from a column titled Cheney sisters, separated over gay marriage. I am less concerned about the specifics of what he has to say about the relationship in particular as I am in how he uses it as a paradigm for the Republican party and the challenge it currently faces.
You will want to read the entire piece, including his praise for and deconstruction of Heather Poe's putdown of Liz Cheney.
For me the heart of the piece is these three paragraphs:
Nearly a decade ago, Dick Cheney took what was then the bold positionthat it was none of the federal government’s business if gay people wanted to get married. Four years ago, he forthrightly expressed support for same-sex marriage. He’s still waiting for his party to catch up.
In that sense, the tension between the Cheney sisters reflects the larger struggle within the Republican Party to keep pace with a changing America. Same-sex marriage is now legal in 14 states and the District of Columbia; Hawaii will join the fold on Dec. 2 when a new law goes into effect. The Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional a law denying federal recognition and benefits to same-sex married couples. Many of the states that ban gay marriage also banned interracial marriage until a sweeping Supreme Court ruling in 1967. It’s clear which way the wind is blowing.
There ought to be brave Republican politicians willing to lead the party in the direction the nation is headed. But according to the conventional wisdom, winning a GOP primary means kowtowing to the party’s activist base, which means saying you oppose gay marriage, whatever your actual view might be.
Until that 1967 decision, Loving v Virginia, it was legal for states to ban "interracial" marriage. In declaring such actions unconstitutional the Supreme Court described the right to marry as fundamental. Our President, the product of such a marriage conducted several years earlier in Hawaii, is an illustration of how far we have come as a nation, despite the gag reflexes described by Richard Cohen recently. While I am now 67, I think it well within the possibility that within my lifetime, while I may not see a President raised by same-sex parents, I might well see a House Member or Senator from a state more enlightened on these matters.
The words Mary Cheney used to her sister are applicable not only to Liz, but to many in the Republican party:
you’re just wrong — and on the wrong side of history
Peace.