty his purpose in life was motivated by political considerations, is on to something good. And Obama, with his seemingly quixotic notion of creating a new, less cynical, more hopeful way of overcoming political divides to get important, progressive things done, is on to something. If they weren't, we wouldn't be listening to them and fighting amongst ourselves to put the best one in the driver's seat of our bus. If they weren't on to something that resonated with at least some of us, then other candidates would be in their place, at the head of the pack.
But we still have a problem. Barack Obama let Donnie McClurkin on the bus. He's letting him sit up front and he's even letting him sing. On the bus. Up front. And Donnie McClurkin, in the past, has talked in such a way that some of us are extremely uncomfortable with Barack Obama's decisions. Some of us don't understand. Some of us understand but disagree. And others of us, in a very similar way, have problems with how some of those people have expressed their disagreement or rejection of Obama's choices. So we have a problem. What do we, as Democrats, as progressives, as human beings do?
One "answer" is to not let Donnie McClurkin and people like him on the bus. Or, let them on as long as they keep quiet (don't ask, don't tell). Or sit in the back. Or whatever, just as long as you keep me out of it. That's a good solution in terms of communicating support for people on one side of the dispute. But as the recent Winthrop/ETV poll shows, most South Carolina African-Americans have a problem with GLBT people. This answer, by itself, is like putting out half the fire when your house is burning. Even if you pick the better side, what's left won't be half as good.
Another "answer" is to let Donnie McClurkin have his homophobic way. Ignore the problem with his public speech and its harmful impact on our efforts to create a humane, inclusive, safe place for all of us including GLBT people to live in. Just disregard the pain and suffering and injustice that hostility toward GLBT people causes. That's a problem too, for exactly the same reasons.
So, what's the answer? I don't know. But if it's going to be a Democratic, progressive, humane, creative, different from more-of-the-same kind of answer, it probably has to include:
*** Understanding and acknowledgement of even "wrong" points of view.
*** A path or multiple paths everyone can take to reach "ground" that is both common and higher.
*** A tolerance for "human-scale" margin of error that allows for people to make make mistakes, resist, avoid, etc. -- in the way that all humans do when they have to change in ways that they aren't thrilled about.
*** Commitment to finding answers that work and to let go of answers that don't.
Ultimately, I believe the answer has to involve some truly difficult changes in how many Christians respond to GLBT people. I doubt that Donnie McClurkin's "solution" can work the way he thinks. How does that change occur though? It will take time, it will take continued exposure to GLBT people and to people who support a more inclusive society. In Donnie McClurkin's case -- and people with similar experiences -- it will take an extraordinary amount of patience and understanding; he is, after all, a victim whose way of surviving included some of the very ideas we want him to let go of. How we treat him and people on the "other side" of this issue sends messages about whether we are sincere, trustworthy, and all the other things we ask of "the other side."
In the same vein, for Democrats who share similar views about GLBT issues, and for Democrats seeking to defend Barack Obama from criticism, we really need to understand where our critics are coming from. The dismay, anger, sense of betrayal, or just plain old disappointment are there for a reason. Even if Obama is completely right (and who is?!), it doesn't mean that the fear or concern or disagreement that critics feel is somehow "wrong." It is what it is.
In this country, Blacks and GLBT people both have experienced a lot of the same kinds of horrific injustices. We need to take into account the impact of what we know about nooses and Mathew Sheppard and how hard it is to change "who we are" to accommodate others or even to become our very best selves. There is higher ground, there is common ground, and ultimately, whatever solution we come up with should leave us in the same place.