I wonder how many Nader bashers out there are more than willing to say, "election be damned, we need to get behind gay marriage at all cost."
I've been arguing that since this is nothing more than a stunt to play politics in an election year with an issue that should be decided in the courts anyway, we should not take the bait and keep this election about jobs, healthcare, and education.
My reasoning is also based on the Maslowian idea of the hierarchy of needs. Psychology majors will remember that Maslow devoloped a system of catagorizing life states based on needs with the first being physical needs then safety, love, and etc on up (or down) to self-actualization.
The gist is that unless your basic needs of survival are secured, the higher needs get shelved.
Since the presidency of GW Bush has somewhat reverted us back to feeding ourselves and getting medical treatment, I though my fellow democrats would see this naked attempt at distraction over cultural issues for what it is and keep the focus on physical needs for the campaign.
But good arguments have been made that standing up for principles is not something you just turn off when it suits, so I'm adjusting my position.
The democrats fucked up when they put their faith in John S&B Kerry, at least to those of us who don't believe another four or eight years of DLC sponsored, Clintonesque selling out to corporate interest will fix anything.
Nothing will be solved under Kerry. Univ. Healthcare, conglomeration of media, globalization and the subversion of democracies here and around the world, corrupt corporate financing of elections, dependency on fossil fuels, to name a few, will go right along albeit somewhat dampened.
Even worse, since Kerry beat Bush, and he's a so-called liberal democrat, the majority of Americans will think they can quit paying attention again. And they'll think that since Kerry, a democrat, can't solve these problems, these problem must not be able to be solved.
So the Viacoms will continue merging, the HMO's will continue profiteering, our politicians will continue taking bribes/donations, and the middle class will continue depopulating. It'll just take a little longer until we turn into Argentina.
At least with more Bush, we'll get Argentinzed quicker so we can see the New, New Deal in our lifetimes. Maybe even in time to reverse Global Warming.
So, lets have our cake and eat it too. Gays can have fabulous weddings (as opposed to just civil unions) and alienate old people and southerners, not to mention a good chunk of democrats, and I'll have four more years of Bush so that he can really fuck things up to the point where someone like Dean or Kucinich starts looking not only electable, but necessary.
It's all good (unless of course the middle east unravels and pakistan nukes somebody or another terrorist strike hits and we really do devolve into a police state or a couple of supremes retire and Bush appoints someone that makes Scalia look moderate). But other than that we'll know that we didn't back down from our principles.